A new NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” sketch centered around a South Florida TV news station had anchors cheering every time the suspect in a crime story was not their race.
NBC SNL
As if Miami isn’t a crazy news town already, “Saturday Night Live” took it one step further over the weekend.
In a segment spoofing local TV news, the four anchors in the studio cheered each crime — based on the race of the suspect.
Let’s go to the video.
Here we are at fictional WANU-Channel 7 for a mid-day segment. SNL host Phoebe Waller-Bridge along with cast members Keenan Thompson, Ego Nwodim and Alex Moffat play the news readers with a racial bias.
As the anchors read the crime stories, each cheered when the suspect happened to be of the opposite race. The newscast eventually evolved into a competition between the black and white anchors as they tried to determine the suspect’s race based on the crime.
After learning the subject of an armed robbery at a gas station was white, the black anchors (Thompson and Nwodim) celebrated with sighs of relief and a mini-handshake.
“We’re just glad that we know what the criminal looks and he ain’t one of us,” Thompson said on the show.
The second story poked fun at white-collar crime.
“In other news, a Ponzi scheme has shaken some of Miami’s wealthiest residents,” Moffat began.
“That’s one of y’all for sure,” cut in Nwodim.
As Moffat provided additional details on the “multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme,” Nwodim continued to chime in.
“Now you know black people don’t got that kind of money,” she added.
Then came the big reveal: “He was arrested this morning in Boca Raton,” Moffat declared as the monitor showed a mug shot of a black man.
“So I guess we’re tied,” Thompson said. “One of ours for one of yours.”
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A recent “Saturday Night Live” sketch starring Chris Redd (pictured) and others as South Florida newscasters who competed to see which race committed more crimes.
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NBC SNL
The sketch continued with a meteorologist, played by Chris Redd, who shared an update on a looming hurricane.
“Now we’re calling this one ‘Hurricane Chet,’” said Redd, standing in front of a screen showing the hurricane nearing the coast South Florida, before slowly turning back to the camera, “and that’s a white man’s name if I’ve ever heard one.”
Despite protests that hurricanes aren’t white, the point stuck as Thompson declared “unless they’re named Chet.”
By the end of the segment, the anchors were tied up in the race game. Then came a story about a man dressed as the Joker.
“Dammit!” shouted Waller-Bridge.
This isn’t the first time South Florida has been featured in a “SNL” sketch. In 2014, musical artist Drake played a grumpy anchor as he and two cast members cut promos for fictional morning news program ‘Mornin’ Miami.’
More recently, cast member Kate McKinnon reprised her role as Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz in a sketch centered around Michael Cohen’s Congressional Oversight Committee hearings.
C. Isaiah Smalls II is a reporter covering breaking and trending news for the Miami Herald. Previously, he worked for ESPN’s The Undefeated as part of their inaugural class of Rhoden Fellows. He is a graduate of both Columbia University and Morehouse College.
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