'SNL' Skewers the Muppets, and Disney Won't Be Happy About It

Saturday Night Live roasted The Muppets this weekend in a sketch starring host Keegan-Michael Key. [...]

Saturday Night Live roasted The Muppets this weekend in a sketch starring host Keegan-Michael Key. The parody poked fun at Disney+ and other company properties before turning its ire on The Muppets themselves. The Walt Disney Company is not likely to be pleased with the depictions.

The sketch started with a transition made to look like an ad for Disney+, which poked fun at the Marvel Cinematic Universe by saying that it had a new upcoming series called "Hawkeye and His Boring-Ass Family." It then cut to a surprisingly accurate parody of The Muppet Show, where Kermit the Frog faced off with Statler and Waldorf (Beck Bennett and Mikey Day) in the balcony above. However, their heckling was interrupted by Key and Kenan Thompson, who played bouncers for the venue. They shouted down the iconic hecklers on behalf of Kermit.

"What happens next is up to you," Key said threateningly. He undercut his support for the performers by referring to Kermit as "Kramer" and demonstrating no familiarity with the Muppets. He referred to Kermit as "a dragon" and repeated: "We work for the venue!"

Things escalated when Statler and Waldorf continued to heckle, forcing the bouncers to confront them on the balcony. However, Key went overboard by beating and badly bruising Waldorf, who switched to a pair of black and blue eyes. Thompson tried to smooth things over by admitting: "Honestly, I'm not a big fan of this show either," but said that he could not allow any more heckling.

With that, Thompson was forced to rough of Statler as well. However, the bouncers' sympathies changed when they tried to pick the puppets up to bounce them, revealing that they were puppets with no legs. They assumed Statler and Waldorf were veterans and instead joined them in heckling. Ironically, the duo had only nice things to say about Key's middling effort at heckling.

The sketch was one of the most popular of the night in a week when SNL's sketch comedy chops really shined. This was the first time Key had ever been on the show, though he is a veteran of TV sketch comedy via Mad TV and Key and Peele. The whole episode is streaming now on Hulu, with a free trial available here.

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