This Week's "SNL" Might Leave You Craving a Waffle House Visit

Is it me, or is this season of Saturday Night Live embracing slapstick a little more than usual? The current season has featured some epically bad bartending and the sight of Brendan Gleeson’s hand bleeding everywhere, among other moments. That’s not meant as a criticism — SNL is often at its best when it balances high concept work with physical comedy.

A sketch from this week’s episode managed to find the perfect balance of both. It’s set up as a scene from a teen melodrama, with host Jenna Ortega and Marcello Hernández playing significant others conversing in the parking lot of a Waffle House. As they do so, keep an eye on the restaurant’s window behind them as the scene there turns absolutely chaotic.

Oretga and Hernández play their roles with utter sincerity, which makes their obliviousness to the increasingly ludicrous goings-on inside that much funnier. And for all that this sketch is based around chaotic physical comedy, there are also a few beatifically-timed moments over the course of the sketch.

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And for all that SNL presents Waffle House as a site of utter chaos, this sketch might well leave you craving a late-night visit there. Those hashbrowns are very tasty, after all.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…