Job interviews gone very wrong are a comedic staple, and one that different shows and comedians have put distinctive spins on. From Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase playing a fraught game of word association on Saturday Night Live to Mr. Show throwing a lie detector test into the mix, there are a vast array of possibilities, many of them hilarious.
In last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live, host Regé-Jean Page played an applicant for a job at an advertising agency being interviewed by Beck Bennett; Bowen Yang played Bennett’s assistant. There’s a lot going on here — the notes Yang keeps handing out could serve as the centerpiece of a sketch all their own. Gradually, the viewer discovers that the advertising agency at the heart of the sketch is — shall we say — not very good at what they do.
When Page notes that the firm is “an ad agency that works on spec,” Bennett replies that it “sounds like a terrible business model,” but “business is booming.” Things escalate from there, pushing the sketch into higher and higher levels of absurdity.
Page, Bennett and Yang all do a fine job of playing utterly bizarre material with the utmost gravitas. And there’s an added bonus for the small detail — the waves in one sketch going the wrong way, for instance. Weird SNL is often the best SNL, and this sketch is a fine example of that.
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