The Best ‘Saturday Night Live’ Sketches Australia Was Actually Able To Watch This Season
We should be grateful for what we're given.
Saturday Night Live recently wrapped up its 43rd season with a huge finale that welcomed SNL alumni and 30 Rock star Tina Fey back to host.
In the final episode alone, we got to see the return of her iconic Sarah Palin character, some topical Royal Wedding content, and even a sketch throwback to the iconic Tina Fey film Mean Girls.
Over the course of the season there were plenty of standout episodes, such as Donald Glover’s amazing hosting, or comedian John Mulaney’s sketches, or musical acts like Nicki Minaj and Kacey Musgrave. There were also a lot of episodes which people feel pretty ambivalent about, because deconstructing Saturday Night Live is like a national pastime now.
But — if you’re in Australia, there’s a really good chance you’ve seen… none of this.
You might be one of the people who tunes in on Foxtel Comedy, or you might be one of the illegal downloaders, but heck, we don’t even have access to the show on YouTube. And considering most of the discourse around the show happens online, being unable to see the standout sketches basically means Australia sleeps on all this fresh content.
But every so often a single sketch, a portion of monologue, a hint of gag will be legally leaked out to the international audience, so without further adieau, here’s the best sketches from season 43 of Saturday Night Live that Australia is legally allowed to see.
They’re also… the only sketches. There’s like four of them.
#5. Queer Eye’s Tan France Takes Pete Davidson Shopping
I’m not sure why they threw us this clip like an old bone to a pack of mangy and hungry dogs. Did it actually screen on the show, or was it just a weird digital thing that happened at the height of Queer Eye fever? Who knows.
This is mostly just a cute makeover — Pete’s annoying and youthful charm propels it along, but it’s not really a sketch. It’s amusing. Highlights include finding out that Davidson has long balls, and and Tan’s extremely polite shade when he asks if Pete dresses the way he does “for attention”.
#4. Friendship Song (Ft. Nicki Minaj)
We get this one because it was cut for time, and didn’t actually appear in the show. Some of the best stuff that SNL has done over the past few years has been the Kate McKinnon/ Aidy Bryant girl-themed songs, such as Dongs All Over The World and the brilliant First Got Horny 2 U.
This is another good musical number, that skates along pretty well on just how well Kate McKinnon can do all of HAIM’s weird vocal tics. The song is a very cute commentary on the practice of dumping on other people to make your friends feel better. The comedy comes from the fact that it’s very true.
There’s also some good lines, like: “Dude, you did not invent Paris.”
#3. St. Patrick’s Day
“It’s a shame that this sketch was cut for time, we worked so hard on it. Oh well, let’s sent it out to the colonies, they’ll be grateful for anything,” — Lorne Michaels, probably.
This is a classic Bill Hader vehicle, and it’s pretty simple to see why it was cut. It’s just deadpan, vaguely Irish themed absurdities delivered straight down the camera, with occasional throws to Beck Bennets being a weirdo.
Don’t get me wrong — I love Hader’s comedic mind, and this is exactly the kind of stuff that he likes, but it’s also non-flashy and alienating to the vast swathe of regular dum-dums that makes up SNL‘s audience. It’s amusing because it’s a hot weird mess.
As Hader says in the sketch: “If you don’t get it, kill yourself.”
#2. Natalie’s Rap 2
The Lonely Island and Natalie Portman return for another stab at an iconic SNL moment, with a sequel to the excessively funny digital short Natalie’s Rap. Remember how good those fucking Digital Shorts were? What a golden era.
The first rap basically hypothesised the actress Natalie Portman is a violent, drug taking, supremely angry loose unit. It was funny because she is not that. We call that juxtaposition, in the comedy world. But it was a great comment on the expectations on celebrity culture.
‘Natalie’s Rap 2’ has all the same charm, and actually makes a really worthwhile reason to return — Portman is a mother now, and the way the media treats celebrity mothers is also worth deconstructing. The video is also just very funny and silly. Both are completely sold by Portman’s ability to commit to the role and be a great sport.
#1. My Little Step Children
Honestly, this is better than most of the sketches that HAVE aired in Saturday Night Live’s long history, let alone from this sad list of dregs. Once again, it’s a cut for time, which is why we’re so lucky to get it — down here in Australia, the land that broadcast rights forgot.
The sketch was written by one of SNL‘s most hilarious contemporary writers, Julio Torres, and could be seen as a companion piece to his other excellent sketch “Wells for Boys” which aired in 2016. It’s a bit of a trope for SNL to parody ads, but when they’re doing it for something creepy and ambitious like this sort of sketch, it’s absolutely worth it.
‘My Little Stepchildren’ basically just riffs on the ideas of creepy step-mums in popular culture, and it’s perfect.
“Every ‘My Little Step Child’ comes with a tiny cardboard birth certificate kids can lock inside an ornate chest of drawers” it says. “Then they can pretend to avoid questions about the doll’s birth mother.”
Watch it once, watch it 1000 times. It’s not like we have a wealth of options to choose from.
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Saturday Night Live is broadcast in America. Move there if you want to watch it regularly, I guess.
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Patrick Lenton is an author and staff writer at Junkee. He tweets @patricklenton.