Saturday Night Live tried to make C-SPAN more exciting in this week’s cold open.
The show parodied the U.S. Senate hearings on Benghazi, with Republican Sen. Darrell Issa (Bill Hader) calling upon recently convicted murderer Jodi Arias (Nasim Pedrad) to testify.
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Democratic Sen. Elijah Cummings (Kenan Thompson) cried foul, saying his colleague was bringing Arias onstage in order to increase ratings — and draw more attention to what he described as a Republican witch hunt.
Pedrad played Arias as creepy and ignorant, with her asking why there was a hearing if the U.S. already knew who committed the attack on the U.S. consulate.
“What’s next? The guy from Cleveland who kept those women in his basement?” asked an exasperated Cummings.
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In the crowd, accused Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro (Bobby Monihan) demanded to know when it would be his turn to testify. (On a side note — Hader accidentally referred to the character as the man credited with rescuing the women, Charles Ramsey.)
We’ll post video as soon as it’s made available online.
This week’s episode was hosted by Kristen Wiig with musical guest Vampire Weekend.
