SNL Remembers ‘The Day Beyonce Turned Black’
Last week, Beyoncé released a surprise new music video for her new song “Formation” and the world temporarily hit pause on itself so everyone could watch it, as is often the case when she does just about anything. However, this song and its video instantly courted controversy, as far too many white commenters and writers and what-have-you found themselves churning out think pieces and hot takes about how the beloved pop singer used this opportunity to embrace her heritage. In other words, a bunch of white people suddenly found themselves deeply uncomfortable that Beyoncé was black and SNL has parodied this with a fake movie trailer.
Structured like a horror movie trailer, The Day Beyoncé Turned Black chronicles how the whole white person world just crumbled into anarchy and confusion when “Formation” arrived. The entire SNL ensemble is involved — with the white cast playing panicked and terrified and deeply traumatized while Sasheer Zamata, Leslie Jones, Jay Pharoah, Kenan Thompson and Michael Che get to watch as, once again, white people try to make everything about them. For anyone who was unfortunate enough to be on the internet in the days after this video arrived, this sketch is truly on point.
This is a sharp takedown of a very specific and quietly insulting subset of culture, where certain black artists are “adopted” by white culture, only for everyone to lose their minds when they’re confronted with race in any way. Like the video itself, this sketch is bound to inspire a few lousy think pieces.