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By: Jared Evan
“Saturday Night Live” once again proved its selective bias during its 50th-anniversary special Sunday, mocking multiple former New York City mayors—except, conveniently, for Bill de Blasio, arguably the most disastrous mayor in the city’s history. While taking shots at Rudy Giuliani and Eric Adams, the skit glossed over de Blasio’s numerous scandals, his role in destroying the city, and his mismanagement of nearly a billion dollars in Thrive NYC mental health funds.
The 10-minute skit, led by SNL alums John Mulaney and Pete Davidson, took viewers through five decades of the city’s struggles, starting in the 1970s when New York was plagued by high crime and economic turmoil. Adam Driver, dressed as a hot dog, and Maya Rudolph, dressed as a heroin needle, sang about the city’s infamous crime problems.
SNL’s portrayal of the 1990s and early 2000s featured a mocking rendition of Rudy Giuliani, played by Kate McKinnon, who turned his 9/11 leadership into a joke. She sang a parody of the Hamilton song “My Shot,” reducing Giuliani’s role in New York’s revitalization to a caricature, despite the fact that he is widely credited with reducing crime and making the city safer. This was followed by a minor jab at Michael Bloomberg, whose policies priced many residents out of the city.
But when it came to Bill de Blasio, the skit softened completely. Instead of addressing the former mayor’s catastrophic eight-year tenure, during which crime spiked, businesses fled, and quality of life plummeted, SNL painted him as the guy who brought in universal pre-K and legalized marijuana—a blatant falsehood, as it was actually former Governor Andrew Cuomo who legalized cannabis in the state.
SNL also conveniently ignored de Blasio’s authoritarian COVID policies, which forced thousands of workers out of jobs, implemented a draconian vaccine passport system that created medical segregation, and crushed small businesses. The show neglected to mention how de Blasio’s Thrive NYC initiative, intended to improve mental health services, failed spectacularly, with nearly $1 billion unaccounted for and little to show in terms of tangible results.
Meanwhile, SNL had no problem mocking current Mayor Eric Adams for the rise in subway crime but made no mention of how de Blasio’s policies directly contributed to the chaos Adams is now dealing with. The skit featured a joke about “homeless dudes who want to push people onto the subway tracks,” conveniently ignoring the fact that de Blasio’s soft-on-crime approach and disastrous handling of the homeless crisis fueled much of today’s lawlessness.
The sketch wrapped up with Keenan Thompson singing a theatrical rendition of “One Day More” from Les Misérables, attempting to end on an uplifting note. But for many New Yorkers, the real travesty is SNL’s blatant revisionist history, shielding de Blasio from well-deserved criticism while continuing to hammer away at Giuliani and Adams. Once again, SNL proves that its satire is less about comedy and more about political bias.
