Did SNL Scrap an Anti-Obama Skit in Favor of an Anti-Fox One?

If you watched "Saturday Night Live" on Saturday (or if you just watched the highlight on The Blaze), you saw the popular comedy show open with a bit mocking Fox News and its morning show, "Fox & Friends." But The Daily Caller is now reporting the anti-Fox skit may not have been originally on the docket as the show's opening sketch.

The Caller got its hands on a script allegedly for a skit that was supposed to mock Obama and his seemingly endless reminders that he ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden.

"I hope you had a safe and joyous first anniversary of his killing,” the script, featuring Fred Armisen as President Obama, says of Osama.

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to be at home this year, as I had to fly to Afghanistan, to remind President Karzai that, exactly one year ago, we killed Osama bin Laden, and that the decision to do so was a gutsy one,” he continues. “And was mine.”

He then goes on to name appropriate gifts in honor of the one year anniversary.

The script, which the Caller notes was authored by comedian Jim Downey, is available below:

Obama Address Cold Open - May 6, 2012

So why was the skit scrapped?

The Caller says "it is not clear why." But before you go concluding it was to be favorable to the president or heap condemnation on Fox -- both options that are conceivable -- let me let you in on a little secret: I went to college in New York City just blocks away from the SNL studios, and I had several friends who made it a habit of watching the dress rehearsals for the show. On several occasions, they would remark how the final episode that aired on Saturday night differed from what they saw earlier -- and several times skits were cut.

It could simply be that the Obama skit just wasn't a hit with the dress rehearsal crowd, and since it would have been the first one people saw, the producers could have scrapped it for something else.

But again, that's just a guess. And that might still be a glimpse into the public's perception: an anti-Fox skit is more palatable than an anti-Obama one.

UPDATE:

Tommy Christopher over at Mediaite has a theory, too:

The sketch that was allegedly pulled from this past weekend’s show simply wasn’t funny, and while regular viewers of SNL know that doesn’t always keep a sketch off the air, this script’s premise had already been done by the show, and done better, in the aftermath of the actual bin Laden raid.

Christopher also links to a past article that describes Downey as a "right-wing writer," which might explain how the script was leaked. Still, Christopher also notes that Downey has said glowing things of Obama (like vowing to vote for him).