'SNL' spoofs reactions to Luigi Mangione's arrest as Adam Sandler returns

"Saturday Night Live" has plenty to say about Luigi Mangione.

The sketch show's latest episode was hosted by Chris Rock, who in his monologue addressed the arrest of the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

"Everybody's fixated on how good-looking this guy looks," the comedian joked. "If he looked like Jonah Hill, no one would care. They'd have given him the chair already. He'd be dead."

Rock expressed sympathy for Thompson's family while at the same time building up to a punchline.

"(Mangione) actually killed a man," he said. "A man with a family, a man with kids. I have condolences for the health care CEO. I mean, this is a real person. But, you know, sometimes drug dealers get shot. I mean, you've seen 'The Wire,' right?"

Jokes made on the previous week's episode about Thompson's death fell flat with some viewers who called them tasteless on social media platforms such as X.

Thompson, 50, was married and had two children. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealthcare's parent company UnitedHealth Group, remembered him as a "brilliant, kind man who was working to make health care better for everyone" and said that his family, friends and colleagues are "bearing a grief and sadness we will carry for the rest of our lives."

Saturday's episode kicked off with a cold open in which Nancy Grace, played by Sarah Sherman, covered Mangione's arrest. She expressed bewilderment while reading explicit online comments about the suspect, who she said "looks like Dave Franco with Eugene Levy's eyebrows."

"Of course, everyone online celebrated the hard work of law enforcement in apprehending this dangerous criminal," Sherman's Grace said. "Just kidding, y'all psychos made him a sex symbol!"

She then interviewed a man, played by Kenan Thompson, who was at the McDonald's where Mangione was spotted before his arrest.

"Women love bad boys," he said. "Back in the day, you could impress your old lady with a little poem. Now you've got to write a manifesto."

The show couldn't resist pointing out that featured player Emil Wakim bears a resemblance to Mangione. The comedian played a man who Grace noted "happens to look like" the alleged shooter.

SNL' leans into jokes after UnitedHealthcare CEO killing: 'The guy just bicycled away'

"I haven't paid for a meal in Brooklyn in days," he declared.

The jokes about Mangione continued on "Weekend Update," with Colin Jost joking about the fact that the suspected shooter had anger for corporate America but went to a Starbucks and McDonald's.

"So perhaps his greatest crime was hypocrisy," Jost quipped.

Dana Carvey's Church Lady returns to 'SNL' with David Spade as Hunter Biden

Adam Sandler returns to 'SNL,' spurts blood on Chris Rock

It continued to be a season for returns of "SNL" alumni, with Adam Sandler making a surprise cameo on Saturday's episode.

Rock starred in a sketch as a surgeon whose procedure on a patient goes horribly wrong because of mistakes by the nurse (Sherman). About two minutes in, the patient was revealed to be Sandler, who insisted everyone go easy on the nurse even as he was spurting blood.

Sandler was an "SNL" cast member from 1990 to 1995. When he returned to host in 2019, he sang a song about how he was fired from the show.

Sandler was the latest "SNL" alum to return after Dana Carvey and David Spade, who last week starred in a sketch as the Church Lady and Hunter Biden, respectively.

"SNL" will return next week for its final episode before Christmas with host Martin Short and musical guest Hozier.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'SNL' cold open, Chris Rock monologue joke about Luigi Mangione arrest