After a week of discussion about the NCAA women’s basketball title game, the subject made it to Saturday Night Live. Much of the conversation there has been about LSU star Angel Reese, who had 15 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in the Tigers’ 102-85 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes, but got even more attention for her “You can’t see me” gesture to Iowa’s Caitlin Clark (who had done the same gesture in earlier rounds) at the end of the game.
Reese then generated further discussion still with her complaints about First Lady Dr. Jill Biden’s initial comments about inviting the Hawkeyes to the White House as well as the Tigers. She even said at one point that she and her teammates would rather visit former president Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama. But after Biden recanted on inviting Iowa as well, Reese said she would go to the White House with the LSU team. So that all led to a lot of potential material for SNL, and cast member Punkie Johnson referenced a lot of it during a “Weekend Update” appearance as Reese, with Michael Che:
LSU women’s basketball star Angel Reese has a message for the White House and her haters pic.twitter.com/kKTTCmtt4l
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 9, 2023
That starts with Che introducing Johnson as Reese, and with her doing Reese’s “You can’t see me” and point gesture. She then goes “The Bayou Barbie is in the building! Louisiana, stand up!” Che says “Well, Angel, you had quite a week,” and Johnson goes “Yeah, I got people big mad! First they was mad because I was taunting, but all I did was this [as she repeats the gesture]. You would have thought I pulled my nipple out and flicked it on national TV! Then they were mad because I didn’t want to go to the White House, but Che, they invited Iowa too!”
Che then goes “But they lost,” and Johnson responds “Exactly! In the history of sports, when you lose, you take your ass home. But then white girls lose, and suddenly it’s All Teams Matter.” She then goes on to talk about endorsements, with some potential taglines: “Degree deodorant: Y’all stank!”, “Garden Gnomes: Man, get your little ass out of my face!”, and “Big-ass eyelashes: empowering women ballers and Snuffleupagus since 1972.”
Johnson then makes a good point on the wild way the Reese story has blown up. “Last week, women’s sports was boring. Now, all y’all are talking about is women’s sports, all this week. Why? Because women is balling right now! Man, I dropped 15 on Iowa, I went hard in the paint. I grabbed about 10 boards, without even messing up my eyelashes. The only thing I regret is not getting more buckets. I could have picked that ball up and bounced it off that girl’s head like I was on the AND1 Tour, but you know, I was already in foul trouble, so your girl had to chill. And now, I’m just sitting back getting that Baby Gap money.” Che asks “Why are you endorsed by Baby Gap?”, and Johnson responds “Because all these b****** is my sons.”
That’s a pretty funny bit, and it does illustrate the wild way discussion of LSU in general and Reese in particular has taken over this week. And Johnson, who is from New Orleans and went to Nicholls State, was a great choice to play Reese here. This also added to what’s been quite the moment for women’s college basketball.
[SNL on Twitter]
