“Saturday Night Live” focused on the ongoing defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News for the cold open this week, and unfortunately, the fake “Fox & Friends” host couldn’t keep the details of his lawsuit straight . As a result, Heidi Gardner’s Ainslie Earhart mistakenly mistook Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch for convicted murderer Alex Murdoch.
To kick off the episode, Mickey Day, Gardner and Bowen Yang returned as Fox News hosts Steve Dokey, Ainslie Earhart and Brian Kilmeade, respectively, complaining about being in New York, a Democrat-run city, for the first time. But, things quickly turned into an ongoing lawsuit against the network, with the hosts acknowledging recent testimony from Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch that some Fox News hosts knowingly told election lies on-air.
Yang’s Kilmeade admitted he was surprised by the conflict, noting that he loves “da Minions”, referring to the yellow grumbling creatures from “Despicable Me”. Day’s Doki quickly recovers him, only for Earnhardt to make a big mix-up.
“This whole trial has been so unfair!” She groaned. “They are carrying him on coals. Rupert Murdoch would never kill anyone!”
When Dokie was clearly confused, she added, “They sent him away for life! Look how sad he looks” – before holding up a photo of Alex Murdoff, who was convicted of murdering his wife and son. Was sentenced to life imprisonment.
When Earhart was informed of the mistake, she gasped loudly, exclaiming excitedly, “Well, we broke the case wide open, they got the wrong guy!”
The hosts then touched on why Fox News isn’t covering the lawsuit much on-air, with Yang’s Kilmeade speculating that it’s because they’re being sued for $1.6 billion. But according to Doki, that was not the case at all.
“No, it’s because it’s complete BS,” he said. “The media is taking private texts from Fox hosts, and showing them completely out of context.”
Therefore, he offered some “real” references to the messages conveyed by the Dominion. For example, Sean Hannity’s texts, which called Sidney Powell “f-ing crazy”, were apparently “all sent in response to Laura Ingraham’s text asking, ‘What should I put in my Tinder bio?’ “
“A lot of noise and confusion will be generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners,” Fox News said in a factual statement about the lawsuit. “But the core of this case is about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan.”
You can watch some “SNL” cold opens in the video above.