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The Laura Ingraham Bit On 'SNL' Revealed Exactly Who's Supporting Her Show Now

by Lani Seelinger

Fox News host Laura Ingraham has been losing a lot of sponsors since insulting Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg, but it hasn't taken her off the air just yet. And if you watch the SNL 'Weekend Update' segment with Laura Ingraham, then you'll know that they've got an explanation for who's supporting her now.

Kate McKinnon played Ingraham opposite Weekend Update's Colin Jost, and she explained who stepped up to be her new sponsors after Jost reported on another round of advertisers that recently ditched the show. Red Lobster, Blue Apron, and Slimfast are the ones that Jost mentioned, but since her initial comments, there have been 27 sponsors who have ceased advertising during the show.

"It's so good to be back after that planned vacation. It was so fun and so planned and so scheduled a long time ago," McKinnon said as Ingraham, after Jost introduced her and told the audience that she had just returned from a brief hiatus. Ingraham took a vacation as the controversy was going on, which a Fox News spokesperson tells Bustle was pre-planned, but many believed there was also potential for it to be made permanent. "The important thing is I'm back. And I'm not going to cave from bullying from the 'tolerant: left.'"

She then launched into a list of her new sponsors, SNL style.

"Like Carl’s Sr.: 'Leftover Carl's Jr. food ground to mush for old people. Mmm, Carl's Sr.,'" she said first, with an altered Carl's Jr. logo on the lower part of the screen. "And Your Pillow. From the makers of My Pillow. 'Send us your pillow. We need more pillows.' Or how about Shkreli's Jelly. It's just jelly that’s $8,000 a jar."

In the Shkreli's Jelly comment, she was referring to "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, who was recently sentenced to seven years in a federal prison for securities fraud but who initially gained attention for raising the price of a lifesaving drug by 5,500 percent — approximately what it would take to make jelly cost $8,000 a jar.

Jost, naturally, was skeptical about the legitimacy of the products Ingraham mentioned — but when he asked if they were real, she responded with a jaunty "yep!" The two of them then moved into a favorite topic of discussion on both sides of the political spectrum: the First Amendment.

"You see, the totalitarian left can attack me all they want, but I will continue to defend the First Amendment," McKinnon said as Ingraham. "That's my right to bully people without being bullied in return."

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images

The reason why Ingraham's advertisers are leaving her show, of course, is that she sent a bullying tweet to Stoneman Douglas student David Hogg over his college admissions. Hogg then responded by asking companies to boycott her show, which prompted a huge response on Twitter — and clearly, it's been working. McKinnon's Ingraham, however, saw that as an assault on free speech — an opinion which Ingraham has also expressed in real life.

"Don't boycott my show," McKinnon's Ingraham went on to say. "Our country's so divided right now, and I'm an important part of that. Let's move on. You know I'm gonna say something worse. Why don't you just watch the show and find out what that's gonna be?"

She then rounded things out with a few more of her new sponsors. "Lady Bump Stock. 'Lightweight bump stocks for delicate hands.' And Reverse Mortgage: 'We'll take that house now.' And Malaysian Airlines: 'Caught in a scandal and need an escape? Malaysian Airlines,'" she said, before adding the kicker: "But you know who's not afraid to sponsor this? Cream Soda. 'The soda for whites. You got the white one, baby!'"