Season 46, E18: Lizzo
Airdate: April 16, 2022
Sketches:
- "Happy Easter Cold Open": The Easter Bunny (Bowen Yang) offers holiday greetings, with various political figures chiming in.
- "Trivia Game Show": An unruly contestant causes trouble on "Guess That!" by demanding partial credit for answers and declaring herself "Mayor of Gametown."
- "Black Eyed Peas": Two producers encourage The Black Eyed Peas as they record "Boom Boom Pow," "I Gotta Feeling," and "Let's Get it Started."
- "Six Flags": A woman brings her date home, only to be embarrassed when her grandparents and their friends interrupt—and said grandparents and friends are all versions of the dancing Six Flags guy from its 2000s ad campaign.
- "Tik Tok": A twenty-something scrolls TikTok, watching videos including a POV about waking up at a stranger's house, a woman giving an angry grammar lesson, a pensive ukulele cover of the "Kars for Kids" jingle, a helpful member of the furry fandom offering updates on the war in Ukraine, and an unhinged interview with Lizzo.
- "Throne Room": Party planners in an vaguely-Egyptian throne room prepare all of the things they need for a debauched orgy celebrating a god-king.
- "Please Don't Destroy—Lizzo Has Writer's Block": Lizzo must write two new songs for the show, and insists that Ben, Martin, and John help—especially because Andrew Dismukes has been given the authority to kill her if the tunes aren't good enough (something he's apparently done before).
- "Steve's Beanie Babies": Steve has recently quit his job and plans to live off the wealth he thinks he can gain by selling his vintage Beanie Baby collection. When his friends nervously tell him that the toys are no longer valuable, he and his girlfriend panic, especially because his only marketable skill is drawing Mario.
- "Orchestra": The DeVries Institute Symphony Orchestra desperately needs a flutist for the evening's performance. Beverly Gass applies for the job, but can only play her flute while twerking. Since it will look awkward if only one person is shaking their rear, the rest of the musicians suggest that they all twerk as a team.
Weekend Update sketches include Melissa Villaseñor as "Cesar Perez," Colin Jost's limo driver who attempts to do stand-up comedy, only to repeatedly apologize for insulting his nephew. Lizzo pulls double-duty as musical guest, performing "About Damn Time" and "Special."
It's About Damn Tropes:
- A Child Shall Lead Them: The punchline of "Throne Room" is that "Mazrathin, the God-King" is a preteen boy...who's about to be exposed to a massive orgy. And given that this is declared to be a weekly party, he's seen it before.
- Big Beautiful Woman: In "Orchestra," every straight man in the titular ensemble is clearly entranced by Beverly Gass, who's played by Lizzo. Kenan Thompson's character declares that she's amazing, while Alex Moffat's bassoonist takes great joy as she twerks right in front of him.
- Connected All Along: One of the early videos in "Tik Tok" shows a man who's spent nearly a year walking on all fours. At the end of the sketch, he's revealed to be the father of the person scrolling the app.
- Continuity Nod: In "Lizzo Has Writer's Block," the poster for "Boring Writers"—the fake movie that Paul Dano was working on in the Zoe Saldana episode—is visible on the wall.
- The Cover Changes the Meaning: Played for Laughs in "Tik Tok," when Melissa Villaseñor's video shows her singing a slow, mournful cover of the "1-877-KARS-4-KIDS" jingle.
- Culture Chop Suey: The Kingdom of Jeddah in "Throne Room" is a mashup of ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Arabic cultures. There are Egyptian hieroglyphics on the wall; a musician wears robes and a turban befitting a Middle Eastern country; the herald who announces the arrival of the god-king is in Roman armor; and Aidy Bryant's character resembles the Oracle of Delphi.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "Lizzo Has Writer's Block" ends with a new rap called "Horny Zookeeper." It's about a zookeeper who is horny.
- Many of the characters in "Throne Room" don't have names and are instead referred to by their titles, like "Sensuous Woman and her Tender Boy" and "The Man Who's Playing the Loud Abrasive Music."
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: In "Tik Tok," one of the videos shown is a woman furiously describing the difference between "You're" and "Your"...but the caption (only visible on screen for a few seconds) is "THEIR NOT THE SAME."
- Have a Gay Old Time: Implied when the producers in "Black Eyed Peas" wonder aloud what word to use to finish the song "Let's Get..."; Aidy Bryant's character says "it has to be something that we could say forever." The joke, of course, is that the original title of the song was "Let's Get Retarded," which was immediately decried and forced a change to "Let's Get it Started."
- Lady Swears-a-Lot: Lizzo is known for her love of swearing, and the writers get a lot of mileage out of it. It's particularly apparent in "Tik Tok," when she plays herself doing a radio interview and releases an absolute torrent of curse words, 95% of which are bleeped out.
- Noodle Implements: "Throne Room" features two party planners who are getting ready for an orgy celebrating their god-king. The list of people they need includes a "Sensuous Woman and Her Tender Boy," the "Old Woman Caked in Makeup with Rotten Teeth Who Laughs," and a priestess who makes out with a goat.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: During her opening monologue, Lizzo mentions that her mother used to scold her for cursing so often...but now that she's rich and successful, those complaints have gone out the window.
- Shared Family Quirks: In "Six Flags," it's revealed that the woman played by Lizzo is also a version of the Dancing Six Flags Guy, albeit not elderly.
- Take That!: The "Black Eyed Peas" sketch mercilessly mocks the band of the same name for their repetitive songs. For example, it turns out that the words to "Boom Boom Pow" were the temp lyrics that the label sent over, and the group never bothered to write over them.
- That Came Out Wrong: When Lizzo tells the guys of Please Don't Destroy that she needs a "Black woman anthem," they say that they can't provide one and offer a "white man anthem" instead—and immediately realize how terrible that sounds.
- This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: Lizzo mocks her own habit of doing this in her opening monologue, joking that she's hoping to set a record for the most times saying "Bitch" in a single episode of television.
- You Were Trying Too Hard: In "Lizzo Has Writer's Block," Lizzo and the guys of Please Don't Destroy desperately try to come up with a new song for her, but can't. When it seems like all is lost, Lizzo asks Ben, Martin, and John to tell her their sketch idea, and they give her the title alone: "Horny Zookeeper." Those two words are enough for Lizzo to improvise a rap song on the spot.
