“SNL”’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg Rap Parody Could Be Way Better
“Saturday Night Live” hit peak corny this weekend. In a pre-taped sketch called “RBG Rap,” the show’s resident young person, Pete Davidson, and his usual rap partner, Chris R, flip the lyrics to breakout Harlem rapper Sheck Wes’ “Live Sheck Wes” to be about recently hospitalized Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: “Live Ginsburg/And I ride for Ginsburg.” The main punchline is really just a riff on the existing joke that Ginsburg is a “gangster,” which has been a thing since someone stuck the word “notorious” in front of her initials and started selling T-shirts on Etsy.
“SNL” mostly seems like it’s trying to take advantage of Kate McKinnon’s recurring RBG impression on “Weekend Update.” Davidson, meanwhile, looks like your most swagless homie in his Sheck Wes mode, trying to flex in a knock-off Canada Goose (like Wes wears in his video). Altogether, the skit becomes a sludgy mess of hard-to-swallow pop culture soup.
This isn’t the first time “SNL” has attempted this particular comedic recipe. Back in January, Davidson donned a rainbow dread wig and Sharpied some tattoos on his face for a sketch called “Tucci Gang,” a play on Lil Pump’s “Gucci Gang” that paid homage to character actor Stanley Tucci. That sketch worked mildly better because well, for one, at least Tucci rhymes with Gucci, and because Lil Pump is a walking cartoon character. Also crucial was the fact that “SNL” mentioned and credited Pump when they made fun of him, which, considering the show’s older audience, seems necessary. Because the Sheck tie-in wasn’t noted, it feels more like a ripoff than a parody—and that’s just to the people who even get the reference. You can’t just take any song from an up-and-coming rapper, make it about a beloved cultural figure, and expect to get laughs every time.
The results aren’t much better when “SNL” enlists current rap stars for skits, though. Last week, the show aired a sketch called “Permission,” in which the fake rappers Booty Kings (Chris Redd and Kenan Thompson) and Uncle Butt (Pete Davidson) are joined by the real-life Lil Wayne and Future for a track about consent. After the Booty Kings flashed their Time’s Up pins, Redd rapped: “I’m on a mission for that ass/But first, I need permission.” If the whole joke was just Rappers Not Sexually Harassing Women, I’m incredibly depressed.
Sketches like “RGB Rap” and “Permission” are enough to make you nostalgic for the halcyon days of Andy Samberg’s rap career. His “Shy Ronnie” sketches with Rihanna were some of the best of his “SNL” tenure; also, they weirdly predicted the coming of mumble rappers. And with the Lonely Island, Samberg and co. didn’t attempt weak impersonations of musical stars—they simply included them in their catchy feats of middle-school humor, leaving us with classics like the Justin Timberlake-aided “Dick in a Box,” “I’m on a Boat” featuring T-Pain, “I Just Had Sex” with Akon. The Lonely Island were idiotic, but they carved out their own lane by leaning into their stupidity with creativity. At the very least, they weren’t trying to prove they were hip by parodying rising rappers. “SNL” hasn’t been great for a while. But who knew “Jizz in My Pants” would seem like such a masterpiece in comparison to their latest musical sketches.
