SNL faces Luigi Mangione in the cold open

It was from YouTube Crime stories with Nancy Grace it’s all over tonight “Saturday Night Live”s cold open with “healthcare killer” Luigi Mangione, as Sarah Sherman and the NBC late-night show took on the fan club that the UnitedHealthCare CEO’s killer has attracted since his arrest this week.

Or did they do it in a week in which Donald Trump again provided material for an entire season?

Sherman mocked the former prosecutor’s long fall or great leap, depending on your point of view (from the HLN to the Internet contributor over the decades), and proclaimed the nearly flawless impression of the harrowing Grace: “And of course, everyone online celebrated the hard work of law enforcement in apprehending this dangerous criminal. Just kidding. All of you idiots made him a sex symbol!”

“That’s right, health assassin Luigi Mangione has women and gay men alike hot and bothered,” declared Sherman’s Grace with not untrue indignation. “I mean, seriously. This guy looks like Dave Franco with Eugene Levy’s eyebrows. What’s going on in this country? Y’all, this man is not a sex icon, okay. This man is, and I cannot say it more clearly, a murderer!” – with the last word garbled.

Sadly, due to the increasing “Sexy Slayer” jokes, tonight’s cold open has gone from being so hot to going down the drain – as you can see for yourself from the sketch above.

In keeping with Grace’s self-obsession, so reminiscent of the 1990s, the skit took a turn for the usual SNL Substitute for bringing in a few other actors as warm props.

After nearly a week on the run, Mangione was arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on December 9 after an employee recognized the 26-year-old from security footage showing him removing his mask to flirt with a New York store employee. That widely shared footage and the adulation of Mangoine’s look nearly overshadowed his fatal point-blank shooting of health insurance executive Brian Thompson outside the manager’s New York hotel on the morning of Dec. 4. The masked Mangoine biked away after shooting Thompson, and for days it looked like he had successfully evaded a near-national manhunt, until he didn’t.

Mangione is fighting extradition from the Keystone State to the Empire State, where he faces murder charges.

While the thirst trap aspect of this murder is an affront to almost everyone, SNL seemed to keep losing focus in the sketch.

The irritating reality that YouTube channels are “interrupted every second by an insanely loud ad” (which the skit itself repeated) seemed like a revelation to middle-aged people SNL, even with Sherman in the captain’s seat and a pretty good Mangione shot of lead actor Emil Wakim (I mean, kinda creepy).

Perhaps that’s where one of the greatest comedians of all time took center stage tonight.

Chris Rock returns as host for the fourth time tonight and Gracie Adams makes her musical guest debut for the ninth episode of SNLIt’s 50^Th Season. Looking back at another former cast member from this anniversary season, Martin Short will appear as host in the final season next week SNL a crazy year 2024 with Hozier as musical performers; the Just murders in the building star and SNL The season 10 actor has already been a guest on SNL alone three times and once in December 2022 OmitB Buddy Steven Martin.

Created as a film in 1975 by Lorne Michaels Saturday evening Details: The NBC sketch comedy show celebrates its 50th anniversary on February 16 with a primetime special featuring cast members from the past, present and perhaps even the future.