Saturday night Live mocks Ted Cruz for Big Bird ‘propaganda’ comment

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Saturday Night Live made fun of Texas Senator Ted Cruz over his recent comments regarding Big Bird and the Covid vaccine.

The Twitter account for Big Bird shared on 6 November that the Sesame Street character – who is six years old in the Muppets universe – had received his Covid vaccine, which has just become available in the US to children aged 5 to 11.

Cruz reacted to Big Bird’s tweet with a message that read: “Government propaganda…for your five-year-old!”

Saturday’s episode of SNL (on 13 November) used Cruz’s tweet as the subject of the cold open, with Aidy Bryant returning as the senator.

In the skit, Cruz was hosting a fictional children’s television programme titled Ted Cruz Street – his version of Sesame Street.

“I’m Texas Senator and last-one-invited-to-Thanksgiving Ted Cruz,” Bryant said, introducing her character.

She then referenced Big Bird’s tweet, and her version of Cruz proudly announced his idea for “a gated community where kids are safe from the woke government”.

“I was mocked for attacking Big Bird on Twitter, simply because I am a human senator and he is an eight-foot-tall fictional bird,” she remarked.

Bryant was joined by several other cast members in the sketch, including Cecily Strong as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Kyle Mooney as Big Bird, and Pete Davidson as Joe Rogan.

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Actor Jonathan Majors was the episode’s host, while Taylor Swift was featured as the evening’s musical guest.