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Videos: Peter Dinklage Brings Dragons, Space Pants & Exclusive NYC Restaurants To <em>Saturday Night Live</em>
By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 3, 2016
Modified Apr 3, 2016
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 3, 2016
Modified Apr 3, 2016
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Peter Dinklage was the host of last night's all-new Saturday Night Live (with musical guest Gwen Stefani). And despite there being no signs of Peter Drunklage, it was an exceedingly silly episode filled with Game Of Thrones jokes, glory hole restaurants, space pants songs, and oodles of physical comedy.
It wasn't one of the best episodes of the season—there was a certain sluggishness all night and a handful of missed cues, like the writers and cast were still shaking off some cobwebs from having a few weeks off—but leaning in to their silliest instincts worked more often than not. All credit should go to Dinklage, who fearlessly committed to every weird thing the show threw at him. The must-watch sketch from the night was Mafia Meeting, which turned into one of the best sketches of the season thanks to Dinklage's impassioned and ridiculously catchy "Space Pants" song. His performance immediately erased the disastrous start to the sketch (everyone on stage seemed thrown off and the audience was confused when someone missed their entrance).
The other big highlights of the night all continued in this vein: Trendy Restaurant revolved around an exclusive new NYC restaurant set in a former sex parlor (and taking full advantage of old glory holes); Undersea Hotel was all about Taran Killam's wordless performance as a dead body floating near a honeymoon suite; and Vacation Nightmares was worth it just for Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon's ridiculous Danish-ish accents. Even weaker sketches like Winnie the Pooh were given a lift by the total ridiculousness of the outfits.
Another big highlight: Dinklage was equally committed in Naked & Afraid: Celebrity Edition, which wisely paired him with his physical opposite, Leslie Jones, for a very faithful parody of the reality show. Even with no Drunk Uncle and partner on Weekend Update, Kenan Thompson killed it with his (possibly final?) appearance as David Ortiz, who pitched several post-retirement plans. Pete Davidson also gave a very Pete Davidson monologue about the Gawker/Hulk Hogan verdict, which boiled down to the line, "We’ve got to stop making girls feel bad about having sex with random guys, or they’ll stop having sex with random guys."
Slightly less successful: the Game Of Thrones jokes didn't hit quite as hard as they have in the past. The Monologue was the weakest moment of the night, with Dinklage and George R.R. Martin (Bobby Moynihan) answering GOT questions. Also, the big GOT pre-taped segment wasn't half as funny as the classic 2012 sketch on GOT nudity (even if Moynihan's dragon noises were very funny).
Click through for all those sketches, plus a Cold Open about Trump's very bad week with women, a lukewarm sketch about a magic show joke gone wrong, and two really good performances from the ageless Gwen Stefani. Russell Crowe, star of the upcoming The Nice Guys, will host next week with musical guest Margo Price, and SNL alum Julia Louis-Dreyfus will host on April 16th with musical guest Nick Jonas.
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Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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