Kenan Thompson as Elie Mystal via YouTube
Former Above the Law editor Elie Mystal unlocked a new achievement over the weekend when he became a character on Saturday Night Live.
Keenan Thompson took on the role in a revival of the Jimmy Fallon-era “Barry Gibb Talk Show” sketch, a riff on SNL’s much-more-classic McLaughlin Group sketch, but with the political satire replaced with visual gags about a musician who ceased to be famous almost 25 years before SNL’s core audience was born. Is it really that hard to find an excuse to put Justin Timberlake in a sketch?
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I digress. The Gibb brothers want to discuss the 2024 election and invited “Elie Mystal” to the show. While the character is under-utilized in this sketch, hopefully Thompson has enough fun with it to warrant more appearances throughout election season.
“You look like if Don King ate another Don King.”
Not sure such a nuanced legal joke landed with the mainstream late-night show. Sophisticated Above the Law readers will understand that the gag refers to former boxing promoter Don King’s other claim to fame, as the subject of the landmark Supreme Court ruling of Mapp v. Ohio. It was, after all, a bombing of King’s home that led police to conduct the warrantless search Dolly Mapp’s domicile. Thus, King is responsible — as a passive actor — for a cornerstone of constitutional law just as Elie — also as an observer to history — represents a sort of “redoubling the thing in relation to itself” (borrowing from the Lacanians, of course), a means of grasping the ephemeral objet petit a of American justice.
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Oh. I’m being told it was just a fat joke.
*Cough*
In the words of another classic SNL character… nevermind.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.