For the first time in what feels like forever, SNL didn’t cold-open with a political bit. Yes, R. Kelly managed to wrest attention away from even Donald J. Trump this week, and he got busted with ties to massage parlors. The controversy around R&B singer, accused of several cases of sexual misconduct, came to a head during the week, cresting when he went did an instant classic interview with CBS News’ Gayle King.
The SNL version had Keenan Thompson as R. Kelly, being interviewed, for the third time, by Leslie Jones’ King. She kept calling him “Robert,” or the “individual who number ones”; he kept insisting that she call him “Victim.”
“People are saying I’m a monster. I’m here to remove all doubt,” Thompson’s Kelly said.
Kelly addressed the documentary series, which spent six episodes detailing his alleged abuses. He also talked about how people keep taking advantage of his immense wealth. But when King asked him about the $160,000 in child support that was only paid today by someone who isn’t Kelly, he did what he did throughout the sketch: lapsing into half-hearted song.
Like a lot of topical SNL sketches of late, there were lines that were basically what have already been said IRL, but with slight modifications. “How stupid would it be for me, R. Kelly, with all the crazy legal things I did on tape, and I got away with, scot-free, to do it again?” he inquired. Indeed.
The sketch ended with him doing something that almost never happens on SNL: Thompson (intentionally) screwed up the “Live from New York” bit, delivering it to a plant.
