When Bruce Banner gets angry, he turns into a giant green rage monster. Which is a compelling dramatic choice for a superhero story. After all, being able to shout and jump around and break things makes for good action. But what if he turned into something else?
“The Impossible Hulk” is a really ridiculous Saturday Night Live sketch with a sharp premise. It takes the Hulk’s anger transformation and changes it up a bit. This time, instead of turning into a giant monster, Idris Elba’s Bruce Banner turns into an incredibly entitled Cecily Strong, who uses the power of shouting and calling 911 to get her way.
The skit has a strong undercurrent of social commentary—Strong’s Hulk is the embodiment of every white woman who calls the police on black people for no good reason, particularly toward the end, and the difference in responses Elba gets vs. Strong are pretty realistic—but it’s also just an absurd juxtaposition that turns a good superhero premise into something… very different.
And as dangerous as the Incredible Hulk is, I’m honestly not sure which one of these I’d rather run into on a bad day.