Watch: 'Saturday Night Live' lampoons university protests, high tuition
May 5 (UPI) -- Saturday Night Live this weekend mined for laughs the recent pro-Palestine protests roiling some of the most prestigious and pricey universities in the United States.
The 5-minute sketch featured Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day and Heidi Gardner as parents offering their perspectives about the disruptions the protests are causing, the cancellation of some graduations and the sky-high tuition bills they are paying for their kids to go to college.
Gardner's character said her relationship with her Hunter College student daughter was strained because, even though she supports freedom of speech, she doesn't get what college-campus protesters think they are accomplishing.
"One of my worst fears is my daughter being thrown behind bars. This is a crucial time in her life," she said. "I'd hate for her to have an arrest follow her forever."
Day's character, the father of a New School student, agreed.
"I want to let my son make his own choices, but, it's a little scary. To be honest, these protests are getting more aggressive," he said.
Thompson, whose character has a daughter at Columbia University, had other thoughts.
He said he was generally proud of young people who stand up for what they believe in, but his daughter "better have her butt in class."
"Let me find out that she's in one of those damn tents instead of the dorm room I pay for," he said, adding, "She ain't talking about 'free this, free that' because you know what ain't free? Columbia!"
He noted how he works numerous jobs -- including Uber driving, bounty hunting and selling Gucci wallets out of his car trunk -- to cover the $68,000 a year tuition, so that his daughter could say she got a degree in African American Studies.
"It's like: 'Little girl, you've been Black your whole life. You know it is,"' he said, adding she is gifted and will change the world. "She will. She's worth every penny."
