SNL spoofs all the biggest pop culture events and this Saturday the show opened with a skit making fun of the CBS commentators during the Super Bowl blackout last week in New Orleans.
The show had its legendary cold open feature impersonations of CBS broadcasters James Brown, Dan Marino, Coach Bill Cowher and Shannon Sharpe as they hopelessly tried to keep up talking during the very long blackout delay in the Super Bowl, which was found out to be for an electricity issues.
Keenan Thompson impersonated host James Brown, who tried to keep viewers locked in on the game.
"As a reminder, tomorrow on CBS its '2 Broke Girls,'" he said. "'2 Broke Girls' ... very funny show."
Tim Robinson playing Cowher said: "We did a 6 hour pre-game, what more do we have to say?' He also added: "As I've said seven times in the past fifteen minutes, I can see it having advantages for both sides."
Later on as Brown tried to keep the discussion going, Shannon Sharpe, played by Jay Pharaoh, took things on his own.
"If I'm out there and there's been no power for 20 minutes, I start to think, 'Who on this team am I going to eat first?'" Shannon Sharpe, portrayed by Jay Pharaoh, said. "The obvious choice is the punter because he'll be the easiest to catch. But then, if you need a punter late in the game, you don't have one because you ate him."
The skit also touched on Dan Marino, who was played by Jason Sudeikis and had a recent scandal arise that featured him and a love child he had during an affair with a CBS staffer.
"Oh c'mon!" Marino protested. "We agreed that was off-limits."
"This is a new world now," Thompson replied. "We have to fill air time--we're going to have to admit to some stuff."
The skit also featured reporter Steve Tasker on the sidelines, impersonated by actor Taran Killam, saying about the field conditions during the blackout: "Some players are stretching, some players are not,' and adding that the players were "waiting for the lights to come back on."
Justin Bieber hosted the episode of SNL and the skit was reminiscent of another spoof that mocked the NFL, with Keenan Thompson playing Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis.
The skit was on Weekend Update and saw host Seth Meyers asking Thompson as Lewis questions about the upcoming game and the playoffs.
Meyers: A lot of us saw you cry last week during the National Anthem.
Thompson: Well, it's just ... I've never heard that song before.
Meyers: You haven't? You've been playing football your whole life.
Thompson: I know, but ... I always wear earplugs during the games to block out the sounds of my own screams.
