JIM TREACHER: SNL Finally Realizes Russia Is No Joke.

If you want me to pick sides, I’m rooting for the underdog in this fight. Ukraine has been invaded by a bully, it pisses me off, and it’s nice to see this volley in the war for American hearts and minds. The whole world is watching, and Putin has lost the messaging war before he’s even taken over the country he’s invading.

It’s just galling to see it from the same people who gave us this:

And the audience in 2008 said: “Ha ha ha! Those dumb Republicans, thinking they know anything about Russia. Remember Russia? They used to be the bad guys, but not anymore. And they’ll never be the bad guys again, once we elect Obama!”

None of them are asking why this is happening now, instead of four years ago. It never even occurred to them. Or if it did, they know better to give voice to it.

It’s nice to see them come around, I guess. It would just be nice if they could admit we were right about the Russkies all along.

The hollow virtue signaling is its own reward for them, of course. As a great man once said, “SNL has become a show only for journos.” The press loves this stuff, and none of them will bother asking themselves why their political party is the one that keeps screwing everything up and making such empty gestures necessary.

I suspect executive producer Lorne Michaels is thrilled that his creation has ultimately become the equivalent of state-run TV, carefully toeing the Democratic Party’s line. But as one of his first writers noted decades ago, “You can only be avant-garde for so long before you become garde.”