One of the best sketches during Seth Meyers’ stint hosting “SNL” on Saturday came in the middle of the show when he played a newly incarcerated inmate who gets stuck as Bill Cosby’s cellmate. And, well, the situation didn’t really work out for him.
Meyers is led into his cell by a prison guard played by “SNL” cast member Chris Redd, and Cosby is initially seen sitting on a bunk in a shadow, obscuring his identity as he gave Meyers some advice right out of the gate.
“Don’t listen to them. They’ve been here so long they don’t know what it means to be human,” said, Cosby, who was played by Kenan Thompson.
“Thanks,” Meyers replied. “So what are you in here for?”
“You don’t ask a man that in here. You put your head down, keep to your business,” Thompson’s Cosby uttered, pretending to be a veteran of the prison life.
“Wow, old-timer, you really know the ropes. I’ve never done time before. This frigging sucks,” Meyers said, triggering Cosby’s shtick.
Cosby, stepping into the light: “Hey, you don’t come in here with your filth and your foul, foul filth! You need to get a job!”
Prison Guard: “Hey, Cosby, keep it down. This is a 10th warning and you’ve only been here four days. Lights on!
Meyers: “Wow, Bill Cosby. I mean, on behalf on every one of your fans, it’s so disappointing to be meeting you now.”
Cosby: “What? I am in my prime. I’m in jail and loving it. No kids with the darnedest things. Limited interactions with Camille. And when I was fighting incarceration, I had no idea that one of the staple foods of the prison system is Jell-O.”
After a whole bit about Cosby trying to hide a comically oversized sandwich and a live turtle from the guards, Cosby detailed to Meyers his plan to get out of prison.
“Well, I have my regrets,” Cosby said. “In fact, I want you to deliver this letter if you get out before me. It’s to an old friend.”
“It says, ‘Hey Elvin, I heard you work down at the Trader Joe’s. Send me a tub of those pretzels with the peanut butter and put a crowbar inside,’ ” Meyers read. The letter, by the way, was to Geoffrey Owens, who played Elvin on “The Cosby Show,” who was recently discovered to be working at a Trader Joe’s in real life.
“I’m busting out,” Cosby explained. “I’ve got Woody Allen to drive the getaway car. Between the two of us we got one working eyeball.”
Cosby’s relationship with his new cellmate quickly went downhill from there.
“Normally I have some small amount of sympathy for an 80-year-old man being sent to prison,” Meyers said. “But you damaged countless lives. Maybe you should forget about who you think you are and face what you actually did.”
“Theo,” Cosby said.
“That’s not my name,” Meyers came back. Theo was, of course, the name of Cosby’s son on “The Cosby Show.”
“That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard,” Cosby went on, basically acting out a “Cosby Show” scene at this point.. “Are you afraid to study? I am your father and I will kill you.”
“Damn it, Cosby, stop quoting classic episodes,” Redd’s prison guarded interrupted. After which Meyers requested to be put in solitary confinement to get away from Cosby.
You can watch the full sketch from this week’s episode of “SNL” in the video embedded at the top of this post.