The Saturday Night Live cast members have made it their business over the years to take politicians, media members, and celebrities to task by impersonating them on national television. Pretty much anyone in the public eye is fair game, and most people who end up getting lampooned on SNL take it well… or remain quiet about their possible displeasure. But after SNL veteran Kate McKinnon impersonated Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham during the cold open of the recent Will Forte episode, Ingraham decided to do her own impersonation of McKinnon doing Ingraham and now that's running around online.
First, watch Laura Ingraham test driving her impersonation of Kate McKinnon, affecting the exaggerated tone of the anchor’s voice as she pretends to be the comedian pretending to be the news anchor:
Ingraham does an impression of Kate McKinnon doing an impression of her pic.twitter.com/MRomgXVulUJanuary 25, 2022
In the video, made available via Tweet, Ingraham actually does go for it in her impression of Kate McKinnon doing Laura Ingraham, but that statement is so meta, it’s probably being explored by the Scream co-writers to see if they somehow can make it work in the next horror sequel. In order to fully appreciate Ingraham’s impression of McKinnon, you have to see McKinnon’s cold open. So I’m including that, as well.
Like I said, Laura Ingraham is pretty spot on. What she’s saying in the impersonation doesn’t make much sense, mind you. She’s criticizing Kate McKinnon for not being even-handed in her political commentary, openly wondering why the comedian doesn’t go after President Joe Biden or Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Only, those two are targets of SNL’s satire on a regular basis. Ace Ventura himself, Jim Carrey, spent a chunk of time playing Biden during the run up to the most recent presidential election. And you only have to go back to 2019 to find a clip of Kate McKinnon PLAYING Pelosi. So yeah, SNL goes after all sides.
In general, though, it’s maybe not the best idea to go after a comedian after they poke fun at you. Almost everyone watching Saturday Night Live understands that it’s exaggerated satire, and next week, some other famous face is going to be in their sights. Some famous names take their impressions better than others, but when you poke back, it just encourages the sketch comedy series to come at the angle even harder. Really, comedians have literally nothing else to do but sit around and dream up new ways to make fun of you. It’s their job. They’re much better at this than we are.
Laura Ingraham probably didn’t start a “flame war” here. Kate McKinnon no doubt will find another person to impersonate -- whether it be Hillary Clinton, Justin Bieber, Dr. Anthony Fauci, or the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- on an upcoming episode of SNL. This moment will have passed soon.
In the meantime, we already kind of know what's coming up on SNL in terms of upcoming hosts and musical guests. Right now that list does not include the Fox News host.
