‘SNL’ Addresses Police Brutality With Bill Burr-Led Sports Segment

Comedian Bill Burr hosted SNL on Saturday night, marking his first time on the long-running sketch series. He took part in several skits throughout the evening, including one that addressed a hot topic. Burr put on a hairpiece for a sketch about police brutality and poorly-timed pranks.

The comedian jumped on a fake sports show, The Blitz, to discuss Thursday night’s battle between the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He played an analyst named Gill Scott, who had made a wager with Hall of Fame wide receiver Kevin “Cash” Dozier (Kenan Thompson). Scott entered the show looking to make jokes about the game and how Dozier would find a way to avoid paying for a promised steak dinner. However, Thompson’s character wanted to discuss the recent shooting of a Black man by a police officer.

“I didn’t watch the game after hearing about Kareem Jenkins,” Thompson’s Dozier said in the skit. “The black man who was shot by police last night. It was a terrible tragedy.” Co-host Michelle Compton (Ego Nwodim) expressed similar sentiments and said that football and sports are not important due to racial violence.

When Dozier made the statement about skipping the game, Scott panicked and had to make some on-air changes. He took off the fuzzy bear hat he was wearing to taunt his co-host and said that he was actually flipping back and forth between the football game and the news coverage of the shooting.

The awkwardness did not stop with the hat, however, considering that Scott had planned an elaborate prank following the game. He had a steak delivered to the desk, complete with fresh-cracked pepper. He also had a waiter — who wore a Bears cap — bring a giant baby bottle to Dozier.

With ongoing protests about racial violence, sports shows such as First Take, First Things First and Skip and Shannon: Undisputed have split time between discussing action on the court or field and protests in the streets. The conversations have led to arguments on social media and tense moments on the sets of the respective shows. SNL attempted to showcase this awkwardness with the skit on Saturday night.

Burr’s skit was more ridiculous in nature considering that he consistently teased Thompson’s character about trying to avoid paying for the steak dinner following their wager. However, the point remained that there is no simple way to address serious topics while simultaneously talking about a battle between Tom Brady and Nick Foles.