As a fan of Sabrina Carpenter, I was super excited to hear that she was announced as the next host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live. However, I had never seen SNL, so Carpenter’s performance was my introduction to the show, and it ended up surprising me in both good and not-so-good ways.Â
The trailerÂ
The Sex and the City-themed teaser trailer really hyped up my expectations for the episode. It was packed full of sexual innuendos, which are a major part of Sabrina Carpenter’s brand, as can be seen in her tour shenanigans, with her different sex positions during her song “Juno” and a bit of her arresting someone from the crowd for being too hot.
The teaser trailer was praised on social media and worked wonders to build anticipation for the upcoming episode. However, in the actual episode, there weren’t any references to the show, which threw me off as a first-time viewer. Although the commercial cards were in a similar Sex and the City fashion, this helped make up for the confusion.Â
The Domingo skit
Although I had never seen SNL, I had seen plenty of clips from the show, such as the viral “Domingo” skit, in which Carpenter’s hit song, “Espresso,” was sung at a wedding describing the bride’s infidelity on their bridesmaids’ trip. This helped Carpenters’ “Espresso” become the ultimate song of the summer as it blew up on TikTok and other social media platforms.
On SNL’s latest episode with Carpenter, the “Domingo” skit was revised, now with Carpenter and the rest of the bridesmaids utilizing multiple viral songs to joke about the bride’s infidelity with a man named Domingo. My only issue with this Domingo reprise as the cold open for Sabrina Carpenter’s SNL episode is that the joke has been overdone. Saturday Night Live had created three different Domingo song skits before Carpenter’s rendition, making four Domingo skits total. Many fans have expressed their annoyance at the repetition of the skit, with one TikTok user commenting under a video criticizing the skit, “Domingo was so boring and they just keep dragging it.” The comment has over 10k likes, confirming that at least a few fans agree with my opinion that Domingo is overdone.
The other skits
Despite the Domingo skit, a few of the other skits were very enjoyable for me to watch. I loved Snack Homiez, a fake podcast made by twelve-year-olds to talk about their favorite foods. The skit was full of Gen Alpha sayings and even had a cameo from a fake President Donald Trump.
Another skit I enjoyed was the Girl Boss Seminar, which featured a fake Sabrina Carpenter doll that got thrown out of a window multiple times. All the while, Carpenter was urging characters to take a look at their internalized misogyny with increasingly scrambled speech, due to a concussion from getting thrown out of a window.
I also enjoyed the mockumentary skit at the end of the episode in which a man tries to prove that people have negative assumptions about others due to how they look. However, in the skit, he dresses his test subjects up as Frankenstein’s monster, which, of course, leads to the people being frightened and only serves to prove the man right. Â
Musical PerformancesÂ
The best part of the show by far was Sabrina Carpenter’s performance of her hit song “Manchild.” During the performance, Carpenter was singing in a bedroom set that looked like it was straight out of a coming-of-age movie. She was also dancing in a t-shirt and underwear that said “it’s Saturday night” on the back, which sparked controversy with people saying she was showing too much skin; however, for the creative direction of the performance, the outfit makes sense. She used a hairbrush as a microphone, completely encapsulating the feeling of dancing in your room to one of your favorite songs. The use of the bedroom scene and its props was divine, with Carpenter using the books, bed, and vanity to add even more flair to her performance.
Her second musical performance of the night was the song “Nobody’s Son.” During this performance, Carpenter took on a more humorous tone as she sang and danced around on a set designed to look like a dojo. This paired perfectly with a joke they did during the performance, where Carpenter would break a wooden board with ease when there was a snapping sound effect in the song.
As someone who had never seen Saturday Night Live, I can say that it was pretty enjoyable. I really enjoyed watching Carpenter’s performance, not only musically but also her acting. The skits were fun, and very few of them had jokes that I would consider to be cringe. Even when there were moments I didn’t necessarily enjoy, I still had a few laughs, and while I might not become a regular watcher of SNL, I feel that I will be more inclined to tune in when they have a guest star that I’m a fan of.Â