SNL aimed 91% of jokes at conservatives this season, analysis finds

A new analysis by the Media Research Center’s NewsBusters found that 91 percent of jokes on Saturday Night Live this season targeted conservatives.

The study, provided exclusively to The New York Post, examined the show’s first 19 episodes and counted 205 jokes aimed at conservatives on Weekend Update, compared with 18 aimed at liberals and three nonpartisan jokes.

President Donald Trump accounted for more than 100 of those punchlines, nearly half the total. Conservative figures also appeared far more often in the show’s cold opens than their Democratic counterparts, with 49 Republican-centered portrayals versus 10 Democratic ones and one nonpartisan sketch.

James Austin Johnson’s Trump impressions led the cold-open portrayals, followed by characters depicting War Secretary Pete Hegseth, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

On Weekend Update, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ranked second in jokes after Trump, followed by Noem. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani drew only one joke.

NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck said the pattern shows the program continues to favor one side. “For liberals who might be fearful they won’t be able to receive their far-left ‘comedy’ fix once Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ goes dark, look no further than ‘SNL,’” Houck told Fox News Digital. He added that the networks “are largely unapologetic in the fact that they do not represent all Americans.”

The group had reached a similar conclusion last season, when it found 82 percent of jokes targeted conservatives or Republicans.