Saturday Night Live is renowned for its topical comedy that makes fun of current events and happenings, including politics and pop culture. The latest episode of the show was no different, as this time NBC's sketch comedy program took on eSports and Mortal Kombat.
The skit is nothing short of hilarious as two players of the Mortal Kombat parody fighting game Death Fight 12 face-off in the quarter-final match of a professional tournament. Unfortunately for Kenan Thompson's character (Pwn Donkey), he accidentally selects the wrong character, meaning that he's forced to play as "Boo Boo Jeffries," who he has never played as or even seen before.
Boo Boo (played by episode host Tiffany Haddish) is unlike her opponent or any other character in the game. Her three attacks include Rihanna and Beyoncé-inspired dance moves and a special attack in which she calls on her sister's husband to help fight for her. She doesn't like crowds and she doesn't believe in solving things with violence, either, making her a real dud of a pick for this gory fighting game. Unsurprisingly, she's defeated easily and Kenan Thompson's character is knocked out of the tournament.
While Death Fight 12 is an obvious reference to Mortal Kombat, the skit contains a lot of little nods of the head to NetherRealm Studios' fighting series. The game's Scorponox is Saturday Night Live's version of Scorpion, who is one of the most iconic MK characters of all-time. Competitor "Sonic Goon" is probably a reference to Domonique "SonicFox" Mclean, who is a well-known competitor in the esports scene.
The skit has even seen some fighting game fans ask for Boo Boo Jeffries to be turned into an actual playable character. After all, Injustice 2 is adding the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, so why can't the Mortal Kombat series include a comedy character too?
No plans have been announced as of yet, but the Saturday Night Live skit has gotten attention from those close to the game. Mortal Kombat game director Ed Boon thought that it was pretty funny, if his Tweet is any indication. While Gail Simone, who created DC's Birds of Prey, responded to this The Best War Games writer saying that, "If MK doesn't add Boo Boo Jeffries, they are missing out."
While it's hard to imagine that Boo Boo Jeffries would be picked by many Mortal Kombat players at a professional level, it's clear that she would have a lot of supporters at least. Now that Ed Boon and NetherRealm know of the character, only time will tell to see if the SNL creation gets added to the series.