The latest episode of “SNL” kicked off with a cold open sketch that largely parodied the classified documents scandal. It had some amusing jokes about how things differ between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and how former Vice President Mike Pence is kind of pathetic.
But it ended with a surprising, almost serious moment when Kenan Thompson used the gag as a chance to basically call on the Department of Justice to take an active role in getting justice for Tyre Nichols.
The gag began with an introduction that presented Merrick Garland (played by Mikey Day) as an old timey FBI lawman out for justice wherever classified documents can be found. We presume you’re familiar with that whole thing.
Day played Garland as a weird nerd trying to act tough during a press briefing, and it was amusing so far as that goes. He also called out several FBI agents (played by SNL cast members of course) to give updates on the searches of various politician’s houses.
Thompson played the agent who searched Mike Pence’s house, and the main thing he discovered is that the ex-Veep is, as we noted above, really sad and pathetic. And Bowen Yang came out as an FBI agent who became completely star struck meeting Barack Obama. Ego Nwodim also made an amusing appearance.
The sketch ended with Day’s Garland doing some more fake tough talk about classified documents. Then Thompson came back out to set up the “Live from New York” part of the sketch. “Hey boss, when we’re doing playing with your little papers, we’re gonna head down to Memphis and make sure justice is served down there too, right?” He said.
“I sincerely hope so,” Day’s Garland said.
“You’re damn, right, I was just making sure,” Thompson’s FBI agent said.
Watch that below:
By now you surely know, but for those who don’t, Tyre Nichols was a 29-year-old Black man who was murdered by Memphis police after being followed home by them the evening of Jan. 7 and pulled over for what they claimed was ‘reckless driving.’ Of course, the Memphis police chief has since said that camera footage from other locations in the area doesn’t support that claim and that nothing appears to have justified the stop.
Video of the encounter was made public on Friday, and it proves Police lied on their initial report and shows that they were immediately aggressive and violent with Nichols, actions local authorities say were “unexplainable.” They eventually brutalized and beat him mercilessly for several minutes while mocking him and shouting contradictory orders at him. EMTs who arrived at the scene also stood by and did nothing for more than 15 minutes. Nichols died from his injuries 3 days later.