This weekend’s Saturday Night Live featured singer and rapper Lizzo as both the host and the musical guest for the episode. Naturally, she took part in many of the sketches and one of these had her joining cast members Chris Redd and Bowen Yang to sing about something many of us can relate to: the joys of having a meal while watching something on YouTube.
Redd and Yang are Baskin & Robbins in the video clip and their song is titled “Sensual Evening In”. The title and the overall mood of the skit make it seem like the pair are about to sing a cheesy romantic song, but it turns out there is no romance. Nearly one minute into the song, Yang sings that he remembers he’s actually setting up all the candles and mood for no one but himself because “There’s no one home.”
So, as many of us do, Redd and Yang pull out their phones and open YouTube to watch something while they have dinner. Since there is “no one here to talk to” the pair find solace and entertainment in watching random videos. Some of these videos include cooking step-by-step, pimple popping, Joe Rogan clips, and amateur documentaries.
Halfway through the video, the song also takes aim at those who fall too deep into the rabbit hole of outlandish conspiracy theories and start believing everything they see on the internet. The song even changes tone a bit for Yang to express his concern for the kind of content Redd – or Demetrius - is apparently consuming on the platform.
Then comes Lizzo, the personification of “the algorithm” that apparently SNL decided should look almost like Elsa from Frozen. “I know you better than you know yourself” Lizzo raps as examples of random recommended videos pop up around her. Her power to know what people want to watch seems to confuse Yang and Redd which is an accurate representation of how we all must have felt at some point when the algorithm guessed something we want to watch.
Towards the end, Lizzo makes a suggestion that the pair decide to follow: to eat together instead of alone. However, they still have their phones open on YouTube as they stuff their faces with food while at the table together, and due to their full mouths, the lyrics to the song become indistinguishable.
This was certainly one of the most relatable sketches from this weekend’s SNL episode. Check the sketch out below:
