Saturday Night Live Cut Their Planned Jokes About Harvey Weinstein

The most recent episode of Saturday Night Live chose not to address the Harvey Weinstein scandal, drawing the ire of conservatives who accused the show of having a double standard about the politics of people it chooses to satirize. Weinstein, a powerful movie producer, was ousted from his own company yesterday after the New York Times published a report detailing decades of sexual harassment by Weinstein against numerous women. He also happens to be an influential Democratic donor, and conservatives allege that there's a moratorium on Hollywood liberals speaking out against one of their own.

This isn't exactly true -- The Daily Show and Last Week Tonighthave each talked about Weinstein in the past few days, with Last Week Tonight's John Oliver saying that there's no excuse for Weinstein's behavior during his Sunday show -- but it is true that Saturday Night Live consciously opted not to address the Weinstein scandal during Saturday's Gal Gadot-hosted episode. A source close to the show told the New York Times that jokes about Weinstein were cut from the broadcast because they didn't go over well during dress rehearsal.

The source said that there was a sketch about Weinstein and also jokes during Weekend Update that were dropped from the show, but not due to any political motivation, just because they didn't get laughs from the studio audience.

SNL creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels told the Daily Mailthat there wasn't anything in the show about Weinstein because the scandal is "a New York thing" -- that is, not of much interest to people outside of the New York media bubble.

But it is of interest to people like Donald Trump Jr. The Daily Mail misinterpreted Michaels' response as the creator saying that the show didn't go after Weinstein because he's from New York. In response to the story, Trump Jr. further fanned the flames of conspiracy when he tweeted: "Out of curiosity where is @realdonaldtrump from??? Seems like there could be more to that pass than this nonsense."

Conservatives have jumped on the Weinstein story as evidence of liberal hypocrisy, and Trump Jr., like many prominent conservatives, has been tweeting about the alleged liberal protection of Weinstein all weekend, writing things like "Will Michael Moore denounce Harvey Weinstein??? Haven't heard anything yet. Like other Limo Libs $$$ > principals."

The SNL source insists there is no conspiracy, and that it's possible that the Weinstein scandal could be addressed in this coming Saturday's Kumail Nanjiani-hosted show.

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30/10:30c.