In early 2024, the Today Times page on Facebook published a post that announced the long-running NBC show "Saturday Night Live" had been canceled for becoming too "woke" and losing "its humor."
The post received more than 1,500 likes and reactions and hundreds of comments and shares. Commenters expressed enthusiastic agreement with this supposed decision by the television network, with one exclaiming "About time!!!" and another saying "Thank You Jesus."
The pinned comment below the post linked to a Feb. 12, 2024, article on viral 24.info that began:
Breaking: NBC Cancels Woke SNL, "The Show Has Become Overly Woke and Has Lost Its Humor"
In a move that has sent shockwaves through the entertainment industry, NBC has announced the cancellation of its long-running sketch comedy show, "Saturday Night Live" (SNL), citing declining humor and viewer engagement as the core reasons. The network's decision to end the show after decades of airing comes amid growing criticisms of its recent 'woke' direction, with a senior NBC executive bluntly stating, "It's the worst show and isn't funny anymore."
This article was copied word for word six days later on another site, faithhopel.info.
This item was not a factual recounting of real-life events, however. The article originated on Feb. 9, 2024, on Esspots.com, a website that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature:
Welcome to Esspots.com, a website that specializes in satire, parody, and humor. Before you proceed to read our content, we would like to emphasize that nothing on this website is real. All of the articles, stories, and commentary found on Esspots.com are entirely fictitious and created for the purpose of entertainment only.
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Our articles and stories often use exaggeration, irony, and sarcasm to make a point, and should not be taken seriously. We do not endorse any political or social views presented on this website, and our content is not meant to be a substitute for actual news or information.
This is not the first time we've written about rumors that "SNL" was canceled. In March 2017, we debunked a news item that announced the show had been canceled because of low ratings. A month later, we addressed another fake story that then-U.S. President Donald Trump had signed an executive order canceling the show.
For background, here is why we sometimes write about satire/humor.