“Saturday Night Live” used satire to take a shot at ISIS — and people are blasting them for it.
The longtime NBC sketch comedy show sparked a Twitter frenzy early Sunday after it aired a segment poking fun at the infamous Islamic State.
During the skit, “50 Shades of Grey” star Dakota Johnson and the cast spoofed a heartfelt Toyota commercial from the Super Bowl in which a father drops his daughter off at the airport as she sets off to join the Army.
“SNL” — doing what it’s done for 40 years — found a way to turn the emotional moment into a full-fledged ad for ISIS, lampooning the recent swarm of young girls who have fled to Syria to shack up with the extremists.
Instead of joining the military, Johnson portrays a cheerful daughter whose dad is dropping her off to be picked up by Islamic State militants. In one exchange, the father tells an ISIS thug to “Take care of her” — to which he responds, “Death to America.”
The spoof didn’t sit well with people on social media.
“A father dropping his daughter off to join ISIS? Really #SNL? Not cool,” Randy Haas tweeted.
“Just saw maybe the most unfunny #SNL piece of all time,” Ed Tate fumed. “Is ISIS really a good subject for humor?”
Twitter user @Maxinerunner wrote, “Horrible, Inappropriate…”
“Wow. I found NOTHING funny about that ISIS #SNL skit,” user @JHawkintheSouth added. “Sorry, but no laughing matter. Ever.”
@AJisTweeting said, “ISIS sketches just make me uncomfortable. They behead people. I’m not ready to joke about it. *shrug*.”
But others were quick to defend the sketch.
“Seriously? SNL is being criticized for mocking Isis, and the people who join it? There’s no group more deserving of ridicule. Thumbs up #SNL,” Katherine Morrison tweeted.
User @SamanthaNWho wrote, “People are honestly offended by the ISIS #SNL sketch? If you’ve been a long time fan & you’re not familiar with satire — turn off your tv.”
“Wow #SNL just had the balls to make a pretty great ISIS joke!” @DualGrey tweeted.
“SNL skit about ISIS was funny as hell,” Bill O’Keefe added. “People need to get a life.”
Even Arsenio Hall thought the skit was funny, tweeting, “ISIS: We’ll take it from here dad! #snl #hilarious.”
Back in November, Chris Rock hosted “SNL” and appeared during a segment in which hopeful jihadis pitch their plans for ISIS to judges on “Shark Tank.”
“Genocidal regimes are a very tricky business,” joked cast member Taran Killam, who was portraying Mark Cuban.