Saturday Night Live took aim at the recent Academy Awards incident involving Chris Rock and Will Smith with a sketch involving SNL regular Chris Redd and guest host, comedian Jerrod Carmichael.
The SNL skit, called Seat Fillers, didn’t have anyone portraying Chris Rock or Jada Pinkett Smith, but Redd took on the role of Will Smith, with several seat fillers realizing that Smith might be in a hostile mood and not quite the celeb they were excited to meet.
Along with that sketch, Saturday Night Live also touched on the incident during other parts of the show, including Carmichael’s monologue and Weekend Update featuring Colin Jost and Michael Che.
SNL pokes fun at Oscars incident with Seat Fillers skit
With the Oscars slap still fresh in many people’s minds, it was no surprise that SNL parodied the incident in a skit with Chris Redd as Will Smith. Jerrod Carmichael portrayed a seat filler who gets to his seat and is surprised that he’s sitting near Will Smith (Redd). He tells the actor how much of a fan he is and requests a quick selfie.
However, just as that’s about to happen, Chris Rock’s G.I. Jane joke from the Oscars is heard in the distance. Redd’s Will Smith tells the seat filler to hold on a moment as he leaves his seat. An off-camera smack is heard before he returns to his seat, alluding to the Oscars incident.
Smith chats with seat filler a bit more but interrupts several times to shout, “Keep my wife’s name out your f***king mouth!” to Carmichael’s dismay.
Carmichael says to forget the selfie before another seat filler shows up next to him and is excited to find Smith nearby. Carmichael tries to warn the seat filler subtly until the man finds out what Smith did is trending on his phone.
The skit also jokes about Will Smith asking the seat fillers what to say for his acceptance speech for Best Actor. Check out the full video below to see SNL’s creative take on the recent Oscars incident.
Carmichael’s monologue, Weekend Update also poked fun at Oscars
During his opening monologue, Carmichael brought up how Lorne Michaels asked him to make some jokes about the incident and attempt to “heal the nation.” Carmichael joked that he wasn’t going to talk about it, and he didn’t mention what happened or the actors specifically. However, the bit closed with him looking at the camera with a message for Barack Obama.
“Hey B, what’s going on, man? You don’t know me. I’m Jerrod. Nice to meet you. So real quick. You just chilling right now? Like, you’re just not work- you just like writing books? Which is nice. I bought the last one, but it’s like 900 pages,” Carmichael joked.
“Anyway, you got us all hopped up on hope and change, and unfortunately, I have some news for you, Barack, and you’re not going to like this. We need you back because I- I think you’re going to have to talk about it. The nation needs to heal,” he said, getting laughter and cheers from the audience.
Along with the SNL skit featuring Chris Redd and Carmichael’s monologue, Weekend Update didn’t shy away from a jab or two about the Oscars incident. SNL’s longtime star Kenan Thompson portrayed O.J. Simpson and stopped by to give his thoughts on the incident.
He asked Weekend Update host Michael Che what Rock’s G.I. Jane joke even meant because he didn’t get it. Che filled him in that it was just a “movie from the ’90s.”
“The ’90s? I don’t even remember that,” Thompson’s O.J. replied.
Thompson’s O.J. continually comments to say he wasn’t on any side, even yelling at Che not to accuse him of stuff. Towards the end of the bit, he makes a confession he said has been on his mind for a long time.
“I didn’t watch them Oscars,” Thompson joked. “I’m just sayin’.”
Rock, a former Saturday Night Live cast member, appeared in his first comedy show since the incident as part of his Ego Death World Tour last week. After receiving a standing ovation, he informed those attending his performance that he wouldn’t have jokes about the incident for that particular show.
“I don’t have a bunch of s**t about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend, and I’m still kind of processing what happened,” Rock told the crowd. “So at some point, I’ll talk about that s**t. And it’ll be serious, and it’ll be funny.”