#SNL4Kidz: Mr. Monopoly

This is the beginning of a new feature of this blog, #SNL4Kidz: sketches that are safe (or nearly safe) to show young people and hopefully foster their love for comedy beyond Disney sitcoms.  I'll be going back and adding the hashtag to older posts as I find them.

This first one is Mr. Monopoly, from season 11 (the first year Lorne Michaels was back).  This sketch is infamous because, at dress, Damon Wayans was in a suit, and the sketch got so-so laughs.  Lorne Michaels told him to change into a police uniform so people would know who he's supposed to be, adding that the suit made him "look like a pimp."  This sent Wayans into a rage, and he decided to "derail" the sketch (in his and Michaels' minds) by playing the character with a major lisp on-air.  This wasn't agreed to by anyone, and Michaels went ballistic and fired him, saying Wayans had violated the shows' principles.  I can't disagree, but Wayans' subsequent success (and the fact that he was even invited back at the end of the season) tell me this wasn't that big a deal.  The whole story is in Tom Shales' SNL book.  The sketch itself does not seem to get derailed by the lisp, and will be quite funny to kids who have played Monopoly.