Williamsburg's The Levee featured in truly terrible SNL sketch

The Levee SNL "Standoff" — Via The Levee on Facebook

Proving once again that Williamsburg is becoming more like midtown by the day, last weekend’s episode of SNL gave a cameo to long-standing favorite north Brooklyn dive The Levee. It appears briefly in the opening shot of a wholly unfunny sketch starring chivalrous boyfriend Taran Killam confronting cat-caller Tracy Morgan on behalf of Brooklyn’s own Sasheer Zamata.

The clip isn’t embeddable, so watch the video here, via NBC. Like much of Williamsburg today, the sketch is disappointing.

The sketch, which is from the most recent episode hosted by Morgan, features a confrontation between two men over a woman, lazily positioning her as a bystander, a many times brushed-aside witness to a conversation that is entirely about whether she does or does not need to be told she looks good by a stranger. The studio audience laughs when it’s revealed that Tracy Morgan is wearing ballet slippers; his offers to “tango” with Killam are literal, and the sketch takes a nosedive as he wails about a lifetime of wanting to dance. The confrontation falls apart as the couple takes pity on Morgan, who also feels he’s unfairly stereotyped as a thug.

It’s not meant to be a joke about Brooklyn, but it’s somewhat telling that a show like SNL that’s completely lost it’s edge would feature a bar in Williamsburg that is lately attracting more button-down bros and basics. While The Levee is still a solid spot with a rock n’ roll crowd, the sad truth is that nearby Bedford may as well be the new Broadway.

The interior shots in the video are not actually of The Levee, so if you blink in the first five seconds you might miss it entirely. We’ve spent most of this afternoon trying to figure out which bar it was actually filmed in, so if you recognize it, holler at us in the comments!

Follow Meghan for more haterade: @meghannn.