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IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST INCONGRUOUS TRIBUTES yet to faux hip-hop icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In a parody that riffed on “Live SheckWes Die SheckWes,” a foul-mouthed rap video, the cast of Saturday Night Live in late 2018 threw some reverse shade RBG’s way. Kate McKinnon, playing the Justice as homie, popped a beer. She b-girled it with power windmills, flares and floats. And when McKinnon/RBG pulled back her robes, she showed shredded abs and an elaborate tattoo spelling out “Brooklyn.” “Supreme Court’s a boys’ club/ She holds it down/ No cares given,” rhymed shirtless cast member Chris Redd. “Who else got six movies about ’em who’s still livin’?”
Justice Ginsburg’s rise as an unlikely pop-culture hero and liberal idol was much noted and, between the memes and merchandise, hard to ignore. But was it good for
