SNL’s short, alternate presentation of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air is kind of sad in a way but you can’t help but laugh even if it might make you feel like a bad person. It’s still funny regardless because it’s basically just like the intro with some serious add-ons. If you ever watched the show you’ll remember how the Fresh Prince was shooting hoops with his friends and the ball happened to bounce off the head of a gang member that spun Will around like a pro wrestler, yeah? Well after that he went on to Bel Air where he was sent by his mother, but the gang members just kind of left him alone since he was out of town. But what if they held a grudge? It’s easy enough to believe if they were gun and drug runners and one of them was arrested following the fight. That gave them a definite need for revenge that they weren’t about to pass up on.
In this alternate version the gang, who are a lot more serious about mayhem than they might have been in the show, make their way to Bel Air where they beat the living heck out of Uncle Phil and then threaten Carlton, who gives up Will like the snitch he is in this version. Thankfully Will takes off before they can get him and holes up in some cheap motel. He’s then taken in by a redheaded woman that looks an awful lot like Jessica Chastain, wink wink, who says she’s FBI and that he can’t stay here or he’ll be killed. So she takes him with her, dresses a body in his clothes, pulls some teeth for identification, and then stages an accident in which he’s proclaimed dead. The Prince gets to see his mom crying over his grave before the redhead knocks him out, at which point the music stops.
When he wakes up he’s surrounded by Yakuza and is given an explanation that she’s not FBI but had to give him in order to repay a debt that her father owed to the gang. Only a few second later the Philly thugs rolled in and started opening fire, obliterating the Japanese gang. The redhead goes down from a shotgun blast, and Will scampers for cover. Just then a man steps out of the shadows, firing away at the thugs as he tells Will to get out of there. As Will escapes Uncle Phil, the man from the shadows, is gunned down, and the Philly thugs get away. From that point we hear the familiar line “Smell ya later” and are then shown how the Prince is living now, in a cardboard box under the name of Jasper Mitchell. Seriously, that’s how it ends.
I don’t think a lot of people would have cozied up to the show if it had been quite this tragic, but the skit was awesome. As I recall though in the actual show Will did meet up with the guy from the opening credits again and made peace with him, so there was some closure at least.
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