SNL‘s Weekend Update torched Kristi Noem this week, with the help of a very good (and very scared) dog.
The South Dakota governor — and possible running mate pick for Donald Trump — came under fire recently after her memoir detailed how she shot and killed her 14-month-old puppy Cricket. On SNL, her other dog (Marcello Hernández) tries to set the record straight by defending his owner.
This other dog is also named Cricket: Cricket the Seventh. “The first six were bad dogs,” he explains to Update co-host Colin Jost. But this Cricket is totally behind Noem, decrying the outrage over her puppy killing — which, again, she wrote about herself — as “media spin.”
“Team Kristi for life! For my very long life! Please! I love you Kristi,” Cricket says.
As the segment goes on, Cricket’s Noem-loving facade cracks, revealing that he’s actually terrified of the governor. In an inspired bit, viral talking dog buttons become an outlet for Cricket to express his true feelings.
“She’s going to kill me,” he signals to Jost. “I die tonight.”
As for why Noem would write about killing a puppy in the first place? “She thought Trump would like it,” Cricket says with the buttons’ help. “But she’s not invited to Mar-a-Lago.”