Saturday Night Live, a sketch comdedy show known for its anti-conservative, anti-Trump satire, is drawing fire after poking fun at the Catholic church and jokingly implying that Vice President JD Vance had a role in the death of Pope Francis, with Vance being played by notoriously liberal actor Bowen Yang on the show, adding insult to injury.
For context, in the show’s March 10, 2025, episode, several cast members went beyond the pale, mocking Catholics and making light of the death of Pope Francis, who passed away on April 21, 2025. In addition, the show’s satirical caricature of President Trump made offensive comments about VP JD Vance, implying that the pope died because Vance was reportedly the last world leader to visit him.
The episode, which featured guest star Walton Goggins (of Fallout and The White Lotus), kicked off with a bombastic performance by James Austin Johnson, who plays President Trump on the show, making disrespectful, satirical comments about the election of Pope Leo XIV. Johnson’s Trump said, “We have an American Pope, Chicago-style, no ketchup,” he joked about Pope Leo XIV, who was born in Chicago, Illinois. “But we like Pope Leo. We hope he does what we want. That’s what you want the Pope to do.”
Continuing, Johnson made a joke that implied that Vice President Vance contributed to Pope Francis’ passing, saying, “Otherwise, I’ll have to send JD back to do his thing. Remember last time JD met the pope?” Johnson continued, “He’s got the Midas touch, but for bad things. He meets the pope? Dead. Goes to India? War! Joins my campaign? Trump wins!”
On the other hand, Vice President Vance had a heartfelt, sincere response to the pope’s death, writing on X, “I just learned of the passing of Pope Francis. My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him.” Vance added, “I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill. But I’ll always remember him for the below homily he gave in the very early days of COVID. It was really quite beautiful.” The vice president linked a homily in his post, adding, “May God rest his soul.”
However, the comments section of Vance’s X post was full of sarcastic quips and jokes about the vice president contributing to the pope’s death. One user with the handle Dean Withers got 100,000 likes with the simple comment, “What did you do bro.” Another user added, “Poor guy died of cringe after meeting you.”
Furthermore, Michael Che, cohost of SNL’s “Weekend Update” segment, attracted criticism for making a joke that The Daily Beast called “brutal” because it called back to the sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic church. In the segment, Che said, “President Trump says Catholics loved an image he posted of him dressed as the pope last week. But I just find it hard to believe that anyone in the Catholic Church would be into something so juvenile.”
Bouncing off of Che’s commentary, cohost and lead SNL writer Colin Jost cracked jokes as well, saying, “Conservatives are already complaining that this pope is too woke,” Jost said. “How woke can a 69-year-old man from Chicago be? It’s not like he came out and was like, ‘Hey, I’m Pope Leo XIV, he/him.'” He added, “The reality is there are no ‘woke’ Catholics. If you’re a woke Catholic, you’re just not Catholic anymore.”
Watch the sketch:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video