The premise of the ’90s sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” sees a young Will Smith sent to live with his family in Bel Air, California, after getting in a fight on a playground basketball court in West Philadelphia. But what this “SNL” digital short proposes is, what if the people he fought with in Philly followed him to California?
Where on the real show, it was all fun and games after the Fresh Prince went west, not so in this reimagining with “SNL” cast member Chris Redd. Here, the guys he fought with were members of a gang led by Method Man, one of them was arrested after the fight, and they traveled to L.A. to take out the trash.
They invade Redd’s new hope, beat Uncle Phil (Kenan Thompson), and Redd escapes and hides in a dingy motel. Then Jessica Chastain shows up claiming to be an FBI agent, and the two fake Redd’s death before Chastain drugs him and delivers him to a Japanese gang for exceptionally complicated reasons. But then that gang gets in a fight with Method Man’s gang, and Uncle Phil also shows up and everybody dies except Redd.
And that’s the story of how Chris Redd became Jasper Mitchell of White Ridge, New Hampshire. It doesn’t really do it justice when I describe it, so best if you just watch the video embedded above.
This “Fresh Prince” short was a sort of break during an aggressively political episode of “SNL” — I mean it’s always political but this one went a little bit further than usual with Chastain hosting an angry game show about how frustrating it is that Trump can do whatever he wants with no consequences, a cold open that went all in on Dr. Ronny Jackson’s sketchy medical report for Trump, and Kate McKinnon showing up on Weekend Update with amazing facial prosthetics to play special counsel Robert Mueller.