NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” hasn’t cracked a Joe Biden joke since April 15, when cast member Michael Che quipped, “President Biden has tried to downplay the recent leak of classified U.S. documents that were posted on social media, because when you’re over 80 a couple of leaks are nothing to be embarrassed about.”
With strikes by writers and performers in their fifth month, late night TV remains shuttered and with it most political humor. That benefits all politicians, of course, but none more profoundly than President Biden.
One month after the strike began, you’ll recall, Biden tripped over a sandbag on a stage at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and took a spill that could have been comedy gold. It was reminiscent of the fall Gerald Ford had while exiting Air Force One in 1975–an incident that SNL mined for over a year, making Chevy Chase, who played Ford, a big star, while contributing to Ford’s loss to Jimmy Carter in 1976.
