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Kristen Wiig plays a cult leader pilates coach in an epic 'SNL' return

Kristen Wiig made an epic return to “Saturday Night Live” this week

Saturday Night Live/Youtube

A creepy slowed down version of Megan Thee Stallion's "Body" was a fabulous touch.

Kristen Wiig made an epic return to “Saturday Night Live” this week, and along with bringing back her iconic “Aunt Linda” character, she might have created a whole new fan favorite.

In a horror trailer reminiscent of an A24 film, Chloe Fineman and Molly Kearney work up the courage to take their first pilates class. They enter an eerily dark purple room where Wiig, playing a cult-leader Pilates instructor with a fondness for weird pet names, gives them the scariest workout of their life.

Now, look, pilates is a great form of exercise, with proven benefits for flexibility, core strength and posture. But when it comes to most pilates studios, there’s a certain…vibe. In a word, it’s intense. Anyone who’s been to a class can probably say they have a whole new relationship to discomfort.

And this sketch, along with Wiig’s performance, totally nailed all the typical pilates experience—from the intimidating reformer machines that look like they’re”designed for torture… but somehow, also sex,” to the mind boggling instructions during class (“take those ankle straps around your waist and your knee straps around your head!”) to the unbearable consequence of forgetting your special sticky socks. May god help you.

In fact, it got the seal of approval from bonafide Pilates regulars.

“As a person who has been doing pilates for over 5 years, this is 100% accurate lmao,” one viewer on Youtube wrote.

Another added, "I've done Pilates classes, and this made me laugh so hard because it's all true!"

Even a staff member for a pilates studio chimed in, saying “I work the front desk at a Pilates studio and this is perfectly accurate. I laughed so hard!”

Watch “a chilling new look at girl horror” below:

And don't forget: embrace the shake!!!

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Scarlett Johansson recreates Katie Britt's historically weird State of the Union speech

The 'SNL' sketch nailed one of the more truly bizarre moments in modern politics.

CBS News/Youtube, Saturday Night Live/Youtube

Scarjo "auditions for scary mom" with “an original monologue called ‘This Country is Hell."

When Republican Senator Katie Britt made her questionable at best rebuttal to Thursday’s State of the Union, it was pretty much expected to become the subject of a “Saturday Night Live” skit. It was practically a parody in itself, so absurd it didn’t even land well with her own party.

But to everyone’s surprise—and delight— “SNL” nabbed Scarlett Johansson to play Britt (perhaps as a favor to her husband Colin Jost?), and she absolutely nailed the senator’s laughable-yet-borderline-terrifying original delivery during the show’s cold open.

Donning an near-exact replica of Britt’s cross necklace and emerald green blouse, Johansson “auditions for the role of scary mom” with what she calls “an original monologue called ‘This Country is Hell,” an obvious nod to the outright fiction of Britt’s rebuttal.

Complete with oddly placed giggles, astonished eyes conveying worry like an Oscar depended on it, and “getting weirdly seductive for no apparent reason,” Johansson flawlessly recreates Britt’s now infamous speech, especially the part where she “pivots out of nowhere into a shockingly violent story about sex trafficking. And rest assured, every detail about it is real. Except the year, where it took place and who was president when it happened.”

And this of course takes palace in the kitchen, just as Britt’s did, “because Republicans want me to appeal to woman voters, and women love kitchen.

Things take an even darker turn when Johansson mimics the tea-cup hypnosis scene from Jordan Peele’s “Get Out”—a reference made even creepier by how accurate it is—before assuring the American people “we hear you, we see you, we smell you. We're inside your kitchen right now looking through your fridge.”

And while the sketch received a ton of positive feedback, especially regarding Johanson’s performance, this comment takes the cake:

“When the source material is 500% stranger than the parody - we're in new territory.”


Watch the full segment below. And if you’ve missed Britt’s stranger-than-fiction original video, give it a whirl here.

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'SNL' cast can't keep it together during a sketch where Ego Nwodim battles her steak dinner

Bowen Yang had to cover his face.

via Saturday Night Live/YouTube

Pedro Pascal and Bowen Yang can't keep a straight face as Ego Nwodim tries to cut her steak.

Most episodes of “Saturday Night Live” are scheduled so the funnier bits go first and the riskier, oddball sketches appear towards the end, in case they have to be cut for time. But on the February 4 episode featuring host Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian,” “The Last of Us”), the final sketch, “Lisa from Temecula,” was probably the most memorable of the night.

That’s high praise because it was a strong episode, with a funny “Last of Us” parody featuring the Super Mario Brothers and a sketch where Pascal played a protective mother.

In “Lisa from Temecula,” Paul, played by Pascal, takes a few friends out for dinner, played by Punkie Johnson, newcomer Molly Kearney and breakout star Bowen Yang. The trouble comes when Johnson’s sister Lisa, played by Ego Nwodim, orders her steak “extra, extra well done.”

The sketch is a play on the notion that it’s a faux pas to order well-done steak, especially in a fancy restaurant. However, Lisa doesn’t care and won’t tolerate “one speck of red” on her steak.

The sketch is one of the rare moments on “SNL” where things are so funny that the cast breaks character. Pascal has difficulty getting through his lines and Yang has to cover his face because he can’t stop laughing. But Nwodim only has one small break in the scene and keeps it together as the sketch’s comedy core.

“Lisa from Temecula” got a lot of attention on social media and Nwodim later thanked the sketch’s writers Alex English, Gary Richardson and Michael Che.


This article originally appeared on 2.6.23

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Michael Che played a hilarious April Fool's prank on Colin Jost and they couldn't keep it together

"That's the meanest thing you've ever done to me."

via Saturday Night Live/YouTube

Michael Che pulls a prank on Colin Jost.

Many great comedians have sat at the helm of the “Weekend Update” desk on “Saturday Night Live” over the show’s 48 seasons. Chevy Chase was known for his cool deadpan. Dennis Miller was the hip intellectual. Norm Macdonald will go down in history for his endless OJ jokes that eventually got him removed from the desk. Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon were a great double act that was a fun mix of high-brow and low-brow humor.

The current anchors, Michael Che and Colin Jost, will probably best be known for making fun of each other. Over the years, one of the duo’s signature bits has been writing jokes for each other and reading them live for the first time. It seems like every time they do that bit, Che finds a new way to embarrass Jost.

On Saturday, April 1, Che was at it again, this time with a brutal April Fool’s prank where he secretly asked the audience not to laugh at any of Jost’s jokes.

Che and Jost opened their segment with jokes about the indictment of former president Donald Trump, but the audience laughed much harder at Che than at Jost. A few minutes into the bit, Jost made a joke at his own expense and it received only a smattering of laughter.

"At this point, it feels like even pro-Trump people have moved on," Jost said, referring to the trial before a superimposed image of him wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat and a sign that read, "LET OUR BOY GO!" appeared on the screen.

The gag was met with an audience member screaming, “You stink!" The heckle was the last straw for Jost, who hung his head in his hand in shame. At that point, Che gave up the gag.

"I told them not to laugh at you for April Fools,'" Che told Jost, and the two couldn’t keep it together. "That's the meanest thing you've ever done to me. I'm covered in sweat,” Jost told Che through fits of laughter.

"I was truly like, 'Am I not mic'd?' And then I was like, 'Oh, I just suck," Jost joked.

The crowd broke out in applause for Jost, but he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of acknowledging them after they refused to laugh at his jokes. "No, no! Don't even dare! Don't you even dare try now."

When it was Jost’s turn to tell his next joke, a bit about Florida Ron DeSantis, Che said, “They’ll probably laugh at this next one.” And the audience did.

The episode was hosted by Abbot Elementary’s Quinta Brunson, who shined in “Traffic Altercation,” a sketch where she and Mikey Day played motorists screaming at each other in traffic. The crux of the bit was that they couldn’t hear what each other was saying, so they had to argue using hand signals.


This article originally appeared on 4.3.23

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