This week Saturday evening live The episode featured a cold open with Sarah Sherman as legal commentator Nancy Grace. In the skit, Grace shames the internet for openly thirsting for Luigi Mangione, who was arrested in the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson after photos of him circulated on social media following his arrest.
Mangione is a 26-year-old who was arrested last week in connection with the December 4 shooting after police responded to a call from a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. After his face was revealed, social media took to photos of him shirtless and shared them on platforms like X and TikTok and became somewhat of an internet darling.
The cold open starts with a joke about Mangione’s name, as Grace says, “It’s game over, Luigi,” with the sad sound from the Super Mario Bros. game. She’s shocked that people are “hot and bothered” by photos of Mangione saying he “looks like Dave Franco with Eugene Levy’s eyebrows” and made sure to provide a rendering.
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“I mean, really, what is going on in this country? Y’all, this man is not a sex icon. This man is – and I can’t say this any more clearly – a murderer,” Sherman’s Grace said in the sketch.
Long time ago SNL cast member Kenan Thompson joined the sketch as an unemployed man named Donnell Davis, who witnessed Mangione being arrested. Grace asked Davis if he could see why Mangione is getting this kind of attention now. “I mean, women like bad boys,” he jokes. “In the past you could impress your old lady with a poem, now you have to write a manifesto,” referring to the written manifesto Mangione had with him when he was arrested.
“You know what my health insurance is? It’s called ‘hoping it goes away,'” Davis jokes when asked about his views on healthcare in the United States.
The skit is also interrupted by a fitness ad in which cast member Marcello Hernandez plays an overzealous salesman.
The Internet’s interest in Mangione doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon, as a look-alike contest was held in New York City after his arrest (one of many) and fan fiction has been written about him.
