Grammy-winning artist, shining beam of light in this cruel world and all-around good guy Chance the Rapper got a shot at hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend, and stole the show in a sketch about the quirks of hockey coverage – and its inaccessibility to fans of other sports.
The premise of the sketch – a Knicks court-side reporter filling in on MSG Network at a Rangers game – was an instant hit, reaching the top of /r/hockey and making the rounds on #HockeyTwitter. Somewhat predictable, considering that any time hockey comes up in pop culture, hockey fans instantly latch onto it. This one hits all the right notes, particularly a joke about Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei.
“That is an S, a K and a J all next to each other, so that’s a no,” is going to get referenced quite a bit any time a Skjei highlight pops up. Smart money is on every NHL team Twitter account making a “Let’s do that hockey!” joke some time within the next week.
There are a lot of great subtle details that the SNL writers nailed, too, from that night’s actual scores (and accurate records!) populating the ticker at the bottom to a player giving a milquetoast, boilerplate quote in an interview.
Chance showed his impeccable comedic timing – but he may deserve props for more than that – as he told Jimmy Fallon last week that he wrote five sketches for the show, with three of them making the final cut. One of Chance’s closest friends and contemporaries, Donald Glover, guest-wrote a sketch for Chance as well – not surprising considering that he was also a writer for two seasons of 30 Rock.
No word yet on who wrote the hockey sketch, but if it was Glover’s work, those are some A-plus hockey jokes coming from the future Lando Calrissian.
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