‘SNL’ and Lady Gaga Just Kick-Started Another Satanic Panic
Back in the 1980s, one couldn’t enjoy Dungeons & Dragons, He-Man or even the Care Bears without some dude who looked like a lounge singer that isn’t allowed within 1,000 feet of a public school claiming that it was really the handiwork of Lucifer himself.
But as we’ve mentioned before, the so-called “Satanic Panic” never truly went away. Even in the 21st century, fanatics still routinely accuse innocuous pop-culture properties of colluding with the Prince of Darkness, be it the 2024 Olympics’ opening ceremony, the Minions or the songs of Pat Benatar.
Now, in 2025, that same evangelical hysteria has come for Saturday Night Live.
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This past weekend’s Lady Gaga-hosted episode included a sketch in which a group of friends dine out at a Friendly’s family restaurant, which Bowen Yang’s character points out still has “100 locations on the East Coast.” But when one of them lies about it being their birthday in order to score free ice cream, the serving staff dons ceremonial robes, summons multiple demons and forces her to drink from a chalice full of blood before ultimately extracting her still-beating heart.
After the episode aired, a number of people on social media suggested that this one sketch was evidence that Lady Gaga and the SNL staff are really devil worshippers who aren’t even trying to “hide it anymore.”
The sketch also caught the attention of one of the internet’s most vocal QAnon conspiracy theorists.
It should go without saying that the sketch in question seemed less like an actual Black Mass, and more like a ridiculous comedy sketch full of Spirit Halloween-tier costumes and scenes pulled directly from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Speaking of which, the Temple of Doom elements also proved to be controversial, for far more legitimate reasons.
It’s especially funny to blast Saturday Night Live for its Satanic messaging, as if that’s not exactly what one of the show’s most famous characters would do.
Plus, it’s not like the Devil wasn’t already an SNL mainstay, lest we forget the time that Satan, as played by Jon Lovitz, was forced to defend himself in The People’s Court.
And, of course, the Devil was one of Jason Sudeikis’ regular Weekend Update characters.
Since no one accused the Ted Lasso star of promoting witchcraft, presumably it was Lady Gaga’s presence in the sketch that drew the ire of the Christian right. She was similarly accused of performing a “Satanic ritual” during her performance at the 2017 Super Bowl.
These critics have yet to come up with an explanation for how Lady Gaga is in league with Satan yet couldn’t get couldn’t get the Dark Lord to help sweeten the Joker sequel’s box office earnings just a little bit.
