Saturday Night Live parodied the Jussie Smollett hate crime scandal during its latest episode.
In a Shark Tank-esque sketch, several popular legal names, including Michael Avenatti (Pete Davidson), Jeanine Pirro (Cecily Strong), Alan Dershowitz (John Mulaney) and Rudy Giuliani (Kate McKinnon), attempted to give legal guidance to celebrities caught in controversy.
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Smollett (Chris Redd) was the show’s second guest and appeared to make new explosive against the President.
“Hey everyone, you won’t believe this but I was just attacked outside the studio by Donald Trump himself,” he said.
Dershowitz responded: “Jussie, is that true?”
“Are there cameras outside?” He asked, after Dershowitz said yes he clarified it was not true.
Avenatti asks, “Why exactly are you here today?”
“I broke humanity?” he said. “But if you take my case I’m offering spoilers for the next season of Empire, I die.”
Pirro added, “Wow, a gay, black man lying about an attack, I wrote Fox News fan fiction about this but I never thought it would come true. I’m recusing myself, cause I’m just too turned on.”
“Jussie, you have everything I love in a client. You’re famous, you’re probably guilty. End of list,” Dershowitz said.
Smollett was caught in controversy after new evidence on his alleged “hate crime” in Jan. 26 surfaced, leading Chicago Police to believe he might have staged the attack himself.
The actor was charged with a felony charge for falsifying a police report last Thursday and was arrested. After his release the actor returned to work, though a day later Empire producers announced the series would cut his character, Jamal Lyon, from the series to prevent further disruption to the production of the final two episodes of the season.
“The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us. Jussie has been an important member of our Empire family for the past five years and we care about him deeply. While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out,” the said in a joint statement. “We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of ‘Jamal’ from the final two episodes of the season.”
Smollett continues to maintain his innocence.
Saturday Night Live airs weekly at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC. The series will return on March 9 featuring Idris Elba as host and Khalid as the musical guest.
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