Warning: The video contains spoilers for the events that occur within Mr. Robot's first season.
This past summer, Saturday Night Live and Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones suffered from an alarming amount of online abuse. It began with vile racist and sexist insults being tweeted at her to the hacking of her phone, with nude photos she had taken stolen and posted online.
Throughout it all, Jones has been unwavering in her motivation to move past it and regain some control over her life. For the comedian, that means making fun of it whenever possible, including this year’s recent Emmy Awards and during the premiere of Saturday Night Live.
In the Mr. Robot parody video above, Jones can be seen talking to the fictional hacker Elliot Alderson (played by Pete Davidson) about needing his help to find out who hacked her personal files. He agrees to help her, which proves to be a difficult task, and the two set out to right the wrong that had been done to the actress. Other characters, like Christian Slater’s Mr. Robot and Carly Chaikin’s Darlene also get the spoof treatment.
Despite the comedic nature of the video, it’s important to reiterate that what happened to Leslie Jones was a hate crime that is now being investigated by Homeland Security. The relentless abuse Jones received over the months leading up to the release of Ghostbusters and beyond caused the comedian to leave Twitter for a brief period of time. The harassment led to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey reaching out personally and promising to do more for the thousands of women, people of color and queer folk who receive vile messages from strangers on a daily basis.
