Saturday Night Live Takes on Oregon’s Rajneesh Cult in a Brilliant “Wild Wild Country” Parody

In the sketch, cast members impersonate the series’ earnest interviewees while Keenan Thompson plays a blunt follower telling things like they really were.

By Elise Herron

Since its release last month, the six-part documentary series Wild Wild Country—which chronicles the rise and fall of Oregon's Rajneesh cult through interviews with former Rajneeshees—has gained national acclaim.

But here's how we know it's a big deal: Writers at Saturday Night Live made a parody last weekend.

"We created an entire community based on compassion and charity," SNL cast member Beck Bennett says at the beginning of the sketch in an amazing impersonation of the cult's former attorney Philip Toelkes. (Toelkes is a central character in the series—recalling his time at Rajneeshpuram with such reverie that he's often brought to tears.)

"Me?" cast member Keenan Thompson says. "I joined for the ass."

Related: In 1984, the Rajneeshees Bused 3,000 Homeless People to Live in Their Oregon Compound. Our Reporter Was One of Them.

Check out the full sketch—which in the end likens former Rajeeshees to another gun-wielding red-clothing-clad gang—below.

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