NBC/Will Heath(NEW YORK) — Saturday Night Live‘s cold open over the weekend presented its take on R. Kelly’s often frantic interview with CBS’ Gayle King last week.
“Thank you for having me and please, just call me ‘victim'” said Kelly, played by SNL‘s Kenan Thompson, near the start of the sketch, with Leslie Jones playing King.
Thompson eventually slid into a “Trapped in the Closet”-type musical monologue, singing: “It’s 10 o’clock in the morning and I’m talking to Oprah’s friend. If I can just get through this everyone’s gonna love me again.”
Much like the real interview, Kelly didn’t come off well at all in the SNL send-up. Thompson’s Kelly spent much of the interview either unable to spell, read or even realize the interview had begun.
“This is all good stuff, but maybe we should save it for the interview,” he told King, before being informed he was on camera the whole time, with Jones pointing to a camera and cameraman over Kelly’s shoulder.
“Y’all just keep your camera out in the open like that?” a surprised Thompson-as-Kelly said, a clear allusion to Kelly’s alleged sex tapes. “Y’all some freaks!”
After debating whether he should become a lawyer, or maybe even president, and getting some coaching from his new “crisis manager,” Thompson’s Kelly wondered aloud about King’s name, saying he thought it was “Jail King,” not “Gayle King.”
“So you’re not the jail king? Then what am I doing here?” he declared.
He then turned to a plant, thinking it was a hidden camera, and began delivering the show’s trademark, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” open, before Jones’ King corrected him and they both delivered the line to the actual camera.
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