Season 47, E06: Jonathan Majors/Taylor Swift
Airdate: November 13, 2021
Sketches:
- "Sesame Street Cold Open": Sen. Ted Cruz rolls out his version of Sesame Street.
- "March of the Suitors": A medieval royal court rolls out suitors so its young queen can find a bride.
- "Three Sad Virgins": Pete Davidson and Taylor Swift make a music video lampooning Please Don't Destroy as "three sad virgins".
- "Audacity in Advertising Awards": Jake from State Farm and Flo from Progressive present the year's most offensive ads.
- "Strange Kid Tales": A talk show parody focusing on creepy children.
- "Man Park": A commercial advertising a dog park-like area for men who have trouble socializing.
- "Broadway Benefit": A couple brings their children to see a Broadway performance that turns out to be wildly inappropriate.
- "Pet Store Ad": Bone Thugs-n-Harmony open a store that only sells dog bones.
- "Pastor Announcement": A pastor and his wife announce that they're opening their marriage...to the congregation.
"Weekend Update" segments include Sarah Sherman as herself and Aristotle Athari as the standup comedy robot Laughingtosh 3000. Swift performs the ten-minute version of "All Too Well" as its accompanying short film plays behind her.
Tropes:
- Alcohol-Induced Bisexuality: In "March of the Suitors," the final suitor is a woman named Tawnie (Punkie Johnson), who remarks that she figured she might as well try her luck. Queen Matilda remarks that while she's mostly straight, she always ends up kissing her girlfriends whenever she drinks wine and invites Tawnie to a royal feast that evening to "see what happens." The sketch ends with the suggestion that Matilda and Tawnie did marry.
- Creepy Child:
- The premise of "Strange Kid Tales" is children who are sensitive to the occult, and their stories freaking out the hosts.
- There's also little Sally in "Broadway Benefit," who isn't scared by the amount of drugs the performers are on—she's thrilled.
- Disposable Intern: The ad execs in at the "Audacity in Advertising Awards" are too embarrassed to show their faces so they send their newest intern to take the hit.
- Dogged Nice Guy:
- Kyle Mooney's character in the "March of the Suitors" has previously been friendzoned by the queen, but tries to win her hand anyway.
- Kenan Thompson's character in the pastor sketch really wants to sleep with the pastor and his wife, but they keep shooting him down.
- Epic Rocking: The only song Taylor Swift performs is the full, uncut ten-minute version of "All Too Well", complete with the recently released short film playing in the background in one of the longest songs ever performed in the show's history.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Exaggerated in "Man Park." Andrew Dismukes's character asks Aristotle Athari to be his best man after a single conversation about athletes and Bo Burnham. And as Andrew's girlfriend (Melissa Villaseñor) helpfully points out, she and Andrew aren't even engaged yet.
- Functional Addict: Played for Laughs in "Broadway Benefit," with Blythe, Brick, and Tennyson Hartley happily singing about the vast amount of drugs they're on. The list includes LSD, coke, Quaaludes, and poppers, but they all seem fine despite taking so many substances that they should be comatose.
- Funny Robot: Laughingtosh 3000 is a robot who performs stand-up comedy. Here, he roasts Colin Jost's home borough of Staten Island and does impressions of Instagram and Tinder.
- Gag Penis: In "March of the Suitors" one prospect for Chloe Fineman's eligible young queen is a dim-looking farmhand (Andrew Dismukes), dragged to the palace by his mom (Cecily Strong), who somehow has only this going for him.Queen: It's going to take more than that to win my heart...
Handmaiden (Aidy Bryant): My Queen, no one has more than that! - No, Except Yes: In "Three Sad Virgins," Martin, Ben, and John listen to the first verse of Pete Davidson's rap, which talks about the three of them as utterly uncool losers. They ask if the song is about them, and he reassures them that they're only playing characters—and then the next verse, which explicitly names them and uses personal data, begins.
- Non-Indicative Name: Lampshaded by newbie Sarah Sherman when she drops by Weekend Update and points out to Colin Jost the name Saturday Night Live makes no sense since most of the show takes place during Sunday morning.
- Real Men Hate Affection: The cornerstone of the "Man Park" sketch. It's explained that since so many straight men have come to believe this trope, they have trouble making friends and rely almost exclusively on their wives and girlfriends for emotional support and companionship. The solution? The titular Man Park, where guys can pal around with other guys without fear of being perceived as weak.Voiceover: It's not their fault masculinity makes intimacy so hard!
- Strange Minds Think Alike: At the beginning of "Man Park," Pete Davidson's character excitedly tells his girlfriend that Vin Diesel has a twin brother. She's not impressed, but later, he shares the news with his new friend at the Man Park, and he declares it to be the coolest thing ever.
- That Came Out Wrong: One of the women in "Man Park" muses that it's difficult for men to build relationships, and in that regard, it's harder to be a man...and then immediately backtracks, realizing it comes off as unfortunate.
- This Is Gonna Suck: In "Three Sad Virgins," the guys of Please Don't Destroy finally work up the courage to tell Pete Davidson that they don't want to be in the titular music video any more. He agrees and says that they can leave right after the bridge...and that's when Taylor Swift, who's famous for her dramatic bridges and Take That! songs, comes into the room. Martin, Ben, and John immediately panic.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: In "Broadway Benefit," little Sally is entranced by the performers' song and dance routine about how awesome it is to take drugs. She remains remarkably calm during the number and, at the end, happily declares that she has goosebumps.
- Women Are Wiser: "Man Park" presents the girlfriends as down-to-earth but longsuffering, and compares the men to dogs at a dog park.
- What Were They Selling Again?: Part of the humor of the parody commercials being "honored" at the Audacity in Advertising Awards is that some of the ads are so overwrought that the actual product itself seems dissonant.
