SNL: Peyton Manning and Cam Newton sing ‘Ebony and Ivory’ (Video)
By Josh Hill
Super Bowl 50 will feature Peyton Manning and Cam Newton, and SNL skewered the race issue involved.
Cam Newton is a black quarterback playing in the Super Bowl. He dances when he scores touchdowns, smiles a lot and gives footballs to children in the stands.
Somehow this has made him a villain to some who watch football. Naturally, SNL sacked this issue in a way that makes us remember just why we love the show so much.
In a callback to an Eddie Murphy skit from the 80s, Keenan Thompson and Taran Killam played Cam Newton and Peyton Manning — who sang Ebony and Ivory together.
Not only did we get a hilarious troll of how stupid it is to hate Cam Newton — arguably the most likable guy in the NFL — we heard a killer Johnny Manziel troll too.
Perhaps the best part of the skit was a bit that crossed over into the very real race issue that exists. Police officers stopped Cam Newton while he was dabbing, thinking that he was being a dangerous black man next to a white person.
This is the biting satirical wit that we’ve come to love about SNL over the years and it’s great to see the show flexing that important muscle with issues like this in ways that people will both laugh and think about as we head into Super Bowl 50.