Saturday Night Live Opens With Ruth Bader Ginsburg Giving Advice to Ketanji Brown Jackson: ‘If You’re Anything Like Me, White Ladies Are Going to Start Wearing Buttons of Your Face’
Saturday Night Live‘s cold open focused on newly confirmed Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson as she imagined speaking with racial justice trailblazers such as Harriet Tubman, Jackie Robinson, and the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
The show opened with a couple of jokes at the expense of President Joe Biden, portrayed by James Austin Johnson.
“Your speech was terrific, Ketanji. I’m sorry, I mean, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson,” Biden said.
“Bet you can’t say that three times fast,” said Jackson, played by Ego Nwodim.
“I’m shocked I was able to say it one time slow,” he replied, later adding that he made a campaign promise to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court.
“So that’s one campaign promise down, and only 74 to go,” he said.
As Biden headed to an unspecified reception, Jackson stood in the Oval Office and thought about what historical figures she’d want to talk to — first up was Kate McKinnon as the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“Here’s my advice: always label your lunches, a lot of those other justices, they’ve got sticky fingers,” she said. “Second, if you’re anything like me, White ladies are going to start wearing buttons of your face like an ‘I voted’ sticker. It’s freaky but they mean well.”
Kenan Thompson then showed up as the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and asked questions about inflation, Russia and Biden still being a politician and realized not much had changed.
“Democracy can be slow and messy, it stumbles but over time, it moves forward,” he said. “I mean I was the first Black Supreme Court justice, so you must be what, the tenth, the twentieth?”
“Nope, just the third,” Jackson said.
Punkie Johnson then showed up as Harriet Tubman, followed by Chris Redd as Jackie Robinson — who was very disappointed to learn that multimillion dollar contracts for major league players are normal now.
Watch above, via SNL
