A Saturday Night Live skit poked fun at both the lack of White House press briefings and nation’s fascination with Conan, the military dog involved in the raid that took down ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, after Trump repeatedly tweeted about him.
In opening the proceedings, Kellyanne Conway (Kate McKinnon) does acknowledged that “the White House has not held a formal press briefing in almost eight months. We’ve kept our new press secretary in hiding because our past ones were mocked, humiliated and forced to regain their dignity on Dancing with the Stars.”
That was a jab at former press secretary Sean Spicer who recently resurfaced as contestant on the ABC reality series. McKinnon’s Conway also referenced the ongoing impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump before introducing Conan.
“We have killed the leader of ISIS, which according to the Constitution means that the impeachment can no longer legally move forward.”
She went on to bring out “Conan, the K-9 Commando.” A German Shepherd dog took to the podium as a stand-in for Conan, who is a Belgian Malinois. He wore the medal from the photoshopped image with him and Conan, which Trump had tweeted earlier this week (see it below), and at one point mocked its design featuring a dog paw. (What the hell is that? You don’t give humans a medal with a foot on it.”)
“Conan” was accompanied by a “special forces canine interpreter” played by Cecily Strong who once again was assigned to partner with a dog following her viral “Dog Court” skit a couple of weeks ago where she got to wrangle a restless pug.
“Conan is in the White House “to meet with President Donald Trump to explain the situation in Syria,” Strong’s translator explained. The real Conan also is expected to visit the White House, Trump recently announced.
The questions for “Conan” ranged from a reporter fawning over him with “Who Is a good boy?” to inquiries about the dog’s military life and the mission against al-Baghdadi as well as controversial old pictures and videos of Conan unearthed and posted on on “Dog Internet”.
Here are some of the zingers, as translated by Strong, who again did admirable job keeping her dog partner in check:
- Responding to “Who Is a good dog?”: “Seriously, with all due respect, I’m a trained military assassin, not some basic Labradoodle.”
- Whether he was scared: “The terrorists have guns and explosives, but at least they don’t have vacuum cleaners.”
- Being part of a team: “It’s always been I sniff your ass, you sniff mine”
- The perks of being a hero: “Honestly, I’m drowning in bitches.”
- On the whistleblower in the White House: “I think we need to find out who the whistleblower in the White House is because that sound is driving him crazy.”
- On dressing up as a cat at a Halloween party 10 years ago: “I did not mean to appropriate feline culture or put on cat-face. I also apologize for last Halloween when I dressed up as a chocolate lab.”
- Regarding a video of him barking at a Black mailman, “I swear it wasn’t about race because I don’t see color. Like, literally I’m color blind.” Additionally, “every day for the past 12 years I’ve humped someone’s leg without consent. For that, I apologize.”
Highlighting the public’s obsession with the dog, when a human member of the US forces that killed al-Baghdadi came out, no reporters were interested to ask a question. Watch the video above.