Saturday Night Live fans weren’t laughing when the legendary comedy series reposted a three-year-old July 4th sketch featuring outed MAGA comedian Nate Bargatze as George Washington on Saturday.
The program isn’t airing a rerun on July 4th during its summer hiatus, so the viral 2023 “Washington’s Dream” sketch posted on SNL’s Instagram may have been offered up as a bit of substitute humor.
It didn’t work. Hordes of SNL followers attacked the post.
The Emmy-winning comedian, 47, was exposed as a MAGA supporter last month when he was photographed palling around with right-wing royalty at the UFC White House bash celebrating President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.
Bargatze was busted when Cheryl Hines, wife of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., posted a photo of the trio on Instagram, with Vice President JD Vance in the background. A source close to Bargatze told the Daily Beast that the comedian is “not political,” but merely a UFC fan.
The traditionally progressive fans of SNL, which Bargatze has hosted twice, didn’t buy it. And lashed out when his sketch was posted on Saturday.
“Really??? Not the time @nbcsnl," one follower complained. Another told the program to “read the room,” and still another called the move “tone deaf.”
“Now we know why he ignores the slavery question” in the sketch, noted one commenter.
“Used to really like this guy until he showed up supporting DT. I have a different perspective of him now,” chimed in another follower.
“He’s more of a Fox guy now. Stop pushing him on us,” pressed one of the comedian’s critics.
“I’m finished with Nate since he snuggled up to the Mango Mussolini,” quipped another.
In the sketch, Washington, played by Bargatze, rallies his troops before crossing the Delaware River during the Revolutionary War in 1776. But instead of talking about the upcoming fighting or principles the men are fighting for, he gets hung up on weird issues with American English—like calling live animals cattle and pigs, but beef and pork when they’re food, and how Americans use quarts and gallons instead of liters.
When SNL regular Kenan Thompson asks: “And sir, in this new country, what plans are there for men of color such as I?” Bargatze ignores him and moves on to how to measure distances.
When Washington talks about scoring football (which didn’t exist at the time), Thompson asks: “And the slaves, sir. What of them?” The future president moves on to temperature.
Washington’s dream is that Americans will continue to do what they want because of “liberty.” As he walks off the set, Thompson shouts to him: “Where all men are free, right?”
The sketch was so wildly popular that SNL did another version of it in 2024.
It’s far less popular in 2026.
“Little did we know, he wasn’t acting” in the sketch, said one of the mass of critics slamming the Instagram post.
