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Videos: Phoebe Waller-Bridge Was Effortlessly Charming In SNL Debut

Ben Yakas

Published Oct 7, 2019

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Phoebe Waller-Bridge

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Ben Yakas

Published Oct 7, 2019

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In America, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is foremost known as the brains behind Fleabag, her one-woman show turned beloved award-winning comedy series. She's also the creator of Killing Eve, the co-writer of the upcoming Bond movie, and the impossibly cool woman from those recent Emmys photos. You know, those photos. This weekend, she got exposed to a whole new audience as the host of Saturday Night Live. And as it seems to go with everything else she does, she pretty much killed it.

Waller-Bridge was effortlessly charming during the Monologue, which was a longer than average monologue despite not being traditional stand-up comedy. It was hilarious however, whether she was explaining the motivation behind Fleabag ("It began as a way to get Andrew Scott to dress up as a priest and tell me that he loves me") or coining the term "horn-storm." "We all find weird things sexy and women can now speak openly about their desires without being burned at the stake, which is nice," she said. "Back in the day, horny women were to be feared—and now they're given Emmys!"

The best sketch of the night was The War in Words: William and Lydia, a sequel to last season's outstanding sketch featuring Claire Foy. This one has a similar letter-writing premise, but takes the absurdist word play in a different direction, this time involving a mysteriously missing dog and a cocktail party with Hitler.

Another winner: Mid-Day News, in which five news anchors (Waller-Bridge, Kenan Thompson, Ego Nwodim, Alex Moffat, Chris Redd) report the local news while trying not to react to the race of each subject. It ends up becoming a competition with scorekeeping and the like—it's also a great showcase for Nwodim, who has been getting some much-deserved screen time this season (Pete Davidson hasn't appeared either of the first two episode because he's filming The Suicide Square, while Melissa Villaseñor and Heidi Gardner had very quiet weeks).

Another returning sketch this week was Another What's Wrong with This Picture? It wasn't quite as good as the Paul Rudd version from last year's finale, but it still had some great one-liners, and "Mr. Pants" will always be a hilarious name.

There was a jumbo-sized Weekend Update this week with three guests, to make up for last week's noticeably short one. Two of them were recurring characters: Mikey Day's character Mort Fellner talked about the achievements of elderly Americans, and Kate McKinnon revived her pitch-perfect Elizabeth Warren. But the highlight this week was someone totally new: new cast member Bowen Yang stole the show as Chinese trade representative Chen Biao, who is both “100 percent that trade daddy” and "the Lizzo of China."

You can check out the rest of the episode's sketches below, including a pre-taped parody of Love Island that was mostly a chance for everyone to unleash their most ridiculous UK accents; a Kenan Thompson-showcase in Royal Romance; and the 10-to-1 sketch, Kaylee, Crystal & Janetta, in which Waller-Bridge, McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Aidy Bryant got to have a lot of fun at Beck Bennett's expense. As for the Cold Open, it was both utterly terrible and utterly forgettable (despite Matthew Broderick popping up as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and having Stephen Miller played by a snake), but if you are morbidly curious, click here.

There was also one cut-for-time sketch: a commercial for Tampax Secrets, the only tampon hidden inside things you'd be less embarrassed to take out of your bag in public.

Even if you consider yourself Taylor Swift agnostic, her performances of "False God" and especially "Lover" were pretty good.

David Harbour, star of Stranger Things, will make his hosting debut next week, with musical guest Camila Cabello, also making her debut.

Tagged

comedy

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

saturday night live

snl

television

taylor swift

Ben Yakas

Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

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