Manti Te'o 'Saturday Night Live' Skit Has Him Saying Hoax 'Is Even More Devastating for My Girlfriend Lennay' (Video)

Manti Te’o ‘Saturday Night Live’ Skit Has Him Saying Hoax ‘Is Even More Devastating for My Girlfriend Lennay’ (Video)

by Jen Slothower on Sun, Jan 20, 2013 at 10:01AM

The sports world has spent several days trying to make sense of the Manti Te’o hoax situation. Writers and fans are struggling to wrap their heads around what happened, how much Te’o was involved and what it all means.

Saturday Night Live, meanwhile, had no trouble capturing the essence.

The show turned to a Piers Morgan sketch this weekend to take on both Te’o and disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, and it did a pretty solid job highlighting the absurdity of both situations. Armstrong explained just how complicated his “not complicated” doping history was but emphasized that he was never part of Catfish-ing. For that, enter Te’o.

SNL, which certainly had its choice of avenues when it came to portraying the befuddling Notre Dame star, went the dumb jock route. Bobby Moynihan played a very confused Te’o, who kept talking about being duped by the hoax when he clearly didn’t know what the hoax was supposed to be about.

The best part came when Morgan asked about how rough things had been, and the Te’o character said the hoax “is even more devastating for my girlfriend Lennay,” whom Morgan had just said was not only not dead but also wasn’t real at all.

Whether people believe the real Te’o's side of the story or not, the SNL sketch catches just how strange it all has been — and what seems like the only plausible explanation if Te’o, in fact, didn’t know he was being fooled.

Check it out in the video below.