• "Saturday Night Live" has tackled the social media reaction to the arrest of Luigi Mangione.
• Mangione was charged with killing Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare.
• The sketch featured a character saying he's gotten "the horniest DMs" due to looking like Mangione.

"Saturday Night Live" kicked off its latest episode with a cold open that took on the internet's reaction to Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate, who was charged with second-degree murder in connection with Thompson's death, has emerged as a heartthrob in certain corners of the internet.

In a sketch parodying the show "Crime Stories with Nancy Grace," the "SNL" cast tackled the social media response to Mangione, with Sarah Sherman playing Grace.

Recapping Mangione's arrest at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania earlier this month, Sherman said: "Of course, everyone online celebrated the hard work of law enforcement in apprehending this dangerous criminal."

"Just kidding! Y'all psychos made him a sex symbol," she added, before describing Mangione as looking like "Dave Franco with Eugene Levy's eyebrows."

"I mean, really, what is going on in this country? Y'all, this man is not a sex icon. This man is — and I cannot say this any clearer — a murderer," she said.

Sherman later interviewed a character played by longtime cast member Kenan Thompson, asking him if he could believe people were attracted to this "sexy slayer."

"I mean, women love bad boys," Thompson replied.

"Back in the day, you could impress your old lady with a little poem, now you got to write a manifesto," he continued, seemingly referencing the handwritten note Mangione had in his possession when he was arrested.

The sketch then introduced a man who had been "affected closely by this story," played by cast member Emil Wakim.

Speaking as a guy who "happens to look like Luigi Mangione," Wakim said: "Yeah, this whole thing's kind of been a roller coaster for me."

"On one hand, I keep getting tackled by bounty hunters, but on the other hand, I've gotten some of the horniest DMs in my life," he added.

Thanks to his digital footprint, much of Mangione's life has been laid out in public since his identification and arrest.

"Saturday Night Live" illustrated their sketch by including a shirtless photo of Mangione that has gone viral since it was uncovered by internet sleuths.

Since his arrest, a Mangione look-alike contest has been held in New York City, Spotify playlists have been dedicated to him, and fanfiction featuring him has also been written.

As Business Insider previously reported, Mangione-themed merchandise has also been popping up online.

• Pete Davidson said he earned $3,000 per episode when he joined "Saturday Night Live."
• Davidson starred on the show for eight seasons between 2014 and 2022.
• He's since landed various film and TV roles, plus brand deals.

Pete Davidson is known for his eight-season tenure on NBC's "Saturday Night Live," but he wasn't making big bucks when he joined the popular sketch comedy show in 2014.

"My biggest indulgence after my first 'SNL' paycheck? Do you guys know what they pay us? It's like three grand an episode. I think I got dinner," Davidson said in an Instagram video for New York Magazine, as part of their latest issue featuring past and present "SNL" cast members.

Davidson got his big break in Hollywood when he landed a job as a featured player on season 40 of "SNL," which premiered in 2014. He appeared in 20 of the 21 episodes that season, bringing his estimated salary to $60,000.

The comedian, then 20 years old, was one of the youngest-ever hires and the show's first cast member born in the 1990s. Davidson most notably played a character named Chad in various sketches and was a frequent guest on the "Weekend Update" segment.

Although Davidson seemingly considered his early "SNL" paycheck small, his growing popularity led him to land even more work as an actor.

While on "SNL," Davidson took on other projects, including starring in Machine Gun Kelly's music video for "Loco," playing a supporting part in the hit Netflix rom-com "Set It Up," and having a cameo in the DC comics movie "The Suicide Squad." He also starred in the films "Big Time Adolescence" and "The King of Staten Island."

Davidson exited "SNL" in 2022 after season 47 concluded. He's since returned as a host for the season 49 premiere and had a cameo on a season 50 episode hosted by John Mulaney.

In addition to his work on "SNL," he released three comedy specials: "Pete Davidson:" SMD, "Pete Davidson: Alive From New York," and "Pete Davidson: Turbo Fonzarelli."

Davidson reportedly earned $500,000 per episode for his eight-episode Peacock series "Bupkis," in which he starred as a heightened, exaggerated version of himself. The show was canceled after one season.

The actor has also earned revenue from his work as a brand ambassador for Smartwater and Manscaped. Perhaps his most note-worthy splurge to date was a decommissioned Staten Island ferry, which he and "SNL" star Colin Jost purchased for $280,100 while "very stoned," Davidson said.

Representatives for Davidson and "Saturday Night Live" didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

• Ana Gasteyer was a cast member on "Saturday Night Live" when Sean "Diddy" Combs performed in 1998.
• She said on the "Las Culturistas" podcast that he "demanded a totally closed set."
• Will Ferrell crashed his rehearsal as a character named Ron, which made Combs "very uncomfortable."

Twenty-five years before Sean "Diddy" Combs was arrested and charged with three felonies, including sex trafficking, he was a big enough star to call the shots at 30 Rock — or, at least, he tried, said former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Ana Gasteyer.

During the latest episode of the "Las Culturistas" podcast, hosted by comedian Matt Rogers and current "SNL" star Bowen Yang, Gasteyer described her impression of Combs when he was a musical guest on the late-night sketch comedy show in 1998.

Gasteyer said Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, "demanded a totally closed set" during rehearsals for his performance — something that rarely happened during her time on the show.

"You can tell like the five assholes in the six years that I was there when they would be like, 'So and so is in the building, everybody stays in your dressing rooms,' which is applicable if you're a presidential candidate," Gasteyer said. "But apart from that, really, it's my house."

Then-'SNL' star Will Ferrell crashed Diddy's set

Gasteyer recalled Will Ferrell, a fellow cast member at the time, crashing Combs' rehearsal of "Come with Me" (his 1998 duet with Jimmy Page that samples the 1975 Led Zeppelin song "Kashmir") while dressed as a character he invented called Ron.

Ferrell "marched right in" and played up the bit by "walking around, looking really disoriented," Gasteyer said, adding that Combs appeared not to take it well.

"It is the greatest thing that's ever happened," she continued, saying that Combs "really did not roll with it. He was very uncomfortable, but it was also just like the artifice of all that faux importance."

Indeed, Ferrell told the same story on a 2020 episode of the "SNL" web series "Stories From the Show," explaining that he crashed Combs' performance on a dare.

"We were in this writer's room watching Puff Daddy rehearse, and someone said, 'Ron should go up onstage,' and before everyone turned to see, I had sprinted out the door," Ferrell recalled. "It was supposed to be a closed set."

The episode includes footage of the incident: Combs rapping into a microphone while Ferrell — wearing sunglasses, a fake mustache, and an ascot — wanders around the stage behind him. "I didn't really know what to do once I got up there," Ferrell said. After Combs finished the song, they shook hands.

"I was always kind of awestruck at how serious the place can be at times," Ferrell added of his time on the show. "And I thought, 'Wait, this is a comedy show. We should be fucking shit up.'"

More recently, "SNL" poked fun at Combs' legal troubles, which now include more than a dozen sexual misconduct lawsuits, during their "Weekend Update" segment.

"It was announced that Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking case has been assigned to a new judge," Michael Che joked. "One that Diddy hopes is cool with rapes."

Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him and has denied all allegations. He is currently awaiting trial in New York's Metropolitan Detention Center.

Representatives for Gasteyer and Ferrell didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Diddy's defense attorney Marc Agnifilo declined to comment.