'SNL' Spoofs Minnesota TV News - Awful Timing

Last May our country watched as a city erupted over a white officer's knee ended the life of a black suspect. Memorial Day Madness in Minneapolis occurred as a white police officer Derek Chauvin, along with three other officers arrested George Floyd (a black man) on suspicion of using a counterfeit bill. A camera phone captured nearly 8 minutes of agonizing video as Floyd's oxygen was slowly cut off by Chauvin's knee to his neck. Chauvin faces second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges in Floyd's death. Second-degree murder carries the heftiest potential penalty - if convicted on that charge he could face up to 40 years in prison. His trial finally began on March 29th.

The television show 'Saturday Night Live" has always taken advantage of the current events around the world. Their focus of course is to add satire, to poke fun of, to sometimes push the limit, to "walk that fine line". Just this past weekend, 'SNL' did a spoof on a local TV morning news program - which just so happened to be based in Minnesota - fictional "EYE ON MINNESOTA". The skit featured 2 whites and 2 blacks paired up on either side of the desk - from that point they brought up the ongoing Chauvin trial. The theme of course was to point out an obvious agreement between the two white anchors "Sounds like we all agree there's no way that Derek Chauvin walks away from this," and then the reply back to them from their black anchors "Well..Let's just say, we've seen this movie before."

The rest of the 5-6 minute skit ping-ponged its way through round-about skepticism on just how life is - Black and White.

The only thing I found genuinely funny was a comment from Chris Redd playing the station's meteorologist - when asked to give a Minnesota forecast he replied "Sure man we're in Minnesota so rest of April cold, May cold, June cold, July somehow hot as hell back to y'all."

The timing of 'SNL's bit stung - for the next day another police shooting ended in a young man's death - in Minnesota - White and Black.