Shakespeare in the Park’s production of Julius Caesar, which featured a Caesar intentionally reminiscent of Donald Trump, ended its scheduled run last week amidst national outrage and protesters storming the stage to disrupt the show. But the controversy prompted Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler to resurrect a fan-favorite Saturday Night Live segment to capture just how dumb they thought the protests were.
“Really!?!” is back as Meyer and Poehler attempt to sift through the logic of the protester taking the stage to make a point. For one thing, the protester had to wait in line for tickets and sit through a good part of the play before the protest even began. If the protester really wanted to piss off New Yorkers, there are much better better ways to do it.
“If this portrayal was offensive to anyone it’s Caesar,” Meyers said. “Caesar was beloved by the Roman Empire. To put it another way, he won the popular vote.”
All the protester did, they argued, was make Shakespeare entertaining. But the protests help them make a bigger point about free speech: It isn’t just about protecting free speech you like, so you have to argue for the free speech you don’t like as well.
