‘SNL’ pokes fun at rowdy school board meetings

“Saturday Night Live” in the premiere of its new season poked fun at people spreading COVID-19 misinformation and conservatives blasting critical race theory during a mock school board meeting.

The skit centered around a meeting that was meant to be held over a school district’s COVID-19 policy, but soon turned rowdy as parents, community members and students interrupted the session with nonsensical remarks.

“My son can’t play football because they said the vaccine he got wasn’t valid,” one parent told school officials during the meeting.

“Okay, well that was probably an error. Which vaccine did he receive?” one of the administrators asked.

“He got Mike’s Hard vaccine,” the parent told the officials soberly.

“I’m so mad I’m literally shaking right now. Forget COVID, the real threat is critical race theory being taught in our schools,” another community member told the school officials during the meeting. “My question is, what is it and why am I mad about it?”

Conservatives have alleged that schools have been teaching a decades-old academic theory to students that examines United States history through the lens of race and racism, including how the U.S. was founded through racism and racist structures and how remnants of the structures are still present in American policies and laws today. The academic theory is mostly taught within the sphere of higher education circles, though it has been considered a hot-button topic for conservatives. 

The “SNL” skit comes as school districts have witnessed increasingly rowdy school board meetings, often held around COVID-19 protocols, which have allowed an array of community members to address grievances with school officials.

Community members followed health care workers outside after a school board meeting in Tennessee earlier this year in an apparent effort to intimidate them.