Charli XCX Brings Brat Fall to ‘Saturday Night Live’

It’s a pity some may have given up on Saturday Night Live during the cold open, at the agonizing sight of James Austin Johnson’s President Trump and Dana Carvey’s President Biden sitting knee to knee in the White House. These are not laughing times. Even Carvey’s great turn as Biden—stumbling around for words, eyes popping up and out in gee whiz confusion—is starting to feel tiresome. “It’s my own version of ‘the weave,’” he said. “I call it ‘the wander.’” But then Sarah Sherman entered stage left as Trump’s ridiculous pick for Attorney General, Matt Gaetz. She was nearly unrecognizable underneath those eyebrows drawn like toddlers’ birds, plastic cliff of a forehead, and Elvis hair. (Alec Baldwin popped up as Trump’s proposed head of Health and Human Services RFK Jr., but his cameos at this point are starting to feel rote.) There’s a contagiousness to the delight Sherman takes in full-tilt buffoonery. And once we got Trump and Biden off the stage, the episode was off to the races.

Host and musical guest Charli XCX is a right bitchy sundae. As a sketch partner, she had good edge and a light touch. As musical guest, going solo on stripped-down stages for both numbers, she had a mesmerizing authority. (Julia Fox was an inspired choice to make the first intro; Bowen Yang an affectionate one for her second performance.)

In her monologue, Charli seemed free of nerves and pandering. She tried to help the old among us finally understand what it means to be Brat. She pointed to the double brat moves of Martha Stewart rejoicing in the death of journalist Andrea Savage, who once wrote unfavorably of her, and then Savage declaring the next day, “I’m alive, bitch.” What a treat to see Kyle Mooney, who appeared with Charli in the hallucinatory favorite “Christmas Socks” sketch a couple of years ago, back in Studio 8H, wondering if even a mensch like him could hope for Brat status. “Favorite kind of club?” she quizzed him. “Probably turkey,” he said. Charli XCX ended her monologue with the promise, “I’m here, so stick around, we’ll be right back!” Brat.

Every other commercial these days seems to a be a promo for the Wicked movie, or a Wicked tie-in, or a Wicked collab, or a Wicked porn “URL error.” The world bleeds pink and green right now. That said, the sketch about Wicked screen test auditions was a total delight. Chloe Fineman went to work. She gave us Jo Jo Siwa in hot pink and spikes butchering “Popular,” and Sydney Sweeney’s gummy, drowsy pitch of “Hey, wait, are you like a wizard or whatever?” The Hollywood Squares of Oz hopefuls included Sherman’s Bernie Sanders running for Mayor of Munchkin Land; Yang’s Fran Lebowitz; Marcello Hernandez going all in on Sebastian Maniscalco’s physical jerkiness and extended vowels. The best screen test, though, sent out to the gays on Cupid’s arrow, featured Yang playing Charli XCX and Charli XCX as Troye Sivan.

Poor Andy Samberg must bid Second Gent Doug Emhoff adieu. But he stuck around for another weekend and treated the audience to a new digital short, this time playing a local narc who likes to call the cops on a dime. “I’m itchin’ to do some snitchin,” he sang, before calling 911 on his white neighbors like Colin Jost. Charli XCX joined as his equally aggressive wife, and soon the two had landed a pug in tiny handcuffs.

During Weekend Update, Yang threw on a mullet and a handlebar mustache for a turn as Joe Exotic, lobbying for the role of Director of Fish and Wildlife in Trump’s administration. And Sherman appeared as the grieving widow of viral sensation Peanut the Squirrel. This weirdo was born to squirk. She jittered, she tensed, she had enormous fun trying to match the gnashing of her teeth to a prerecorded sound effect. There appeared to be an entire other human being hiding below the desk tasked with operating her giant squirrel tail as it nuzzled and bumped Jost.

The final sketch was as weird and unhinged as any in the first half hour: Shrek the Musical fans heading to Domino’s for an after-theater dinner, as one does. Charli XCX and Sherman delayed plans by sneaking in make-out sessions with Shrek, as evidenced by the green paint smears on various body parts. Yang’s character, arbitrarily high on Adderall and yelling at everyone, was outed as a fellow Shrek slut, and confessed to getting an over-the-pants, below-the-waist motorboat. These are exhausting times, and this is the kind of nonsense we need right now.

Happy birthday, Lorde!