A cape, a princess and an Elton John tribute: Saturday Night Live sends off George Santos

WASHINGTON (TND) — While many in Congress (around three-quarters of the House) were eager to wash their hands of former New York Rep. George Santos following his historic explusion, the writers and performers at Saturday Night Live gave the disgraced lawmaker a bombastic send off.

Portrayed by cast member Bowen Yang, the SNL Santos maintains the real life counterpart's appearance, especially for stylish sweathers and jackets, while taking the allegations of his habitual fraud and lying to comedic hyperbole.

"Fine, so I'm no longer 'Congressman Santos'," Bowen's Santos said, decked out in a lavendar suit and flowing black cape, during the cold open Saturday night. "I'm just regular, old Professor, Major General, Reverend Astronaut Santos, protector of the realm, [and] Princess of Genovia."

The line above encapsulates the way the sketch comedy show, on the air for nearly 50 years, portrayed the controversial former Congressman after cascading reports revealed Santos allegedly lied about nearly all of his resume and family story while running for Congress in 2022; and after other allegations surfaced that he was a drag queen in Brazil and confessed to stealing checks in that country.

As such, the man who falsely claimed to have led Baruch College's volleyball team to victory over Harvard in 2010, on TV became the character who would claim Beyoncé's "Renaissance" film is about him, a scientist who made a breakthrough in nuclear fusion and a Heisman-winning football reporter over the show's last 12 months.

While Santos left Congress in dramatic fashion, telling reporters "Why would I want to stay here? To hell with this place,” as he walked out of the chamber Friday, SNL gave him a flashy, LAs Vegas cabaret-style performance.

Taking a stand at the piano and microphone, Yang's Santos belted out a swan song performance: "Scandal in the Wind," a parody of Elton John's "Candle in the Wind."

"And you all got to laugh at me and I say, 'Lucky you'," he sings in the climax. "My candle burned out long before I could flee to Peru."

Santos still is due to face trial for 23 criminal charges, separate from the House Ethics Committee investigation, over allegations of stealing people's identities and making charges on his own donors' credit cards without their authorization.