The sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live is enjoying a renewed lease on life thanks to the increasingly unpredictable presidency of American reality television and real estate czar Donald Trump.
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But the series drew a line clearly in the sand today, suspending one of its writers who had published a tweet in which she took aim at Trump's 10-year-old son Barron Trump.
In the tweet, writer Katie Rich described the son of Trump and his third wife Melania "this country's first home-school shooter."
Before even addressing the thorny issue of how the children of high profile personalities are handled by the media by individuals on social media, the tweet contained a fundamental inaccuracy: Barron Trump is not home-schooled; he attends New York's Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School.
The tweet drew immediate crossfire on social media as many raced to the defence of the 10-year-old "first son".
Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former president Bill Clinton and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, came to Barron Trump's defence with this post: "Barron Trump deserves the chance every child does: to be a kid."
Barron is the youngest of Trump's five children, and the only one who is not an adult.
The elder children, daughters Ivanka and Tiffany, and sons Donald and Eric, have appeared frequently alongside their father during his election campaign.
Barron has made less frequent appearances, notably on election night and at his father's inauguration.
Rich deleted the tweet after criticism; later her social media account was shut down and then re-activated.
Today she posted an apology: "I sincerely apologise for the insensitive tweet," Rich wrote. "I deeply regret my actions and offensive words. It was inexcusable and I'm so sorry."
It is understood Rich, who has worked on Saturday Night Live since 2013, has been suspended by the show.
The US network which broadcasts Saturday Night Live, NBC, has not commented on the matter.
NBC is the same network which airs The Celebrity Apprentice, on which Trump formerly appeared; in a curious twist he remains on the show's payroll, credited as an "executive producer".
Saturday Night Live has also dominated headlines in the past months for razor-sharp parodies of Trump, notably sketches in which the newly-anointed president is played by actor Alec Baldwin.
The show has, in its history, one other high-profile example of going after the under-aged child of a president: a sketch in 1992 mocking Chelsea Clinton.
The sketch was later cut from repeats of the episode.
"She's a kid who did not choose to be in public life," executive produce Lorne Michaels said in 1992.
