“Saturday Night Live” got positively teary-eyed celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court’s first Black female justice in this week’s cold open.
“This is a big damn deal,” President Joe Biden (James Austin Johnson) tells Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (played by Ego Nwodim), triggering whoops from the audience.
“I was happy to do my part,” Nwodim smiles. “Work twice as hard as a white man my entire life — and then spend a week listening to Ted Cruz call me a pedophile.”
As Biden wanders off to a reception, Nwodim’s Jackson conjures up a crew of inspirational Americans: the late Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Thurgood Marshall (Kenan Thompson), Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman (Punkie Johnson), and Jackie Robinson (Chris Redd), who is crushed to learn baseball players can make millions today.
Ginsburg, played by Kate McKinnon, gives Jackson a huge hug.
Her advice? “Aways label your lunches” to protect them from sticky-fingered justices.
When Jackson complains about the condescending Cruz reading aloud from a child’s book about racism during her confirmation hearings, Ginsburg guesses the title: “Goodnight Cancun.”
And “that’s a Gins-burn,” McKinnon smirks.
Check out the cold open in the video up top.
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