A man was arrested recently for saying he would bomb the New York studio of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”
Michael Branham, 48, is accused of sending the threat via the messaging service used by the online university he attends.
“THE NEXT TIME YOU HERE [sic] FROM ME I WILL BE ON CNN FOR EXPLODING A BOMB IN SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE AUDIENCE,” he wrote, according to a criminal complaint cited by the New York Post. The message was reported to law enforcement by a security investigator for NBC Universal.
Mr. Branham was arrested on April 2. The New York Police Department ultimately found that the threat was not credible, according to NBC News. He has been charged with one count each of falsely reporting an incident and making a threat of mass harm.
He is also accused of stalking actress Scarlett Johansson, who is married to Colin Jost, an “SNL” writer and co-host of “Weekend Update.”
Mr. Branham has her first name tattooed on his chest and has made outlandish claims about her on social media, including alleging that he fathered one of her children, according to the Post.
Ms. Johansson tried to have a restraining order filed against Mr. Branham in 2024 after he repeatedly showed up outside her home in 2023, but a California court dismissed the plea after her lawyer was unable to serve him with legal papers, according to The Blast.
