In its best cold open of the season, SNL strapped Chloe Fineman into some nude chunky heels and set her loose as Britney Spears. (In a perfect world, though, Fineman would have added a little sweet tea tang to her girl’s accent.) Since the world owes Spears an apology for how it chewed her up and threw her broken parts at her father’s feet, who better to host an apology tour talk show called Oops, You Did It Again?
Her first guest was Aidy Bryant’s Ted Cruz—clutching his piña colada, his Cancun t-shirt pulled taut over his swamp belly, red white and blue beads clacking away on his beach cornrows. (In a perfect world, though, she’d have lost the beard, as Cruz was clean-shaven in those shameful airport pics.) “Oh no, I’m not tan—I just cried myself red over my fellow Texans,” insisted Bryant, nailing Cruz’s dumbass fake grin. The disgraced Senator was soon joined by Andrew Cuomo–my God; if the governor ever puts out a memoir, let Pete Davidson record the audiobook—and Cecily Strong’s Gina Carano. Perfectly, neither wanted a thing to do with Cruz, with Carano reminding him that “I am strong, and you are a pile of soup.”
Host Regé-Jean Page reduced the studio audience into a pile of soup, that’s for sure. The writers played directly into his moment as Bridgerton’s sex god, with the actor good-naturedly in on the joke and along for the ride. After insisting in his monologue that he was just a shy, regular, nerdy guy, Page went right to his fan base’s crotches with a random few bars of “Unchained Melody.” The audience yipped and hooted. And has there ever been a lustier roar of appreciation from Studio 8H than when later in the episode, Page mounted the Bridgerton bed in costume to rehearse a sex scene? “We definitely have other sketch ideas where you aren’t just being an extremely hot sex man,” lied Bryant.
The man’s fineness has been an act of service this pandemic. Personally, it was the sight of him in a face shield as his manager character tased Kyle Mooney for failing to put on a mask in a grocery store that did it for me.
Cheers to the “Loco” digital short for honoring the crazy in all of us, particularly those of us down here in Texas who’ve emerged back into the land of power and running water only to find ourselves still marooned in a pandemic. Ego Nwodim was looking cute at the club, her eyes trained on Page. “I’m a bad bitch,” she sang. “No, you’re alone and you’re stoned watching Hitch,” corrected Page.