Beyond Parody: What Was Once a Darkly Hilarious SNL Skit Is Now a Core Tenet of Leftist Ideology

We make a lot of jokes at Twitchy about how Saturday Night Live used to be funny. There are two reasons for this.

First, SNL actually WAS funny back in the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. Secondly (and far less importantly), most of us are getting really old, and we miss being young.

The Boomer generation, Gen X, and even young Millennials remember when SNL wasn't just something you'd watch clips of online once in a while. It was must-see TV, every weekend. Each generation will have its favorite cast members, but one thing all generations agree on is that Phil Hartman was one of the all-time greats. His Bill Clinton impression in a skit that takes place in McDonald's right after the 1992 election will never stop being hilarious.

'Jim, let me tell you something. There's gonna be a whole bunch of things we don't tell Mrs. Clinton.'

Hoo, boy! Was that prophetic or what?

The skit below aired in 1987, nearly 40 years ago. It is a slow burn, but you can see where it is headed early on. As you watch it, if you are like me, your laughs will slowly turn into horror as you realize that something that was once considered so ridiculous that it was a late-night comedy sketch is now exactly what Democrats are advocating for our children.

Classic SNL was so good. This is such an interesting skit comparing it to the show now, knowing how far left it is. What was once pure comedy has become their platform. Funny how things change. Phil Hartman was awesome!!!!!!! 🔥🤣 pic.twitter.com/ioioYMxtTo
— Johnny B. Good (@Cat5SMASHICANE) July 31, 2026

Once darkly hilarious, now terrifying.

It's not a coincidence that Jon Lovitz's 'nurse' character in the skit resembles nearly every trans activist that you see today (if you add in some purple hair, a septum piercing, and about 50 pounds).

And the ending of the skit is a huge reveal also. I'm not saying that all 'trans kids' were sexually abused by an 'uncle,' but they all were abused in another way—by their parents, school counselors, and doctors who lied to them.

We watched that and laughed bc it was so far from reality, outside of severe mental illness. That hasn’t changed.
Imagine the kind of sick f*** they must be for a parent to tell their 5 year old they were born in the wrong body.
— Fred Harris, Gwinnett County (@FredHarris_GC) August 2, 2026

Of course, today's media is in on the abuse, too.

In 2026, Nora Dunn's reporter character wouldn't run out of the room in horror; she would likely write a glowing puff piece about Hartman's OB/GYN, calling him a hero for 'affirming' the gender of every child he delivered.

We used to laugh at this because we all knew how ridiculous it was. Now a vocal group of sick people somehow think it’s normal. Horrifying. https://t.co/MgATJCsHam
— Merianne Jensen (@MerianneJensen) August 2, 2026

As the alphabet mob now has set their sights on Sophie Cunningham for saying that men don't belong in women's sports or locker rooms, we should remember that this is exactly what they are advocating for.

The WNBA might be a league for adults, but they are targeting children.

In 1987, it would be ludicrous to think of an obstetrician believing that children that young knew they were actually girls trapped in boys' bodies. In 2026, the trans cult uses terms like 'gender assigned at birth,' and it is no exaggeration to say that they believe infants or even children in utero can know that they are 'trans.'

It's so crazy that they liked this so much that they ran with it https://t.co/Ggi9IFYfbE
— Mark (@supani85679) August 2, 2026

In 1986, this was considered lunacy.
In 2026, it's considered Gender Affirming Care.
— Johnny in SRQ (@johnnysrq) August 1, 2026

Some of the reactions on X called this 'predictive programming,' leftists in Hollywood planting the seeds of queer theory right in plain sight.

That's possible, but I don't believe it. I don't think SNL was trying to 'normalize' anything with this sketch. I think they were poking fun at an idea so ridiculous—changing the sex of infants right out of the womb—that everyone would laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Welp. No one is laughing anymore.

March 21, 1987, SNL skit treated transgenderism as mental illness and demonstrated the absurdity of sex- change surgery.
40 years later, this crew would be canceled for airing such a skit. https://t.co/PhXME81rsg
— Burt Carey (@BurtCarey) August 2, 2026

We're a little shocked that the clip has not been scrubbed from YouTube and everywhere else online.

If this video had resurfaced on social media five years ago, they probably would have tried to wipe it out and cancel anyone who showed it. They can't do that anymore, and they hate it.

We have a lot of people to thank for how far the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction of gender insanity. Matt Walsh and his movie What Is a Woman?; courageous female athletes like Riley Gaines, Paula Scanlan, and Payton McNabb; even more courageous detransitioners like Chloe Cole; uncancelable celebrities like JK Rowling ... the list goes on.

But the fight isn't over. In Cunningham and her Indiana Fever's most recent game against the Minnesota Lynx, the Minnesota coach, Cheryl Reeve, wore a t-shirt that read 'Trans Kids Belong.'

WNBA head coach of the Minnesota Lynx wears a “Trans Kids Belong” shirt as her team faces off against Sophie Cunningham: pic.twitter.com/8dU7P5A8ym
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 2, 2026

Not trans people. Trans KIDS.

Disgusting, cruel, and abusive.

I imagine that Reeve, if she saw that old Phil Hartman SNL sketch, would want to celebrate Hartman's psychotic obstetrician. And she would probably call Bill Murray's father a 'bigot' for wanting a boy.

Maybe instead of SNL, Reeve should watch another video, this one from 20 years before that SNL episode. A very smart man once said it best: