The level of LSU women’s basketball star Angel Reese’s fame has risen all the way to “Saturday Night Live”.
Less than a week after Reese and the Tigers clinched the NCAA Championship title with a 102-85 victory over Iowa last Sunday, the Bayou Barbie (or at least a likeness of her) popped up next to anchor Michael Che on SNL’s Weekend Update desk .
Pointing to her ring finger and wearing an LSU jersey, SNL cast member Punkie Johnson, who is from New Orleans, played the role of Reese.
“Yes, I’ve made people very angry,” Johnson said after Che said she’d had a rough week. “First they were mad because I was taunting… Then they were mad because I didn’t want to go to the White House,” Johnson added.
The comedian referenced Reese’s tendency to elicit strong reactions, most recently with her gestures to Iowa star and player of the year Caitlin Clark during the national championship game and then mentioning the First Lady’s suggestion that the Hawkeyes celebrate in the White House “a joke.”
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The comedy segment then ventured into NIL territory with Johnson throwing slogans for items like garden gnomes and eyelashes before celebrating the success of the tournament. Reese has more NIL deals than any basketball player, male or female. And Sunday’s NCAA Championship game attracted 9.9 million TV viewers, becoming the most-watched women’s basketball game ever.
Indeed, there was a lot of positive chatter after LSU’s first national title in the program’s history, in Kim Mulkey’s second year as Tigers coach. There was also an avalanche of critical commentary regarding Reese.
By being her authentic and unapologetic self, in her own words, Reese has come to stand for cultural, social, and even economic issues that people in this country still struggle with. She’s a lightning rod and her level of national relevance has risen to become one of the longest-running shows in American television history.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: ‘SNL’ Parodies LSU Women’s Basketball’s Angel Reese on Weekend Update
