Michael Keaton drops by as Julian Assange to help SNL roast the latest celebrity jailbirds
Aux Features Clips
Last night’s Emma Stone-hosted Saturday Night Live saw Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump sabbatical continue, with a cold open instead focusing on some other high-profile miscreants played by visiting celebrity royalty. In a sketch parodying MSNBC’s roster of behind bars reality voyeurism, the kickoff sketch saw Kate McKinnon’s Lori Loughlin (mail fraud, money laundering, college admissions rich person chicanery), Pete Davidson’s satanically slimy Michael Avenatti (even more lawyerly shadiness than you suspected), and Melissa Villaseñor’s Tekashi 6ix9ine (“just robbery and gun stuff”) all sharing the same cell for their misdeeds. Each vied for the baddest new kid on the cell block by boasting of their well-documented crimes, with Loughlin coming out on top by not only bribing her way into the local Nation Of Islam gang but boasting to her cowed cellmates that’s she’s been through a TV wringer that would drive anyone beyond the brink. (“I’ve been in 68 Hallmark movies,” McKinnon’s Loughlin sneered to shaken prisoner Chris Redd, “I’ve seen hell!”) She also has a toothbrush shank for anyone who plays that Aunt Becky shit.
But the undisputed king of the crazies turned out to be the sketch’s biggest surprise, as a bearded, nigh-unrecognizable Michael Keaton emerged as newly incarcerated Wikileaks founder and “actual James Bond supervillain” Julian Assange. Cornering tough-talking con Kyle Mooney, Keaton’s crazy-eyed Assange threatened Mooney with the worst fate of all—his internet search history, dick pics, and that folder of Shark Tank pitches. “You wanna know how crazy I am?,” asked Keaton’s Assange gleefully, “I’m wanted in the U.S. and Sweden, I’m from Australia, I live in London, in Ecuador—you try figuring that one out.” And if Keaton’s Assange didn’t have the mellifluously accented evil purr of Bill Hader’s, he at least brought a Batman quote to the party. After all, Assange will, as the cleaning staff of the Ecuadorian embassy can attest, get nuts.
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That one scene from Batman always felt a little odd to me when I was little, like he was trying to out crazy the Joker.
But apparently, it’s one of Keaton’s favorite lines since he keeps coming back to it. I’m so happy he does 🙂
I figured that he studied the Joker’s psyche enough to know that he’d go straight for the chest if he was pushed enough.
So I guess Kate McKinnon has never seen an episode of Full House?
Oh, to be so lucky.
That was Becky, not Lori. I guess Lori was generic enough for Kate to just do what she wanted. At least we have Claire Foy’s lovely work in that cut for time sketch to show everyone how Aunt Becky should be played.
It was Friday night, but the mood just wasn’t right.
The audience was mostly made up of tween fans who were there for BTS. So Micheal Keaton’s Batman line, “YOU WANNA GET NUTS!? LET’S GET NUTS!” Went completely over the audience’s head. There was little laughter. I of course laughed since I’m over 40. I felt bad for Keaton. You can tell he wanted a reaction and was left a little underwhelmed.
I’m 50 and that line doesn’t ring a bell. :p
I’m also 50 and that line didn’t resonate with me either.
I saw Batman in the theater a couple times and I don’t remember that line. It has been 30 years though.I just rewatched it and he sounds like Beetlejuice when he says it.I do remember the Joker’s reply, “did you ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?”
Never rub another man’s rhubarb!
“Never rub another man’s rhubarb” — how did that not make it into the popular consciousness?
Bruce Wayne borrowed a line from a Prince song.Prince responded by making an Insatiable sex tape with Vicki Vale.
I vividly remember the phenomenon of Batman that Summer of ‘89. Prince kicked-off the month of June that year with “Batdance” which teased snippets of movie dialog though we had yet to understand just how that fit the film’s plot. Good times. I went to see Michael Keaton as Batman, that being the film’s draw for me, several times with family and friends throughout that long, hot summer. Again, good times. Then it became all about waiting for the VHS release that November. I’m going on 63 years old soon and Batman (1989) seems like only last month at times. I took my 13 year-old daughter with me to our local theater for the film’s first screening that Friday in June ‘89 and we were the first to arrive.
I actually threw my hands in the air, partly because it was an amazing callback and partly because I couldn’t believe how flat the audience was.
For those under 30
His whole delivery was a little fast and muddled. He stepped on a few of the jokes, so I can see how people under-reacted to “let’s get nuts”.
Did they really need to make a rapist that cutesy?
I like Melissa’s work but she kind of plays many of her impressions as very smiley…
Looks like rape allegations can be forgotten about if you’re also ‘crusading journalist exposing imperialism’.
he’s a pretty shitty “crusading journalist” for how he helped Trump and Russia.
Helped Trump? Assange didn’t nominate Hillary Clinton.
Did you really need to assume that just because he caught the usual smear charge RIGHT as he was becoming a massive problem for the powers that be, that he MUST be guilty of it, and therefore should be called a “rapist” based on your own personal thoughts and opinions?There IS this whole “innocent until proven guilty” thing and it doesn’t just apply to the court of law, however “the usual” smear charge is always done because it immediately convicts ANYone accused of such a crime in the court of public opinion.
Not to imply that just because he’s a sophisticated leaker, that there is no way he could’ve done this crime….anyone could be a rapist I suppose. But the timing and nature of the smear campaign were just too obvious in this case. Anyone with a brain can see that top levels of multiple national governments were looking for ANY way to get at Assange and this is was tacky oldest trick in the book – it’s shameful that they went this route at all when they could eventually drum up SOME charge – for instance, the extradition request isn’t even for what you would think it would be for, they are just using ANY charge that they think they can get him with.Educate yourself…don’t assume things…and don’t show the world that you are a knee-jerk imbecile by just taking at face value whatever these governments want to brainwash you with. Jeez!!!!!! Apparently MORE wikileaks entities are needed out there because you are still just drinking the koolaide when you have even SEEN as a result of those leaks just how slimy these governments can be. You astonish me.
Yikes dude.
Yikes indeed. Everyone hears that someone is accused of rape and they automatically think it’s true without hearing ANY evidence and even when it was part of a case that has BEEN DROPPED since. How can he be convicted in your mind when when he wasn’t convicted in court, and the case isn’t even still active? YIKES!The biggest problem with people these days is that they don’t use their minds or logic at all to form their opinions and certainly don’t use thought or reason to support them.One liners like “Yikes dude” are infinitely easier to put out there than an educated stance that takes thought and reason to back up. I mean, how easy is it to put two words out there that don’t say anything at all, and therefore can’t be subsequently be debated, thought over, or potentially proved wrong. Very safe strategy you have there.
Grow some balls (if you’re a dude), and be brave enough to actually say something.
Why educate yourself when you can be earn all kinds of SJW outrage credit with a fraction of the effort?
There’s a snippet in one of the Wikileaks founders’ book that recounts Assange mentioning he had kids all over the world.Pair that with the very specific charge from Sweden that he like to slip his condom off in the midddle of coitus and…kinda doubt it’s a frame up tbh.
The dude that made that statement was effectively trying to profit from his involvement with Assange/Wikileaks in what amounts to a publicity stunt publication. There is little doubt for the motive to sensationalize or misconstrue the real actual facts in such a scenario = unreliable at best, HIGHLY suspect – more than likely.
Also, Assange has only ONE confirmed child….everything else is literally conjecture. I know some hispanics with like eight kids…and no one would pair that with a rape charge and erroneously result in a suspected guilty result…What you are doing is taking a very serious legal accusation that is KNOWN to be a smear tactic, and you are pairing it with UN-confirmed HEARSAY from someone looking to make a buck because they worked with the dude, and you are adding the two together to result in “kinda doubt it’s a frame up tbh”.Just look at what you are doing. None of the unconfirmed hearsay you are talking about would mean anything on its own. But when YOU combine it with the REAL rape accusation, you suddenly think AHA! He must’ve done it. Whoa dude….Surely you must be able to see the folly in this…..
LOL
There IS this whole “innocent until proven guilty” thing and it doesn’t just apply to the court of law COUNTERPOINT: Nah, it does.
Touché.
Good see even SNL won’t do actual satirical commentary of a publisher who is being arrested for publishing……Good job y’all!
You mean a hacker who was a fugitive from two rape charges?
This was a terrible episode, aside from McKinnon’s Loughlin impression and Stone’s actress in a gay porn. Otherwise it was unfunny. When you have to name check every person you are portraying so the audience can get the jokes, you’re in trouble. And 2 different bits about places to go in the same Weekend Update? Do the writers really have nothing left?
SNL, like late night talk shows, works best when everybody’s more or less participating in the same culture. The internet’s destroyed that, so I’m not surprised they have to get obvious these days.
I think SNL also, for a long time now, has just assumed viewers aren’t going to get something. That’s why for years when they would have “weird” sketches, they would make sure to have “regular” people in the fake audience commenting on how weird and stupid it is (I almost always find this unfunny and I still do whenever it pops up – they had one of those last week with the cruise ship sketch). In the case of impressions I do think a lot of people aren’t going to get them, even with really good impressionists. I’d say it’s new, and a sign of how SNL now sucks, and so on, but they’ve done it for years – a Klymaxx sketch from 2003 has been going around, and almost immediately Seth Meyers, doing the world’s most obvious Joey Lawrence impression…has to stop and tell viewers he’s Joey Lawrence, star of Blossom and Gimme a Break.
WU pieces are often pretty one-note and depend on how much you enjoy the performer in the role. I think only the one where Aidy seemed to be doing a Stefon homage was the only one that was really about places to go.
That was one of the lamest Updates I’ve ever seen.
That line may have been from Batman, but Keaton’s “LET’S GET NUTS!” felt more like he was channeling Beetlejuice.
THE WORST SHOW ON TELEVISION…..
Y’know, maybe Chevy Chase had a point.
Cocaine’s awesome?
If Eartha Kitt offers us to join the mile high club, we say yes?
It seems weird that Aunt Becky seems haunted from boning Santa’s sons in all her Hallmark Christmas movies, but then doesn’t react when Santa shows up in her cell.
Was a celebrity cameo news or are you guys just contractually obligated to write a story about one of the SNL skits every week?
Did you get turned around? This is av club.
To make the episode even more unsatisfying, they filled WU with the Boise girl and the Instagram couple, some of the least entertaining characters they have on roster.Bring back Leslie Jones (and Pete Davidson), I say!
Also, more news jokes, since that’s kind of the point.
Oh, yes, that too 🙂