'Saturday Night Live' Tore Apart Ben Carson for Arguing "Homosexuality Is a Choice"

Impact

Last week, Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and potential presidential candidate for the Republican Party, said in a CNN interview he believes homosexuality is a choice because people "go into prison straight — and when they come out, they're gay."

Though Carson later backtracked and tried to apologize for his statement, that didn't stop Saturday Night Live and their "Weekend Update" segment from tearing into Carson.

"Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon, said that homosexuality is a choice because many people go to prison straight, but when they come out, they're gay," started "Weekend Update" co-anchor Michael Che. "Kind of like how in that last sentence, Carson went in as a neurosurgeon and came out as a complete idiot."

But instead of just leaving it to one joke, Che and fellow anchor Colin Jost kept laying it on, delivering four jokes at Carson's expense — something that's almost never done on the show.

Take a look:

While it should be pretty clear that what Carson said was ridiculous, the SNL writers wanted to make sure that point stuck. This led to more jokes like:

Mic/Hulu

And this bait and switch:

Mic/Hulu

As we saw last week, when SNL isn't afraid to make aggressive jokes about topical and real news, it usually pays off and plants them firmly in the conversation — albeit a hilarious and satirical conversation. 

And frankly, they're right. It would be one thing for any presidential candidate to be making this kind of senseless comment, but Carson is a certified neurosurgeon, a medical professional. Perhaps Carson thought his comments would appeal to the very conservative right wing of the GOP, but someone making these kinds of incorrect blanket judgements about roughly 9 million people needs to reconsider many of his views before trying to lead an entire nation.