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Nate Bargatze reveals the true story behind his legendary George Washington SNL sketch

The initial table read did not get the reaction Bargatze expected.

Saturday Night Live/YouTube

Seriously, what were our forefathers thinking with our measuring system?

America is definitely not afraid to do its own thing, even when its own thing is pretty weird. Ever stop to think how bizarre it is that the United States is one of the only countries to not use the metric system? Or how it uses the word “football” to describe a sport that, unlike fútbol, barely uses the feet at all?

What must our forefathers have been thinking as they were creating this brave new world? Wonder no further. All this and more is explored in a Saturday Night Live sketch that folks are hailing as an “instant classic.”

The hilarious clip takes place during the American Revolution, where George Washington rallies his troops with an impassioned speech about his future hopes for their fledgling country…all the while poking fun at America’s nonsensical measurements and language rules.

george washington, george washington's dream, snl sketch, nate bargatze "Washington Crossing the Delaware" by George Caleb BinghamPublic domain

Like seriously, liters and milliliters for soda, wine and alcohol but gallons, pints, and quarters for milk and paint? And no “u” after “o” in words like “armor” and “color” but “glamour” is okay?

The inherent humor in the scene is only amplified by comedian and host Nate Bargatze’s understated, deadpan delivery of Washington. Bargatze had quite a few hits during his hosting stint—including an opening monologue that acted as a mini comedy set—but this performance takes the cake.

Watch:

- YouTubeyoutu.be

All in all, people have been applauding the sketch, noting that it harkened back to what “SNL” does best, having fun with the simple things.

“This skit is an instant classic. I think people will be referencing it as one of the all time best SNL skits for years.”

“Dear SNL, whoever wrote this sketch, PLEASE let them write many many MANY more!”

“Instantly one of my favorite SNL sketches of all time!!!”

“I’m not lying when I say I have watched this sketch about 10 times and laughed just as hard every time.”

“This may be my favorite sketch ever. This is absolutely brilliant.”

Kenan Thompson Snl GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy

The sketch was so popular, they did another one when Nate Bargatze returned to SNL in October of 2024, and it's every bit as hilarious as the first one. Again, the comedy focused on the idiosyncrasies of America, including our names for animal food products, the way we count grades in school, and the design of our currency.

"A real American would never want to know what's in a hot dog, just as they will never know why our money is called the 'dollar'…" says Bargatze as Washington. "And if you think I'm worthy, put my portrait on the front of it."

"And what shall be on the back, sir?" asks Kenan Thompson's character.

"Everything, all of it," Washington replies. "Crazy stuff, squiggles, Latin words, a pyramid with a floating eye on top."

Watch:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The sketches became so popular, people wanted to know more about how the idea for them came about and what the process of creating the original sketch was like. Jesse David Fox, the host of Good One: A Podcast About Jokes, sat down with Bargatze and SNL writers Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell to talk about the origins of the sketch and what it was like to co-create it in the week leading up to the live show. It's a fascinating insight into the SNL writing process, which is largely done within that week.

According to Day and Seidell, there had been an idea for a George Washington sketch in the vault of ideas that hadn't seen daylight yet, but it was just a vague idea without the focus of the weights and measurements and other things. Bargatze was on board with playing Washington, but apparently, the sketch was kind of a flop in rehearsals as the week went on, coming in dead last on the list of sketches they had prepared for the show. But Bargatze said he really liked the sketch, and once he was in costume and in front of a live audience for dress rehearsal, everything came together to make the magic of a classic SNL bit.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com


Bargatze has rocketed into the comedy world with his clean stand-up routines that the whole family can enjoy. You can catch even more of Bargatze’s “SNL” episodes here and here.

This article originally appeared two years ago and has been updated.

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'SNL' did a fake dog school commercial and it went hilariously off the rails

Six dogs were part of the skit. Zero did what they were supposed to do. It was 100% fun to watch.

"Saturday Night Live"/Youtube

Romeo did NOT want to reenact "Lady and the Tramp"

As the old show business adage goes, “Never work with children or animals.” Neither really care about sticking to the script and that unpredictability can’t help but steal the scene.

But, hey, sometimes it makes for a hilarious skit.

Saturday Night Live's April 14, 2023 episode introduced us to "Enter Stage Woof, Dog Acting School,” where zany dog trainers Yolanda Batista (played by Ana de Armas) and Donna Colonoscopini (played by Chloe Finemen) advertise a “semi-accredited” acting school for pups who “know they’re hot” and are ready to take on Hollywood.

While de Armas and Fineman worked well together, their six canine co-stars went completely off the rails.

From Henry, the deadpan golden retriever who simply refused to show his face, to Romeo, to the collie who left poor Fineman onstage with a mouth full of cold spaghetti after a Lady and The Tramp bit gone wrong, these doggos and their complete lack of cooperation kept the actresses on their toes.

Watch:

Absolute chaos right? But pure comedy gold.

Folks in the YouTube comments sections seemed to think so:

“Not a single dog did what it was supposed to do, 10/10.”

“When SNL brings actual dogs onto a skit you immediately know it’s gonna be hilarious.”

“When you got a 100% success rate at getting a dog to do the opposite of what you want it to, you know that is some top notch training!”

Dogs might not always be the best actors, but they are natural entertainers.


This article originally appeared two years ago.

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SNL's latest 'Washington's Dream’ sketch hilariously skewers the quirks in American English

Nate Bargatze is back as Washington for the second time.

via SNL/YouTube

Nate Bargatze and Kenan Thompson star in SNL's follow-up to "Washington's Dream."

In 2023, “Saturday Night Live” struck gold with a historical sketch where, in 1776, then-General George Washington laid out his dream for the future of America after the Revolutionary War. The twist is that his dream is to promote a series of nonsensical American cultural quirks, such as the refusal to adopt the metric system and the arbitrary ways American English differs from the UK’s.

The sketch was a great send-up of the cultural differences that separate Americans from their cousins across the pond and stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze, as Washington, delivered them in a pitch-perfect deadpan.

The sketch was the second most popular from SNL season 49 and introduced the low-key stand-up comedian to a much wider audience. On October 5, 2024, Bargatze returned to host SNL and once again donned the powdered wig as Washington. This time, America’s first president addressed his troops, played again by Mikey Day, Kenan Thompson and Bowen Yang, about his dream for America from a boat crossing the Delaware.

In the second “Washington’s Dream” sketch, the general tells his soldiers that he hopes the new country will "do our own thing with the English language."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

"I dream that one day, our great nation will have a word for the number 12. We shall call it a dozen," Bargatze's Washington says.

"And what other numbers will we have a word for?" a soldier asks.

"None," Washington replies. "Only '12' shall have its own word because we are free men, and we will be free to spell some words two different ways." Which ones? "Doughnut, and the name 'Jeff'," he explains, noting that there’s "the short way with the J and the stupid way with the G."

Washington also plans to differentiate some living animals from those on our plates. "We will also have two names for animals: One when they're alive and a different one when they become food," Washington explains. "So cows will be 'beef.' Pigs will be 'pork.'"

"And chickens, sir?" Yang asks. "That one stays. Chickens are 'chicken'," says Washington. "And we will create our own foods, and name them what we want. Like the hamburger."

"Made of ham, sir?" Day asks. "If it only were that simple," Washington adds. "A hamburger is made of beef, just as a 'buffalo wing' is made of chicken." However, he assures his troops that a hot dog is not made from man’s best friend. "A real American would never want to know what's in a hot dog, just as they will never know why."


Just like the original “Washington’s Dream,” the sketch was co-written by cast member Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell, with Mike DiCenzo.

The bit was initially conceived by SNL writer Seidell, who was surprised by how well the counterintuitive casting worked. “I forget who we originally wrote it for, but it was very much a dramatic actor who would play more of a serious Washington,” he told Indiewire. “You can see that version of it, but in hindsight Nate was the perfect person to do it because it had this charm that I don’t know that it would have with a real powerful George Washington. An Academy Award-winning actor might have taken it too seriously.”

Here is the original "Washington's Dream" sketch:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

SNL will return on Saturday, October 12, featuring host Ariana Grande and a musical performance by Stevie Nicks.

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The unexpected reason why this mom is totally fine with her 14-year-old teen stealing vodka

"This generation really is different from us."

via Antoni Shkraba/Pexels and Vincent/Flickr

A mother is shicked that her vodka keeps disappearing.

A mother of 3 named Stacey (@StaceyCKs1 on X) realized that a bottle of Grey Goose vodka she had was slowly being emptied, but she hadn’t taken a sip. So she thought it must be one of her children, ages 14, 17 and 23, taking some sneaky sips of her stash.

The funny thing is that anyone who has been a teenager knows that after you take some of the vodka from your parents’ bottle, you replace the amount with water so no one notices you drank some. Until, of course, your parents take a sip and immediately realize it’s been watered down. But whoever was pouring shots from Stacy’s bottle didn’t even worry about getting caught.

Stacey approached her 3 kids to find out which one had been drinking her vodka. The response she got was unexpected, to say the least. It was her 14-year-old daughter, but she wasn’t using the vodka to get drunk.

“Noticed that my vodka supply was dwindling,” she wrote on Twitter. “Confronted 23 and 17, who pointed the finger at 14, who guiltily confessed to making penne allá vodka ‘several times’ over the last month. Didn’t believe her, watched her execute it flawlessly. I guess it’s a TikTok thing?”

The teenager didn’t even try to hide the fact that she was cooking with the vodka. She didn’t “guilty confess”; she “answered the question,” Stackey remarked in the tweet thread. “She wasn’t trying to hide what she was doing. These kids are different than we were.”



To verify that the teen wasn’t lying, Stacey asked her to make some penne allá vodka and the teen “crushed it.” Some people in the comments wondered why she didn’t notice her daughter making elaborate meals in the kitchen. Stacey said the cooking happened while she was working or on the phone and that she doesn’t like pasta. Her daughter also made the meals in the morning to take to school for lunch.

Stacey shared a screenshot of her daughter’s delicious dish.



The mother also shared the recipe for the curious:

A shallot and some garlic sweated in olive oil and a tablespoon of butter, a can of tomato paste, some Calibri chilies, maybe 10 ounces of sand Marzano tomatoes, 2 cups of heavy cream, a cup of fresh parm, 2 tablespoons of vodka.

One person on Twitter had a problem with the teenager using supplies in the house without asking permission. They also had an issue with kids learning how to cook on TikTok. But Stacey wasn’t dealing with any parenting criticism.



It’s believed that Gen Z's recent fascination with penne allá vodka started when Gigi Hadid shared her spicy version of the recipe on Instagram in 2020. Since then, the dish has been called a TikTok “obsession.”

The dish's ubiquity was lampooned on “Saturday Night Live” earlier this year in a sketch, where a “big a**” aluminum platter can be found at just about any significant gathering, whether it's a wedding, bridal shower, or retirement party.

"A big a** aluminum tray of penne alla vodka [is] loved by none, but tolerated by all," Andrew Dismukes says in the sketch accompanied by his bride, Chloe Fineman, who adds, "Because it's not that good, but it's not that bad either."

"It may not stay hot, but it never gets all the way cold,” Keenaan Thompson says, playing a man at his retirement party.

- YouTubeyoutu.be

The story of Stacey and her pasta-loving daughter is a perfect example of a recent significant change in American culture: Young people drink much less than they used to. Stacey, who appears to be an older Millenial or younger Gen X, comes from an era when the majority of teens drank alcohol. However, things have changed.

A report in The Conversation has found that the proportion of 16 to 24-year-olds who drank alcohol “in the last week” fell from 67% in 2002 to 37% in 2021. The change is part of a generational trend where younger people are more risk-averse than older generations. Gen Zers are also less likely to smoke and have sex than previous generations.

If you’re a parent of a teenager in 2204 and your vodka starts going missing, maybe it’s time to check and see if your stash of penne is on the decline as well because your kid is probably more likely to be a secret chef than a drinker.

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