GM CEO Mary Barra gets targeted in a Saturday Night Live spoof of her Capitol Hill testimony.

“There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt,” the late Erma Bombeck once said. Humorist Mark Twain put it in only a slightly different context when he suggested, “Humor is tragedy plus time.”

That thin line remains, but in the era of the 24-hour news cycle and instant Twitter feeds, time seems to grow shorter and shorter. Just witness the way the General Motors ignition switch recall has become fodder for late night comedians like Jon Stewart, and review shows like Saturday Night Live.

The long-running NBC humor program opened its show this past weekend taking full-barreled aim at GM CEO Mary Barra’s performance during two days of Congressional hearings looking into the maker’s ignition switch recall. During separate hearings before House and Senate subcommittees, Barra offered few specific answers, repeatedly stating that GM is in the midst of an internal investigation of why it waited over a decade after learning of potentially serious safety defects before ordering a recall.

Daily Show's Jon Stewart takes sharp aim at GM's handling of the recall crisis.

“That’s part of our investigation,” said Kate McKinnon, the SNL comedian playing the role of Barra in the show’s opening skit. “I am looking into knowing when I first knew about it but I won’t know the results of that knowing until I know for sure.”

Since taking on the lead role in the handling of the ignition switch recall, Barra has repeatedly tried to link the problem to the “old GM” left behind when the maker emerged from bankruptcy in July 2009. The CEO repeated that during her two days on Capitol Hill, something SNL took aim at.

“The first rule in new GM is you never talk about old GM,” said McKinnon-as-Barra.

Another Michigan resident spoofed in the SNL skit was Representative Fred Upton, the chair of the House subcommittee investigating the recall scandal. Referring to the $50 billion GM bailout, he asked “Barra,” “Is this how you decided to thank your country?”

“Your honor, may I approach the exit?” said comedian McKinnon.

Taking his own digs at GM last week, satirist Stewart was even more blunt in his take on the recall brouhaha and Barra’s time on Capitol Hill. “They studied the problem for four years, did an internal cost-benefit analysis using your standard analytic algorithm barometric PE ratio equations and came up with, ‘F**K It,” declared Stewart.

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Stewart then went on to the possibility that GM will use its 2009 bankruptcy as a way to sidestep any lawsuits that stem from ignition switch-related crashes that took place prior to July 2009, when it emerged from bankruptcy protection.

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“Because GM declared bankruptcy, they are no longer legally liable for human deaths that they caused through their admitted negligence,” Stewart said. “I cannot wait for a non-corporate person to try that s**t.”

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GM has acknowledged knowing about 31 crashes and 13 deaths linked to the ignition switch problem.

Stewart concluded by suggesting, “Why fix a problem you’ve created, when you can just ask your surviving customers to get rid of their keys?”