Fact-checking Saturday Night Live’s ‘happy Amazon employee’ sketch

“Saturday Night Live” is poking fun at Amazon again.

Monica, a “happy Amazon employee” played by Ego Nwodim, joined the latest “Weekend Update” to talk about her job delivering packages for the tech giant, answering questions from host Michael Che. It was a very funny sketch, including a line about hooking up with an Amazon drone. (“Can’t get an STD if he’s got a USB!”)

I hate to be the guy who says, “well, actually,” but if the best satire is a caricature of reality, it was hard not to notice, as a reporter who covers the company, that some of the underlying facts weren’t quite on the mark.

The biggest disconnect came when Che asked, “Does Amazon offer you benefits?”

“Oh, yeah, of course. Got to, yeah. They gave me this vest,” Monica replied.

In reality, Amazon does provide health-care benefits starting on the first day.

Getting into the realm of minor nitpicks: the skit referred to Amazon celebrating “a 48-hour sale event, Prime Day,” which is traditionally held in the summer. We’re assuming SNL was actually referring to “Prime Big Deal Days,” a separate 2-day sale that took place last week.

Amazon’s treatment of logistics employees has been under the microscope for years. Federal and state regulators, labor unions, and Amazon shareholders have repeatedly raised red flags about the company’s warehouse injury rates. Amazon has cited safety improvements, and it recently boosted hourly pay again.

There are also tensions over workload expectations between Amazon and the business owners and drivers that are part of its Delivery Service Partners (DSP) program. These independent companies employ the drivers who deliver packages in blue Prime-branded vans, wearing Amazon uniforms.

That’s another nitpick: if “Monica” is a delivery driver, she’s not an Amazon employee.

But SNL may have come closest to the mark at the end of the sketch, by turning the whole thing back on the rest of us.

“Monica, I’m starting to think Amazon is overworking you, and the conditions seem inhumane,” Che said.

“Oh, you really think so, Che?” Monica asked. “So, you going to stop ordering from Amazon?”

Che made a face, then ended the interview.

Amazon has been a frequent SNL subject. The show made fun of the cashierless Amazon Go stores and Echo voice speakers in prior sketches. Steve Carrell played Jeff Bezos mocking Donald Trump in 2018, and Owen Wilson did a sendup of the Amazon founder’s space ambitions in 2021.

If they need anybody to fact-check all the fun out of the next one, I’m available.