Boo Boo Jeffries was Saturday Night Live’s perfect tribute to Mortal Kombat. The first Mortal Kombat was released in 1992 and proved shocking - and exciting - to gamers for its bloody violence, addictive gameplay, and surprisingly dense mythology. The game would soon spawn a long-running franchise with Mortal Kombat 11 arriving in 2019 to positive reviews and strong sales, proving the brand is running strong over a quarter of a century later.
Mortal Kombat also became a movie franchise, starring with the 1995 film of the same name from director Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil: The Final Chapter). The film adaptation proved to a surprise success and was one of the first movie adaptations of a video game. The 1997 sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was another story and received universally negative reviews, focusing on the bad acting and script, in addition to trying to shove way too many characters from the game into the plot for the sake of fan service.
WB Animation is reportedly working on a new Mortal Kombat movie featuring the voices of Joel McHale and Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter), while a live-action reboot is set to arrive in 2021. The franchise has a long line of iconic fighters, including Scorpion, Sonya Blade, Johnny Cage, Sub-Zero, Raiden, and many, many others. Saturday Night Live featured a spot-on parody of the beloved series with their 2017 sketch “Tournament Fighter,” which introduced a unique new fighter named Boo Boo Jeffries.
The concept of the skit has two players at a gaming tournament for Death Fight 12. Pete Davidson’s Sonic Goon selects Scorponix while Kenan Thompson’s Pwn Donkey accidentally picks Boo Boo Jeffries, played by Tiffany Haddish (Night School). It turns out Boo Boo doesn’t like the fight, and her special abilities are dance moves based on Rihanna and Beyonce. She also leaves the first battle after getting hit and refuses to engage in violence.
Just like SNL’s other viral character David S. Pumpkins, the sheer bizarreness of Boo Boo Jeffries and Tiffany Haddish’s committed performance made the sketch a hit. It was clear the people behind the sketch were fans of Mortal Kombat too, from the jerky movements of the characters right down to the font used for Death Fight 12. It would be a fun novelty to see the character pop up in a future Mortal Kombat title, but it would probably defeat the purpose of a fighting game to have a character who straight up refuses to fight.
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