Last year, I spent a couple of days in New Zealand. I had some time to kill one night and looked up bars near the music venue that was my ultimate destination, and wound up feeling like I was in another country — just not the other country I was in at the time. The Manchester United jersey on the wall was one of several indicators that I was in, essentially, an English pub that happened to be in Auckland.
As someone who watches a lot of Premier League soccer, British pubs located outside of the U.K. are a space I know all too well. It isn’t too surprising that someone would see the comedic potential there, and Saturday Night Live UK has seized the opportunity: this weekend’s sketch featured a musical number about a number of tourists traveling to Spain from Bristol, where they promptly seek out the comforts of home.
There’s a lot to savor here, from potato-based humor to the lament of a woman who spent a year perfecting her Spanish only to spend all of her time in a pub where no one actually speaks Spanish. Host Jamie Dornan has a memorable cameo at the end; if any Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar fans were waiting for a follow-up to the hit single “Edgar’s Prayer,” this might be the closest you’ll get for a while.
“SNL” and Harry Styles Offered Cruise Ship Advice This Week
Styles returned to the show as both host and musical guestThis sketch also explores another aspect of travel that’s ripe for humor: international travelers who aren’t terribly interested in their destination. When Adam Sandler hosted SNL a few years ago, one of the highlights of that episode featured Sandler as a tour operator reminding potential guests that simply going to Italy won’t automatically make them happy. This isn’t quite the U.K.-centric response to that sketch, but it isn’t far removed from it either.
More Like This
This article appeared in an InsideHook newsletter. Sign up for free to get more on travel, wellness, style, drinking, and culture.