Saturday Night Live opened with a comedic take on R. Kelly’s bizarre interview with Gayle King, with Kenan Thompson and Leslie Jones portraying the singer and CBS This Morning co-host. Jones’ King opened the interview by asking the singer why he made the decision to conduct an interview while awaiting trial for sexual abuse charges. “Because people think that I’m some kind of monster. I’m here to remove all the doubt. My lawyer was telling me no, but my ego, my ego, was telling me yes,” Thompson’s Kelly said. “Look, I made a lot of mistakes in my life. Maybe I can’t read or write or math, but I’m still a person. I put on my pants one sleeve at a time like everybody else.” Addressing the allegations in Surviving R. Kelly, the singer said, “You can start a rumor about any celebrity just like that. All you gotta do is push a button on your phone and say ‘R. Kelly did this to me,’ then attach a video of me doing that thing and people will believe you.” “These people made a six-part documentary about me. Six! That’s almost 10,” Thompson’s Kelly complained. “And not one of them said a nice thing about me. They made it seem like I was the devil. I’m not the devil, and even if I was, you can’t think of one nice thing to say about the devil? I can: Nice horns. Gives good advice.” Throughout the interview, Kelly disengages from the conversation and goes on “Trapped in the Closet”-inspired inner monologues. “It’s 10 o’clock in the morning / And I’m talkin’ to Oprah’s friend / If I can just get through this / Everybody’s gonna love me again,” he sang to himself out loud, not realizing until later the interviewer can hear these musical interludes. “I really want to laugh right now, but I don’t know if this is a prank on you or a prank on me,” Jones’ King said in disbelief. Thompson’s Kelly later spoofed the singer’s now-viral outburst from the King interview: “Guys, think for a minute! Use your brain! Why would I do these things? For 30 years! I gave y’all ‘Trapped in the Closet.’ ‘Feelin’ on Yo Booty.’ ‘Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number.’ And so many other clues! And this is how you repay me?” After keeping her cool, Jones’ King told him, “Robert, you’ve been combative, defensive and completely unhinged, but somehow you expect us to believe you are completely innocent?” “That would be ideal, yes,” Kelly said. “And now humbly I await your decision, Miss Jail King.” “My name is Gayle King, with a ‘G,'” she responded. Kelly then asked how much worse this interview made things worse for him on a scale from 1 to 10. King responded, “13.”<doc-sep>During the cold open, Kenan Thompson played the role of the disgraced singer and was interviewed by Leslie Jones who played Gayle King. Perhaps the best line came well into the over seven minute sketch. "I gave you all 'Trapped in the Closet,' 'Feelin' on Yo Booty,' and 'Age Ain't Nothing But a Number' and so many other clues and this is how you treat me?" Mostly, Thompson kept contradicting himself in answers that were somewhat similar to ones R. Kelly gave to King. This exchange was one of them: “That I have a harem of young girls and I started a — what’s the word? It starts with a ‘Q,’” he says. “You mean cult?” Jones playing King asks. “Yeah, that’s it,” he agrees. “Right, and why do you think people are saying that about you?” she replies. “Probably because it looks like I have a harem of young girls and because I started a cult.”<doc-sep>It's been a long time since Saturday Night Live has started a show with a non-political cold open -- probably since, say, sometime in 2016. In lieu of the standard "Donald Trump headline of the week" formula that has defined the show over the past three years, SNL turned to another bit of news that gripped the public's attention last week: Gayle King's interview with a completely unhinged R. Kelly, who's been accused of various sex crimes throughout his career. If you haven't seen the original interview, it's a disturbing, albeit worthwhile, watch. Kelly shrieks, cries, and repeatedly denies every accusation leveled against him, all of which have been brought back into the light thanks to the Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly. The March 9 episode of SNL, hosted by Idris Elba, saw an opportunity it couldn't resist. As with most of the show's best headline-based sketches, Leslie Jones and Kenan Thompson (playing King and Kelly, respectively) didn't have to do much to turn an outrageous interview into comedy. In fact, given the serious nature of the interview and the utter surrealism that characterized Kelly's behavior, SNL almost had to tone it down. Thompson repeated R. Kelly's claims of being the real victim, of McDonald's being his favorite restaurant, of not knowing which camera is on him, all of which appear in some form in the actual interview. The only embellishments added were Thompson's digressions into a Trapped in the Closet-style R&B narrative, and at one point Thompson reminds the audience: "I gave you all the clues!" Maybe one day we'll learn that where there's smoke, there may just be fire. Especially if the smoke's been around for decades.<doc-sep>
“Saturday Night Live’s” recent sketch spoofing Gayle King’s explosive R. Kelly interview received the CBS journalist’s stamp of approval on Monday. The cold open starred Leslie Jones as King and Kenan Thompson as the embattled R&B star. It skewered a few of last week’s flashpoints, including Kelly’s outburst that was immortalized in a viral photo of the sit-down. “wow!” King wrote on Instagram, giving a shout-out to Jones and Thompson. “@nbcSNL recreates THEIR version of @rkelly intvu. The attention detail very on point.” Review: CBS’ ‘Gayle King: The R. Kelly Interview’ didn’t advance the story » The interview, Kelly’s first since he was arrested last month on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, made daily headlines last week because of the singer’s combativeness during the segment. And the long-running variety series nailed the costumes, set and camerawork of the interview, down to a cameo from Kelly’s crisis manager (played by Chris Redd) during his rant about his career. The sketch didn’t go easy on Kelly either. Thompson, as Kelly, insisted that King should address him as “victim,” and Jones, as King, scolded the singer for going off on musical tangents. They both made quips about his intellect and career-spanning hits that provided “clues” into the allegations leveled against him. On Twitter, Jones said it was an honor to play King and gave the journalist props for the interview. On Instagram, Thompson praised his costar and writers in a heartfelt post about the episode. OMG!! I LOVE YOU GIRL!! The way you handle that interview made you a hero to me!! I’m so glad you liked it! So honored to play you!! Thank you!! — Leslie Jones 🦋 (@Lesdoggg) March 11, 2019 Follow me: @NardineSaad