John Mulaney‘s hosting gig on Saturday Night Live last night was one of the best in a long time, with sketches that were pretty consistently laugh-out-loud funny and mostly managed to be so by being amusing and strange rather than overtly topical. But there was one bit cut for time that also feels like it might have been appropriately cut for tone. It’s definitely weird, a month or so shy of being topical, and a subdued kind of funny. But dare we say–it’s strangely poignant while being utterly absurd.
It involves the Fish Man from The Shape of Water. Forget that you and I know that the movie performer is the brilliant Doug Jones in a costume; in this version, he’s a real fish man (Kyle Mooney) who just wants to be a photographer rather than a movie star, and cedes all his post-Oscar opportunities to fellow gilled-dude Roger (Mulaney). Things don’t work out the way he hopes. And while this short film isn’t by Guillermo del Toro (as far as we know, anyway), it does manage to make you feel for a guy in a goofy rubber mask too. Plus there’s a great and unexpected celebrity cameo.
It’s about life. Get it?
Oddly, that wasn’t the only semi-sad story of an ocean-dwelling humanoid. In the night’s best and most random sketch that did make it to air, Pete Davidson orders lobster at a Greek diner, only to have said crustacean (Kenan Thompson) and his daughter (and the waitstaff) segue into a full-on performance of Les Miserables. SNL often does song parodies, but full-on musicals are rare.
What was your favorite SNL moment? Let’s discuss in comments.
Image: NBC
The Shape of Water, in review…
- Read our original assessment of this year’s Best Picture.
- Check out the visual effects breakdown.
- And celebrate the real actor behind the Fish Man.
