On "SNL," Viral Pranks Lead to Apologies Gone Wrong

Making comedy about pranks, which are themselves a kind of comedy, isn’t always easy. Saturday Night Live has offered a few takes on it over the years, from imagining Maya Angelou as the host of a prank show to riffing on Punkd during its heyday. This week’s episode saw the show approach pranks from a different angle, in a sketch where Kyle Mooney and host Daniel Kaluuya played the hosts of “Prank Posse.”

When Mooney finds what appears to be mouse bones in his breakfast cereal, it becomes clear that this sketch is at least somewhat of a reaction to the recent Cinnamon Toast Crunch/shrimp tails incident. Then things escalate: Mooney apologizes multiple times, several televisions are thrown and a question looms over the proceedings: were those really mouse bones?

Mooney and Kaluuya both do a fine job in the sketch; it doesn’t hurt that Mooney appears to be channeling an amoral version of Jason Mendoza at times. And besides, where else can you see multiple televisions take flight? The concept is solid, the structure is good and the performances are funny; it’s hard to argue with that.