Penn State Scandal Video: Watch SNL Tackle Joe Paterno Abuse Case

Saturday Night Live once again lampooned a current event from the sports world. This time, it was much more serious than the Kim Kardashian divorce spoof they did last week.

The writers of the show decided to tackle the Penn State child sex abuse scandal. And they did it quite tactfully, tastefully and even made it funny despite the horrific nature of the allegations.

They brought Jason Sudeikis in as Satan to comment on the issue during Seth Meyers’ regular Weekend Update segment.

Initially, Satan expresses how happy he is about hearing news of Penn State’s recruiting scandal. Meyers has to inform him by whispering in his ear that the scandal is much more serious than “tickets for tattoos” or a “quarterback in a Ferrari,” and Satan appears appalled upon hearing the alleged acts. He says, “I’m the prince of darkness, but I’m not a monster!” showing just how vile the acts that Jerry Sandusky is being accused of really are.

Sudeikis also gets a great barb at Ashton Kutcher in, who tweeted about Joe Paterno’s dismissal while being completely uninformed about the scandal, much like his Satan character is in the skit. Satan continues to play ignorant throughout the skit, and it just makes it funnier as he finds all his seemingly normal assumptions are wrong about the case and results of the scandal.

They also get some really funny unrelated jokes in about how the devil invented buffering for videos, terms of service agreements and other things people hate about the Internet.

It’s just an overall well done skit that is both funny and critical of Penn State and their way of handling the situation.

I’m glad to see that SNL still has the fortitude to tackle issues like this and can do it tastefully without crossing into the crude and inappropriate. This was a very well done job by the actors and writing team, and it perfectly puts a humorous but biting take on the scandal.