[The following contains spoilers for The Mandalorian season 1, episode 8]
Jason Sudeikis’ former comedy troupe distances itself from the actor after he punched Baby Yoda while appearing as an Imperial scout trooper on The Mandalorian. The season finale of the Star Wars Disney+ series indeed saw everyone’s favorite tiny green alien child once again being put in danger, as a pair of scout troopers held him prisoner after killing his Ugnaught protector Kuill in the previous episode. It was later revealed that one of the babysnatching scout troopers was actually played by former SNL cast member Sudeikis.
Of course, as fans of The Mandalorian well know by now, Baby Yoda was ultimately rescued by IG-11, the former bounty hunter reprogrammed by the late Kuill to be a nurse and protector to the Mandalorian’s foundling charge. In the process of saving Baby Yoda, the nurturing IG-11 (voiced by episode director Taika Waititi) called upon his former bounty hunter programming to take care of the pair of scout troopers, who were previously seen punching Baby Yoda inside a bag to make him stop chattering and biting them on the fingers. Fans of Baby Yoda – and there are millions of them thanks to the endless array of memes, mash-up videos and tributes that have arrived since the character first appeared at the end of The Mandalorian’s debut episode – were of course upset to see the little green guy being so abused by a pair of Imperial thugs, and were happy IG-11 came along to give them their just desserts.
As it happens, the comedy troupe the aforementioned Sudeikis once called home are also fans of Baby Yoda, and were not happy to see one of their former members abusing The Child. So, The Second City took to Twitter to assure everyone they absolutely do not support violence against Baby Yoda. See their tweet in the space below:
Indeed, the sight of Baby Yoda being physically abused – even if shielded by a bag – was legitimately upsetting given how tiny the character is. Of course, Baby Yoda does possess Force powers, which he once again flashed in the finale episode to defend against a flametrooper who had him and his friends trapped inside a building, so The Child in fact is not as helpless as he seems. Nevertheless, Jon Favreau and company take every opportunity to point out the physical vulnerability of the character, and love placing him in distressing situations to make the audience sweat it out (though by now everyone should realize Baby Yoda isn’t going anywhere and will therefore always either be rescued or rescue himself).
Ultimately, Baby Yoda is a master stroke of a character for the way he holds the audience’s sympathy and humanizes Pedro Pascal's Mando (who spent most of the first season hiding behind his mask). Fans’ outraged reaction to the relatively harmless punching of The Child in the season finale is further testament to how fully the character has captured people’s hearts across the span of just a few episodes, and is further proof that Favreau and his fellow creatives truly knocked it out of the park with The Mandalorian.
Source: The Second City/Twitter