'Saturday Night Live' targets Columbia University protests from perspective of parents in cold open
'My kids know better,' Kenan Thompson, who played the father of a Columbia student, said
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Saturday Night Live" took aim at the student anti-Israel protests on Saturday, specifically from the perspective of parents who have kids attending Columbia University during the cold open.
Kenan Thompson played the father of a Columbia student and began by praising young people standing up for what they believe in during a mock interview. However, when asked about his daughter specifically, Thompson said she "better have her butt in class."
"Let me find out she in one of those damn tents instead of the dorm room that I pay for," he said, before the interviewer questioned his initial statement about supporting the students.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I am in support of y'alls' kids protesting — not my kids. My kids know better," Thompson said. Asked what he thought of the group of protesters that took over Hamilton Hall, an academic building on Columbia's campus, he said, "That's good for y'alls' kids, but they ain't mine."
Kenan Thompson plays a father of a Columbia University student during "Saturday Night Live" on May 4, 2024. (Screenshot/SaturdayNightLive)
Thompson said Columbia had the "nerve" to charge $68,000 per year in tuition.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I’m out here busting my hump to pay all that tuition," Thompson said. "I do it all: Uber all day. Uber Eats all night. Cut grass on the weekends, sell Gucci wallets out of my truck... I bounty-hunt whenever possible. All of that just so she can say she got a degree in African-American studies. It’s like, little girl, you’ve been Black your whole life. You know what it is."
Thompson revealed exactly what he planned to do when his daughter graduated, and insisted that the university would hold a graduation, even if he had to do it himself. Several universities have weighed canceling their graduation ceremonies as anti-Israel protests have taken over campuses.
"You can take that to the bank. This girl started her college during COVID," he said. "Had me out here paying $68,000 for tuition, and she is at my house taking classes on Zoom, learning about the applied history of the BET Awards. Man, if she don’t walk — Columbia is going to be on the news for something else!"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Anti-Israel protesters hang signs from Columbia University in New York City on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Columbia announced that its campus would remain closed "until circumstances allow otherwise" after students occupied Hamilton Hall. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)
RIOT POLICE AT UCLA CAMPUS CLOSE IN AFTER NIGHT OF VIOLENT ANTI-ISRAEL CLASHES
Police cleared Columbia's Hamilton Hall on Tuesday after protesters took it over on Monday.
The encampment on campus was also cleared of agitators — only their tents remained when the raid was over.
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Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war have descended on college campuses over the past few weeks in an effort to get their universities to divest from companies linked to Israel.
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator holds a flag on the rooftop of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Pro-Palestinian student demonstrators barricaded themselves in the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia on Tuesday after the school began suspending students who defied an order to clear their encampment. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital's Elizabeth Pritchett contributed to this report.