“SNL” surprised with a gag about United Airlines dragging a man off a flight this week as the punchline on a seemingly non-topical sketch involving Cecily Strong’s ex-boyfriend, Jimmy Fallon, tried to win her back.
While Strong was in the middle of a date with a character played by Beck Bennett, Fallon appeared at her door with a boom box and flowers in an attempt to win her back.
“Hey, what? What’s going on?” Fallon asked, seeing Bennett on Strong’s couch. “We just broke up five days ago.”
“You know what, I don’t need to defend myself, Doug,” Strong responded. “Okay, you know what you did.”
Instead, Fallon brought in two friends to (poorly) sing “Truly, Madly, Deeply” by Savage Garden.
“So what do you say, Jen?” Fallon asked as he finished the song. “I know I made one of the biggest mistakes a person can make, but I’m sorry. And I’m asking you to take me back — forever. What do you say?”
But Strong was having none of it.
“No, Doug! You dragged a man off a plane this week!” She shouted, referencing United’s massive public relations debacle this week. United passengers used their smartphones to film airport security officers dragging a randomly chosen man off a flight he’d paid for to make room on the flight for four United employees.
Strong forced Fallon and his two friends out of the apartment, then turned back to Bennett to apologize.
“All right — I’m so sorry about him,” Strong said when they were finally alone again.
“That’s okay,” Bennett returned, smiling.
“Anyway, back to us,” Strong said. “Tell me more about yourself. What do you do?”
“Well, I actually just directed a huge Pepsi commercial,” Bennett responded, prompting Strong to scream. The sketch ended with a punchline that referenced last week’s episode, in which Bennett played the writer and director of Kendall Jenner’s much-maligned, and immediately pulled, Pepsi commercial that referenced Black Lives Matter and anti-Donald Trump protests.