‘Saturday Night Live’ suspends writer for ‘inexcusable’ tweet about Barron Trump

Twitter lit up with off-colour jokes and memes during US presidential inauguration weekend, but there was one topic that really sent social media into a frenzy: Barron Trump.

President Donald Trump’s 10-year-old son attracted a lot of attention Friday when he appeared on TV, frequently captured on camera as he sat behind his father at the inauguration ceremony at the U.S Capitol.

A popular meme compared Barron to King Joffrey, a much-despised young villain on Game of Thrones. People immediately took such jokes to task, considering they involved a kid who didn’t ask to be in the spotlight, and children in the first family are supposed to be off-limits.

There was a particularly harsh reaction toward those in the entertainment industry. On Friday afternoon, Saturday Night Live writer Katie Rich tweeted that “Barron will be this country’s first homeschool shooter.” It immediately triggered a flood of angry tweets. Rich, an improv comedian who has written for NBC’s SNL since December 2013 when she was hired to work on Weekend Update, deleted her account in the wake of the backlash. Nearly 79,000 people signed a Change.org petition for her to be fired.

Rich has been suspended indefinitely from SNL in the wake of the tweet, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Monday afternoon, Rich restored her Twitter account and tweeted an apology, though all of her other tweets have been deleted. “I sincerely apologise for the insensitive tweet. I deeply regret my actions & offensive words. It was inexcusable & I’m so sorry,” she wrote.