Saturday Night Live turned President Donald Trump's posture into a visual punchline during its Oct. 3 broadcast, with Michael Che comparing him to cartoon moose Bullwinkle while mocking his dealings with artificial-intelligence executives.
Weekend Update displayed photographs of Trump and Bullwinkle side by side as Che described the president as having "the exact same posture as Bullwinkle." The comparison drew on footage from a recent press appearance in which Trump's torso faced a different direction from his feet and one knee angled inward.
Che paired the image with a joke about Trump saying technology executives had accepted a "morally binding" agreement. "You know, like the devil," the comedian added, shifting the segment from the president's stance to his description of the arrangement.
The sketch brought together several subjects from Trump's recent public appearances: his promotion of "Super Intelligence" as a replacement term for artificial intelligence, proposed security features for a White House ballroom and restrictions on press access.
Co-host Colin Jost opened with the White House's removal of CNN from the press pool covering Trump's Texas trip. An edited image then showed people falling from Air Force One, an exaggerated visual gag accompanying Jost's reference to the decision being made mid-flight.
Che later addressed Trump's claim that the planned ballroom would include armed drones. He followed that reference with a deliberately childish list of imagined additions, including an elevator, a laser gun and a giant water slide.
The drone reference had a basis in Trump's stated plans for a rooftop drone port, which some reports described as accommodating armed or missile-equipped aircraft to protect the White House complex. Che's other additions were part of the joke, rather than confirmed construction plans.
The technology material followed Trump's announcement that the federal government would adopt different terminology for AI. During a Sept. 29 meeting with technology executives, he promoted "Super Intelligence" and its abbreviation, "SI."
Executive Order 14434, issued that day, directed executive departments and agencies to use those terms in specified official materials, including correspondence, websites, reports and policy documents. The directive concerned executive-branch language; it did not establish an industrywide name change or alter the technology itself.
Images of Trump's stance had circulated online before the SNL broadcast, drawing questions and mockery from viewers. Some posts speculated about his health, but the images did not establish a medical explanation for his posture, and Che's comparison offered none.
SNL subsequently shared a Weekend Update clip on its official Instagram account, where viewers singled out the Bullwinkle joke. "Bullwinkle destroyed me ngl," one commenter wrote, while another said, "Che was brutal on this one."
The Oct. 3 episode was the second installment of SNL's 52nd season, according to NBC's announcement. Dakota Johnson hosted, with Turnstile appearing as the musical guest.
