‘SNL’ needles Louis C.K. but aims harshest scandal gags at Roy Moore

Being a comedian and past “Saturday Night Live” host didn’t spare Louis C.K. from razzing on the show just days after his exposure as a harasser of women.

Like the week’s other scandal figures, C.K. was mocked at various moments throughout this weekend’s episode. The opening, though, mostly covered U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, who denies accusations by four women that he made advances on them when they were teenagers and he was in his early 30s.

Moore (played by cast member Mikey Day) was seen being summoned to a meeting with Vice President Mike Pence. (Apparently, Alec Baldwin was unavailable to make the scene fully presidential.) Pence, played as usual by New Trier grad Beck Bennett, urged Moore to quit the race, insisting, “It’s hard to convince people you’re not into young girls when you dress like Woody from ‘Toy Story.’ ”

The discussion expanded to other suspected abusers. “Even I heard about Louis C.K.,” Bennett-as-Pence said, stumbling over the mild wisecrack, “and I’m not allowed to watch TV. I’m only allowed to listen to it.”

After Pence left to let Moore think it over, a cabinet door opened up and out tumbled Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions (Kate McKinnon), whose former Senate seat Moore hopes to win. Sessions ended up consulting with his father — a possum, now stuffed — and seemed to allude to C.K. once again by uttering the name of C.K.’s aborted movie, “I Love You, Daddy,” before shouting, “Live from New York!”

Later, Colin Jost got in some digs during Weekend Update. “It’s a good weekend to stay inside, since it’s 20 degrees out, and everyone you’ve ever heard of is a sex monster,” he said as photos of C.K., Kevin Spacey, Harvey Weinstein and Moore appeared over his shoulder.

After a few Moore jokes, Jost added, “How are we still surprised that someone who puts the 10 commandments up everywhere doesn’t follow them? What’s next? It turns out the guy who always jokes about masturbating wasn’t joking about masturbating?”

Making a cameo on the Update desk was Cecily Strong as a Human Resources staffer, frazzled after a week of handling one harassment case after another. Her quiz of do’s and don’ts focused on ideas that should have been obvious, like avoiding relationships with 14-year-olds and keeping one’s genitalia clothed.

And speaking of pervy work situations, another one was central to a sketch starring McKinnon and Aidy Bryant as retired biologists reminiscing about their 1960s attempts to teach a dolphin to talk. A onetime decision to give their subject some manual relief leads to first some accelerated learning, then demands for more, then expectations from every dolphin in the pool.

First-time host Tiffany Haddish, who like C.K. comes from stand-up comedy, spent most of her monologue joking about her Alexander McQueen dress and her plans to wear it to all future special occasions. But after admitting “all my news comes from the beauty shop,” she offered a tip that didn’t mention C.K. by name but precisely addressed his preferred mode of abuse: “Listen, OK? If you got your thing-thing out and she got all her clothes on, you’re WRONG. You’re in the WRONG.”

The studio audience roared its approval.

A few other moments making the episode noteworthy:

• Musical guest Taylor Swift, Last week’s host, Larry David, resurfaced to unapologetically touch on controversy that followed his monologue jokes about flirting in a concentration camp. As Bernie Sanders, he condemned “these comics out there who think it’s OK to make jokes about concentration camps. That guy should rot in hell!” The rant was part of a fake Democratic National Committee commercial suggesting the Dems will squander this week’s electoral wins by continuing to rely on such tired figures as Sanders, Chuck Schumer (Alex Moffat), Nancy Pelosi (McKinnon) and Diane Feinstein (Strong).

• Musical guest Taylor Swift, a onetime “SNL” host usually game for some goofing, stayed out of sketches and limited her appearances to the usual pair of songs.

• A few weeks after Day revealed on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” that a sketch about a terrible video game character played by Kevin Hart got cut from the show years ago, a version of that sketch made it to the air, this time starring Haddish as useless game fighter Boo Boo Jeffries, who lists her main strength as “my relationship with my mom.”

• Next Saturday, rapper, South Sider and Chicago Public Schools advocate Chance the Rapper makes his hosting debut after two stints as musical guest.