This weekend’s Saturday Night Live was, as you might guess, an especially musical episode. That was to be expected, given that Lady Gaga was both host and musical guest for the episode in question. Several of the evening’s sketches — including one about overuse of the word “slay” and perhaps the weirdest version of a certain Eric Clapton song ever — included plenty of opportunities for the host (and Bowen Yang) to sing.
Even in sketches where the cast didn’t break into song, music wasn’t far from the foreground. One of the episode’s highlights was a sketch featuring Gaga and Heidi Gardner as funeral home directors. Funeral planning isn’t exactly a subject that lends itself to humor, but this sketch works for a couple of reasons.
The first is the way that the funeral home directors seem to really, really want to hold a Roaring Twenties-themed funeral, despite the fact that this would clearly be a terrible idea. The other is the sense that the boyfriend of the bereaved (Andrew Dismukes) might have some unflattering secrets of his own — and is perhaps a little too eager to try a sample signature cocktail.
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Some surprisingly bittersweet moments amidst the comedyThe sketch’s slow escalation from relatively grounded to the increasing chaos with which it comes to an end also works to its benefit. It’s also a good showcase for Gardner’s talent at playing memorably inappropriate characters, which gets a workout over the course of these four minutes.
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