'SNL' takes on Manafort indictment, faces backlash for Larry David's concentration camp joke

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'SNL' takes on Manafort indictment, faces backlash for Larry David's concentration camp joke

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President Donald Trump (Alec Baldwin), Attorney General Jeff Sesions (Kate McKinnon), Paul Manafort (Alex Moffat), and Vice President Mike Pence (Beck Bennett) meet in a shower to discuss the Russia investigation indictments on "Saturday Night Live."

  • "Saturday Night Live" faced backlash for a joke host Larry David made about the Holocaust.
  • The NBC sketch show also took on the Paul Manafort indictment as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.


Host Larry David made a joke about the Holocaust on "Saturday Night Live" this week, and the online backlash was swift.

With sexual harassment "in the news," David began in his opening monologue, he couldn't help but notice a "disturbing pattern" that "many of the predators - not all, but many of them - are Jews."

"I've always been obsessed with women, and I've often wondered, if I'd grown up in Poland when Hitler came to power, and was sent to a concentration camp, would I still be checking out women in the camp? I think I would," he said, as the audience reacted with a mixture of hesitant laughter and groans.

"The problem is, there are no good opening lines in a concentration camp," he continued, trying a few out in a hypothetical. "'What, what'd I say? Is it me, or is it the whole thing?'"

David was trending on Twitter Sunday morning, and the backlash was made into a Twitter moment. "Did Larry David really just use his platform on SNL to turn a comment about the Weinstein scandal into a holocaust joke? one Twitter user wrote. "Yes. Yes he did." 

Manafort reactions

"SNL" also took on the Paul Manafort indictment in the Russia investigation, opening with Alec Baldwin playing President Donald Trump, and visiting his former campaign chairman on house arrest in his DC apartment.

The two went in the shower "'Gone Girl'-style" to discuss the plan to pardon Manafort in secret. Attorney General Jeff Sesions (played by Kate McKinnon), and Vice President Mike Pence (Beck Bennett) joined them.

Baldwin started by making a dig at disgraced Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein, whom dozens of women have accused of sexual misconduct.

"What an idiot that Harvey Weinstein is," he said. "He could have gotten away with all of it if only he'd gotten himself elected president."

Their "foolproof" plan was to wait until Thanksgiving, dress Manafort up like a turkey, and pardon him then.

"Weekend Update" also welcomed the president's sons, played by Alex Moffat and Mikey Day, to discuss the Manafort news out of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

"So you guys are not worried about this Mueller investigation?" Colin Jost asked them.

"Who Robert Mueller should be investigating, Colin, is Hillary Clinton," Donald Trump, Jr. (Day) responded. "As we learned from Donna Brazile, crooked Hillary and company did some shady backroom deals with the Russians, and tried to rig the election in her favor."

"Just like dad!" Eric Trump (Moffat) interjected.

Elsewhere on episode four of season 43, Miley Cyrus was the musical guest, David revived his popular Sen. Bernie Sanders impression as a "Price is Right" contestant, and Aidy Bryant performed a musical number as White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.