Veteran New York local politician Harvey Epstein was thrust into the national spotlight last night when NBC’s Saturday Night Live ran a mock ad for his campaign spotlighting his name that combines the names of two convicted sex offenders, Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein.
Host John Mulaney portrayed Epstein in the ad, which you can watch above, tackling the issue head-on.
“Listen, is my name ideal? Of course not,” he says to the camera. “I share names with two of the most notorious perverts of all time. You think I don’t know that?”
He then repeatedly stresses that he is not related to any of his notorious namesakes as the distinction seems lost on voters who say in testimonials things like, “He’s got my vote, everyone deserves a second chance,” “It’s cool he knows a lot of famous people” and “He would be great for the economy. Do I want him running our schools? Probably not.”
Mulaney’s Epstein responds to each, getting more exasperated as he keeps reiterating he is “a different guy” who “loves your children, not in a creepy way.”
The ad ended with a slogan, “Harvey Epstein for City Council. Because together, we can make this city Epstein’s Island.”
Mulaney’s Epstein chimes in for a final word: “Let’s not call it that maybe.”
The real Epstein concurs. On Sunday morning, he retweeted the SNL skit with a note, “I agree with John Mulaney… let’s not call it Epstein’s Island.”
Like the fake ad said, Epstein is a District 74 Assembly member who is running for City Council in District 2. He has been Assemblyman since 2018 and previously served on Community Board 3 for 14 years.
