This weekend’s episode Saturday Night Live had everything: a defensive gay iceberg, gay-for-pay lesbians, and Kate McKinnon in 18th-century period dress.
The Carey-Mulligan-hosted outing was a strong effort overall from the first-time host, whose husband, Marcus Mumford, crashed her monologue to cheer the Promising Young Woman star on. But the clear standout of the evening was SNL breakout and professional lip-syncer Bowen Yang, who took on his greatest role since the horny, Harry Styles-starring Sara Lee skit: the Titanic iceberg. If you haven’t watched it already, do so immediately — because it is simply per-fec-tion, honey. Give him all the awards, immediately.
The show’s “Weekend Update” skit saw Yang donning a gigantic, meringue-looking hat and frosty blue lip gloss as the glacial mass, who claims he was minding his own business when tragedy struck him back in 1912. The sketch was timed to the 109th anniversary of the shipwreck on April 15, which the iceberg admitted is “always a really weird time of year for me.”
“That was a really long time ago. I’ve done a lot of reflecting to try and move past it,” he said, before adding a truly top-notch iceberg-related pun: “It’s one very small part of part of me but there’s so much going on beneath the surface that you can’t see.”
That’s when Yang’s character explains that he did not come on the show to rehash the past but instead to promote his new album: the Sia-esque titled Music, a “hyperpop EDM new disco fantasia.” “I think my publicist was very clear,” he says, stewing with indignation. “I’m not here to talk about the sinking.”
Before we move on, it must be noted now incredibly on Yang’s delivery is throughout the sketch, which was penned by SNL co-writer Anna Drezen. The way he enunciates every syllable of “sink-ing” is worth an Emmy alone.
As Jost explains that he invited on the iceberg to tell “his side of the story,” things only continue to go downhill from there. The iceberg, now on the verge of tears, says that while he’s sorry that “40 or 50 people who died or however many” died, he is the real victim in the tragedy. While he was minding his own business, he heard an “Irish cacophony” coming from the deck of the ship, and before he knew it, half his ass (his best feature!) was gone.
“You want to do this?” he asks. “Let’s do this! First of all, you came to where I live and you hit me! … They bumped into me. I said, ‘I’m sorry,’ which is insane. And then they’re playing the violin and yelling and the old people are spooning on the bed, ready to die.”
From that very night, the iceberg says he knew he would be painted as the villain. “I was looking at this and I was like, ‘Oh my god, they’re going to make a movie about this!’” he says.
But if people really need someone to blame, the iceberg put forward another suggestion: the North Atlantic. “No one’s talking about the water!” he exclaims. “What did the autopsy say? They iceberg-ded? No, they drowned bitch!”
The whole thing was absurd, surreal queer hilarity — which can only be expected by the man who brought us Trade Daddy Chen Biao and a Soul Cycle instructor who just so happens to share the same name of as the home of Michigan’s water crisis. But whatever, he doesn’t need that negativity in his life!
