‘SNL' Cold Open's Herman Cain Fly Joke Divides Social Media

This weekend's Saturday Night Live cold open centered around the vice presidential debate on [...]

By Michael Hein

This weekend's Saturday Night Live cold open centered around the vice presidential debate on Wednesday, casting two unlikely figures as the fly on Mike Pence's head: Joe Biden and Herman Cain. In the sketch, Kenan Thompson played Cain, explaining that he had been reincarnated as a fly after passing away from the coronavirus back in July. While some viewers laughed at the bit, others thought that it was too soon to make light of Cain's passing in this way.

The SNL cold open went surprisingly high-concept as it showed Biden — played by Jim Carrey — getting into a teleportation machine to rush to the VP debate. Little did he know he was accompanied by a fly, transforming him in the teleportation process. This bit referenced the classic sci-fi horror movie The Fly, but SNL slipped in Cain as a second fly to complicate matters further. Biden and Cain then took turns mocking Pence from the top of his head as flies in a 12-minute skit that divided viewers on social media.

Many commenters focused on the representation of Cain, arguing that it was disrespectful to his loved ones to create a parody of him so soon after his passing. Cain died on July 30 of complications due to COVID-19. He was photographed at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump before he contracted the virus, not wearing a face mask or observing social distance protocols.

Cain was hospitalized for four weeks with the virus before his passing. Within days of his death, his political associates had assumed control of his Twitter account, using it to continue posting pro-Trump political content. Many SNL fans argued that the show's mockery of Cain was fair game since his colleagues had already done it online.

Others were not convinced, and they had other issues with the sketch as well. Some thought that the jokes were too obvious to be funny and only served to make people "cringe" at the ongoing process of the 2020 presidential election. Here is a look at how the conversation played out on Twitter.

Tasteless

Other Deceased Public Figures

Easy Jokes

Surprise

Show-Saver

Too Soon

Cringe

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