James Austin Johnson Suffers Weird, Mid-Show ‘SNL’ Injury
Okay, so it wasn’t James Austin Johnson did suffer a mishap during Saturday Night Live last weekend that left him hobbling around the stage on crutches during the goodnight segment.
The injury occurred during a sketch called The Second Amendment — ironically, a scene that made no physical demands on Johnson whatsoever. JAJ played a Founding Father who spent the bit pontificating about proposed Constitutional amendments. He’s standing behind a table and doesn’t move off that spot for the entire sketch.
With no pratfalls on his comedy agenda, how did he get hurt? Johnson told fans outside of 30 Rock what happened during the show, according to LateNighter. Apparently, the comic slipped in the heels he had been wearing, injuring his foot. One unanswered question: Why was Founding Father James Madison wearing heels?
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According to the Saturday Night Network podcast, Austin was scheduled to appear in another sketch later in the show called Bullying Assembly. The scene was cut for time, though it’s unclear whether or not his injury had anything to do with the bit getting axed. Johnson didn’t appear again in Saturday’s episode until the goodbyes, which ended with Austin raising his crutches triumphantly to the sky.
No word on how serious Austin’s injury might be, but it doesn’t appear to be the ugliest ever suffered during a show. In addition to Henry bleeding out on national TV, Molly Shannon often left her Mary Katherine Gallagher sketches full of bruises and abrasions. Lesley Jones tore an ACL during a Shanice Goodwin: Ninja sketch in 2016. Chevy Chase missed two shows during SNL’s second season premiere after his testicles took the brunt of a Gerald Ford fall. And Chris Kattan hurt his neck falling backwards off a chair in a goofy Golden Girls spoof, an injury he still struggles with today.
Will Johnson’s malady keep him from appearing on this week’s season finale with host Scarlett Johansson? Considering that Johnson could stand on stage and hoist his crutches, the mishap isn’t likely to land him on SNL’s Physically Unable to Perform list. And since Johansson has already appeared once in Season 50 as Ivanka Trump, it’s probably too much to ask for a cold open that doesn’t feature Johnson as Donald Trump.
Here’s wishing James Austin Johnson a swift recovery. But if his bruises mean one episode of SNL without that Trump impression leading off the show, I’m here for it.
