Explicit and extreme violence against Republicans John Boehner, Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton was the punchline last night in the “cold open” skit that begins Saturday Night Live every week. Hilarious, if you are a Democrat hater of Republicans, I guess, but horrifying if you worry about incitement to violence.

Remember when a graphic showing target signs on congressional districts was deemed by many in the media as incitement for Jared Loughner’s attack on Gabby Giffords? That was sufficient evidence for Sarah Palin to be widely pilloried, and Loughner, a loony-toons if ever there were one, to be characterized as a tea partier, at least until his insanity became undeniable.

Here is the UK Daily Mail’s summary of the skit:

President Obama (Jay Pharoah) sat down to have a talk with John Boehner (Taran Killam), Tom Cotton (Kyle Mooney) and Ted Cruz (Bobby Moynihan) to talk about how he believed the three men had  undermined his authority.

And when they mocked him over and over again, he attacked the men.

'Now, the reason I asked you all here is because we only have until the end of March to get something done,' President Obama tells the three men.

'And that's hard to do when you, Senator Cotton, are sending letters to the Iranian government behind my back.' (snip)

Obama then turned to Boehner and said; 'Or when you, Speaker Boehner, invite the Prime Minister of Israel to speak to Congress without consulting me.' (snip)

He continued with Cruz, saying; 'Or when you, Senator Cruz, call Netanyahu an extraordinary leader and side with him over your own president.'

Obama gets further frustrated as the men show no desire to apologize for their actions, with Boehner even telling him; 'I wanted to meet a world leader whose people actually like him.'

Cruz jumped on, saying; 'I'm surprised he even came to visit considering how much you botched the situation in the Middle East.'

Finally, Cotton tells Obama that he believes he knows more than Obama about foreign policy - this after just three months in office.

At this moment Michelle Obama (Sasheer Zamata) walks in and warns the men that they better get ready as her husband is getting angry, and turning into The Rock Obama (Dwayne Johnson).

It is then that he throws Boehner out a window, rips of Cotton's hand and begins to crush Cruz's head, though he is stopped by the First Lady.

At that moment, the Secret Service comes in to say that they have been allowing a vagrant to live in the White House garden the past few months, and Michelle turns into She Rock Obama (Leslie Jones) and rips off the man's arm. 

Former SNL cast member Horatio Sanz made headlines a week or so ago complaining that SNL has too much conservative bull***t because it has dared a few times to mock Democrats. Apparently the message has had its intended effect. Those darn Republicans are so annoying it is understandable how violently people get worked up over them. Ha ha ha.

A thought experiment: imagine the reaction if Hillary Clinton were portrayed as on the receiving end of horrific violence because her wiping clean of her email server was so frustrating.

Wait, trick question. That would never, ever happen.