‘Saturday Night Live’ Pokes Fun At Protesters In Its First Snapchat Special

Saturday Night Live has successfully expanded beyond its TV roots to become a major not-ready-for-prime-time player in the world of online video. The latest digital platform on the sketch show’s radar is Snapchat, where it has posted an exclusive short called “Boycott.”

“Boycott” pokes fun at the recent movement that asks participants to shun goods and services that are linked to Donald Trump. As a pair of protesters portrayed by SNL regulars Aidy Bryant and Beck Bennett find out, accomplishing that goal is harder than it first seems. It requires them to forgo their favorite apps, food brands, and clothing companies, until they are left naked. “Now we’re just hungry and thirsty, and now my penis is out!” quips Bennett in the sketch.

The sketch is the first one produced by SNL for Snapchat, with two of the show’s head writers chipping in to pen the script. “Boycott” was shot as a vertical video, in contrast to the landscape format used for SNL’s typical content.

Snapchat is not the only digital platform on which SNL is building a robust presence. The show has also found an audience on YouTube, where its funniest videos routinely draw tens of millions of hits. A recent sketches featuring Melissa McCarthy as press secretary Sean Spicer, for example, is already up to 20 million views just five days after its upload date.