Did yesterday’s Saturday Night Live skit parodying Piers Morgan Tonight take the Trayvon Martin killing a little too lightly?
“The Trayvon Martin case continues to rock the state of Florida, and I continue to cover the case, by talking to lesser officials and tangical celebrities,” the Morgan impersonator (Taran Killam) says.
The skit, which was meant to blast Morgan’s widely criticized CNN show, jokes that the high-profile case will be great for tourism in Florida.
“Yay for Florida,” says the head of the Florida Tourism Board Jeremy Reff (played by Jason Sudeikis) in the skit.
Sudeikis’ character also takes a shot at Florida’s “Stand Your Ground Law,” saying, “crazy laws are what Florida’s all about. It’s the number one reasonan maniacs come to Florida.” He goes on to suggest that Martin’s shooter, George Zimmerman, who was charged with second-degree murder last week, will not receive a fair trial.
“We’ve got the same cracker jack team who got Casey Anthony a lifetime in prison . . . ,” he says, then looks offscreen and says, “She what?!” as if responding to news that Casey Anthony was not convicted of murdering her child. (Sidenote: Anthony’s former lawyer is now Zimmerman’s lawyer.)
The skit also touches on race, first with a Kanye impersonator (Jay Pharroh) saying he sympathizes with Martin – “Maybe it’s just the black man in me” – and later by making fun of someone else “who is also facing protests in Florida” Miami Marlins Manager Ozzie Guillen (Josh Brolin). Guillen, who is Hispanic, came under fire last week for his controversial praise of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
In the skit Morgan asks him if he now regrets his statements.
“Exactly. It was foolish of me. It’s like I love Hamas, I love Hezbollah, but I would never say that if I were in a Jewish neighborhood, no,” Brolin as Guillen says. “You know that Miami is full of Jews, right?” Morgan responds, to which Guillen says, “Oh no, I did it again! Oh, well. Go Marlins!”
The entire sketch was not a miss though. Fred Armison’s impersonation of former Law and Order SVU star Ice-T and was spot on. His response to Morgan’s question of how long the trial will take in his experience is the only redeeming part of the sketch.
“In my experience the police stuff takes up the first half hour, then the legal stuff take up another half hour, then in betwwen you hear something like this [ Law and Order noise].”
