Chris Rock hosts 'SNL,' jokes about Luigi Mangione’s arrest as Adam Sandler makes surprise return

Hosted by Chris Rock, the episode featured a lot of humor centered around the case. Rock opened his monologue by addressing Mangione’s arrest, but he didn’t hold back in making jokes about it.

"Everybody’s fixated on how good-looking this guy looks," Rock said. "If he looked like Jonah Hill, no one would care. They’d have given him the chair already. He’d be dead." This comment was part of Rock’s playful style, but it still raised eyebrows among some viewers.

While Rock cracked jokes, he also expressed sympathy for Brian Thompson’s family. Thompson was a well-known CEO with a wife and children. "Mangione actually killed a man," Rock said. "A man with a family, a man with kids. I have condolences for the health care CEO. I mean, this is a real person. But, you know, sometimes drug dealers get shot. I mean, you’ve seen The Wire, right?"

Even if it is the humor, many people on social media didn’t find the jokes funny. Some called them tasteless, especially since Thompson had passed away in such a tragic way. 

Thompson, 50, was remembered by Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s parent company, who wrote a tribute to him in The New York Times. Witty described Thompson as a "brilliant, kind man who was working to make healthcare better for everyone."

The SNL episode didn’t just feature Chris Rock’s monologue. The show opened with a funny sketch starring Sarah Sherman as Nancy Grace. In the sketch, Grace covered Mangione’s arrest and read online comments about him. 

"Of course, everyone online celebrated the hard work of law enforcement in apprehending this dangerous criminal," Sherman said sarcastically. "Just kidding, y’all psychos made him a sex symbol!"

In the sketch, Grace also interviewed a man played by Kenan Thompson, who shared his thoughts on why people find bad boys attractive. "Women love bad boys," he said. "Back in the day, you could impress your old lady with a little poem. Now you’ve got to write a manifesto."

The show didn’t stop there. Another sketch joked about how one of the SNL cast members, Emil Wakim, looked like Mangione. Wakim, who is new to the show, played a character who resembled Mangione and joked, "I haven’t paid for a meal in Brooklyn in days."

The humor about Mangione didn’t end with the sketches. On "Weekend Update," Colin Jost made fun of the fact that the accused killer was angry at corporate America but still visited places like Starbucks and McDonald's. This sparked some laughter but also mixed feelings among the audience.

The episode wasn’t all about Luigi Mangione, though. It was also a night for special surprises. Adam Sandler, a former SNL cast member, made a surprise cameo. 

In a sketch, Rock played a surgeon who made mistakes during an operation, and Sandler appeared as the patient. Sandler, known for his time on SNL in the 1990s, starred in the sketch and joked about the nurse’s mistakes, despite being covered in blood.

Sandler’s appearance was a big moment for the show. He had previously returned in 2019 to host and even sang a song about being fired from SNL years earlier. Sandler joined other SNL alumni like Dana Carvey and David Spade, who made their own returns recently.

The SNL episode ended with the announcement that the show would be back next week for its final episode before Christmas. Martin Short will host the episode, with musical guest Hozier.

Overall, this week’s Saturday Night Live offered a mix of humor and controversy, with jokes about a sensitive topic and plenty of surprises for fans. Whether you found the jokes funny or not, it’s clear that SNL knows how to keep things interesting.