Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang shocked The View’s panel when he declared that Vice President JD Vance is a ‘pope killer’ as he answered questions about his portrayal of the Hillbilly Elegy author on Thursday.
The comedian appeared on The View to promote his new film, The Wedding Banquet, when he shared his apprehensions at portraying Vance on the sketch show.
‘I just thought there would be better people’ for the role, he told the liberal talk show hosts. ‘It was my imposter syndrome. I was like, “There are better people for this.”
He then noted that he had to work with an accent coach to prepare for the role, describing Vance’s dialect as ‘between Ohio and Appalachia.
‘It’s hard,’ Yang said. ‘It’s very subtle.’
Whoopi Goldberg then used the opportunity to praise Yang for his portrayal of Vance, which she called ‘funny as hell.’
‘Thank you,’ Yang responded. ‘I mean, look the guy’s a pope killer, OK?’
The remark sent the liberal co-hosts doubling over with laughter, as Goldberg nearly fell out of her seat.
Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang shockingly declared that Vice President JD Vance is a ‘pope killer’ on The View Thursday
The remark sent the liberal co-hosts doubling over with laughter, as Goldberg nearly fell out of her seat
‘Somebody had to say it,’ she finally exclaimed, as co-host Sara Haines declared, ‘There’s our new headline.’
Other co-hosts, though, tried to stay ahead of any legal trouble Yang’s comment, with Joy Behr insisting: ‘He doesn’t mean it literally, he’s talking spiritually.’
‘It’s just comedy,’ Sunny Hostin added.
But Yang is not the only American who has joked that the vice president triggered Pope Francis’ death by shaking the pontiff’s hand just hours before his passing on Monday.
Jack Schlossberg, an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, also suggested ‘JD killed the Pope’ on social media and political commentator Ann Coulter made light of the timing of Francis’ death.
‘Good work, JD,’ she wrote.
Vance was in Rome for several days over the Easter weekend on official business when he visited the Vatican on Sunday for a private meeting with the Pope, where the two exchanged pleasantries.
The vice president, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, greeted the 88-year-old pontiff and told him how often he had been praying for him.
Vance had met with Pope Francis on Sunday, just hours before he passed away
Pope Francis, in turn, offered Vance a number of gifts, including a Vatican tie and candy for the vice president’s children – who were with him on the visit.
But just hours after the meeting, the Pope died of a cerebral stroke.
As the world grappled with the loss on Monday, Vance took to X to share his thoughts.
‘I just learned of the passing of Pope Francis,’ he wrote. ‘My heart goes out to the millions of Christians all over the world who loved him.
‘I was happy to see him yesterday, though he was obviously very ill,’ the vice president wrote.
‘But I’ll always remember him for the below homily he gave in the very early days of Covid. It was really quite beautiful. May God rest his soul.’
Vance has since acknowledged that the timing of the Holy Father’s death was ‘pretty crazy’ but considered himself lucky to meet with the pope
He has since acknowledged that the timing of the Holy Father’s death was ‘pretty crazy’ but considered himself lucky to meet with the pope.
‘I thought a lot about that,’ Vance said when asked about the timing by reporters. ‘I mean, it’s pretty crazy, actually and obviously when I saw him, I didn’t know he had less than 24 hours still on this earth.’
The vice president went on to say he considered the visit with the Holy Father ‘a great blessing.’
‘I try to just, you know, remember that I was lucky that I got to shake his hand and tell him that I pray for him every day,’ he said.
When asked about the differences the Trump administration had with Pope Francis, Vance told reporters he was aware of them but also that the Holy Father had issues they agreed with.
‘I’m not going to soil the man’s legacy by talking about politics, I think he was a great Christian pastor and that’s how I choose to remember the Holy Father,’ he said.
But the brief meeting marked a cordial interaction between the two men after they spent weeks verbally sparring about the Trump administration’s plan to deport migrants en masse.
Francis had made caring for migrants a hallmark of his papacy, and even blasted the deportation efforts as depriving migrants of their inherent dignity.
Vance, meanwhile, defended the administration’s America-first crackdown by citing a concept from medieval Catholic theology known in Latin as ‘ordo amoris’ – which he claimed delineates a hierarchy of care: family first, followed by the neighbor, community, fellow citizens and lastly those elsewhere.
In a letter to US bishops in February, however, Francis appeared to correct Vance’s understanding of the concept.
‘Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extends to other persons and groups,’ he wrote.
‘The true ordo amoris that must be promoted is that which we discover by meditating constantly on the parable of the Good Samaritan, that is, by meditating on the love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.’
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