Netflix's Stranger Things was one of the hottest and most-talked about TV shows of the summer, so it's no surprised that Saturday Night Live parodied the supernatural series on its Oct. 8 episode. The impressions were spot-on and the sketch focused on Lucas and some very 2016 topics, despite the show taking place in the 1980s. The Stranger Things Season 2 preview parody on SNL referenced Black Lives Matter in the context of Lucas and his previously unseen parents, who tell their son, "People who look like us already live in the Upside Down."
Leslie Jones and Kenan Thompson are perfection as Lucas' parents, who catch their son hanging out with Dustin and Mike on their bikes, looking for Will, of course. Lucas tries to explain to them all of the dangerous things that inhabit the Stranger Things universe, like the Demogorgon, but Thompson declares, "You don't have go looking for scary things; they find us." Lucas, however, still isn't convinced. Joyce appears, trying to de-tangle Christmas lights, and Kate McKinnon plays the most hilarious Eleven, who sports a short haircut and devours Eggo Waffles. But Lucas' parents found the next person who entered the scariest of them all: Chief Hopper, at whom they cry, "Monster! Monster!"
Jones and Thompson's parent characters then take Lucas out this world. "These white people are crazy," they say, as the parody ends. SNL did a great job here of accurately parodying Stranger Things — sadly, there was no Nancy or Steve and his epic hair — while also referencing the lack focus on Lucas in Season 1 and the current conversation about racism and police. And the parody shows that even though Stranger Things takes place in the '80s, race relations has been a big issue for a long time.
The sketch doesn't exactly warrant a "spoiler alert," but it should make fans excited for all the possibilities for the second season of Stranger Things.
