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SNL Wrote Harvey Weinstein Jokes, Scrapped Them Before Saturday's Show

Harvey Weinstein / Getty
Harvey Weinstein / Getty
October 9, 2017

"Saturday Night Live" planned to tell jokes about influential media mogul Harvey Weinstein being accused of multiple instances of sexual harassment and assault, but ultimately chose not to, according to several reports.

NBC's sketch comedy followed the lead of nearly every late night comedy show and did not mention the controversy surrounding Weintein on Saturday, despite having previously joked about similar accusations against conservative icons like Bill O'Reilly, Roger Ailes, and then-candidate Donald Trump.

According to the New York Times, "the show did have jokes about Mr. Weinstein ready — they just weren’t used, according to a person familiar with how Saturday’s episode was prepared."

Although Weinstein was heavily influential in the media world and liberal circles, the anonymous source told the Times that the omission had nothing to do with politics. They said the jokes simply "seemed to fall flat with the show’s studio audience."

Another anonymous source who was in the audience, however, told the Daily Mail, that wasn't the case. "I remember a joke being made about him during Weekend Update ... I don't remember the joke, I just remember that it got a big reaction from the audience."

When asked why there had been no Weinstein jokes, showrunner Lorne Michaels smiled and said, "It's a New York thing."