Olivia Rodrigo hosted SNL for the first time and starred in seven sketches that made it to air Saturday night (May 2) in an episode that had her pulling double duty as musical guest. Following a political cold open and Rodrigo’s monologue, the show launched with a terrifically absurd sketch that set the tone for an evening of quirky comedy.
SNL‘s writers played on Rodrigo’s musicality this week: The You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love artist sang in two top sketches, as well as in her monologue. (This was all in addition to her first televised live performance of the giddy new single “Drop Dead” and her debut of the emotionally turbulent ballad “Begged“).
Throughout the episode, Rodrigo portrayed a weird assortment of roles including soap opera villain, human teen trapped in an zoo exhibit on Bug Planet, girl obsessed with her ex at a friend’s birthday, lava cake maker blissfully unaware of how her goods look, main character in an Isley Brothers “Busted” parody, witness of the next greatest white Rasta artist, and TikToker with an unexpected employer. (Dress rehearsal attendees report on Reddit that the production also tested at least two more sketches with Rodrigo, one on situationships and another that had her as a guest on a Kenan Thompson-hosted daytime talk show. At press time, no cut-for-time sketches have been made available online.)
Studio 8H brings out nerves in even the best performers. Naturally delivering late rewrites via cue card isn’t an everyday skill, unless you’re full-time cast.
Rodrigo’s previous TV work — from little girl in an Old Navy commercial to Disney Channel series regular — and the stage command she’s developed over countless nights on tour as a musician — served her quite well in preparing for the chaos of Saturday Night Live. Or “Saturday Night Liv,” as she quipped on Instragram post-show.
The night was a milestone moment for Rodrigo, who’d only performed as musical guest before (twice, in 2021 and 2023).
In fact, probably still abuzz from the afterparty, on Sunday she called it the “best night of my mf life!!!! such a dream come true!!!” She thanked Lorne Michaels and the SNL team in her social update — “for being so welcoming and brilliant. will remember this forever!!!!”
Here’s a ranking of every sketch Rodrigo was in on the show that aired Saturday night. Watch all seven sketches from the May 2 episode of SNL below.
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“Home Security Ad”
The pre-taped commercial parodies on Saturday Night Live are a go-to hit. This one is meant to make you snicker at the idea of TikTok stars somehow acting as community helpers, with their paycheck coming in from a home security company, as they divert house robbers from getting away with the crime by putting them on the spot for their next mind-numbing reel. Rodrigo portrays one of those influencers, but her overall screentime is limited.
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“Edge of Destiny”
Props go to the set builders and special effects editors of the opening sketch Saturday night, who had to make it difficult for the scene’s players to keep a straight face. (Rodrigo mostly got through it.)
Soap operas are an easy pick to satirize, but the real humor here is in the series of insane tumbling down the stairs — for every character involved. Rodrigo gets to play the bad guy and flex physical comedy skills, making for a fun way to start the night.
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“My Ex”
Cue “Get Him Back!” It’s almost like Rodrigo’s fun Guts track addressing mixed feelings about an ex (“I wanna get him back/ I wanna make him really jealous, wanna make him feel bad/ Oh, I wanna get him back/ ‘Cause then again, I really miss him, and it makes me real sad”) was the springboard for the premise of this sketch, which has this weekend’s star conspiring to make her ex jealous — and vice versa — at a mutual friend’s birthday dinner.
Rodrigo plays the part believably — maybe she’s been there before — while SNL‘s Ben Marshall (the ex) and Ashley Padilla (the random tablemate Ben asks, and then really regrets asking, to pretend to be his date) escalate the awkward scenario in increasingly unsound ways.
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“Busted”
Going in with or without knowledge of the source material for this spoof — the melodramatic music video for The Isley Brothers’ 2003 R. Kelly-produced single “Busted” — shouldn’t matter. Opposite Marcello Hernández, Rodrigo plays the lover of a pajama-clad lad losing sleep over suspicion she’s deceiving him. Busted! Even if she is getting home at the pretty reasonable hour of 10 p.m. The two keep in character while keeping to the rhythm of the 2003 track as they quarrel through song, with impressive musical-comedic timing.
Surprise pop-ins from James Austin Johnson, as a robber trapped in the closet, and Jane Wickline, as the robber’s wife hiding under couch cushions, elevate an already funny bit. Wickline’s very on-brand verse might be the line of the night: “I followed him here/ I thought he was cheating, I had suspicions / I got these long-ass legs/ So I be jumping to conclusions.”
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“Shop TV: Lava Cake”
SNL‘s “Shop TV” sketches rarely disappoint. This one, starring Rodrigo as the sweet southern Daisy of Daisy’s Custom Cakes live-selling her concoctions, features her famous chocolate lava cake that everyone but Daisy seems to, well, see something else in. But the scene doesn’t let it all loose. Maybe the visual of explosive peanut butter-chocolate lava escaping the cake’s center was just a bit too much for network TV.
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“Rasta Driver”
“Rasta Driver” might actually be the sketch from Saturday night to bring the most laughs. It’s runner-up on this Rodrigo-focused list, but deserves a standing ovation for Andrew Dismukes. More often cast as the straight character — the one who dependably holds his ground as the comedic foil to whatever ridiculous thing is going on in a sketch — Dismukes stuns even himself with a soul-stirring dancehall performance at the wheel, one that leaves the two chatty party girls (Rodrigo, Veronika Slowikowska) in the backseat of his Uber speechless. His commitment to the bit, even when Rodrigo gives her honest review that the song’s “kinda trash,” holds strong: “I wish that was true, sweetheart, I really do. It was next-level and I can’t escape my destiny.”
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“My Room”
Will Olivia Rodrigo’s “My Room” stand the test of time like Ariana Grande’s “My Best Friend’s House” has among SNL fans? The pre-taped Saturday Night Live Midnight Matinee sketch starts off with pop pleasantry, with a nostalgic picture painted by lyrics former teens of a certain generation will appreciate: that purple phone with the curly cord, that lava lamp, those boy band posters, that bean bag chair, those glow-in-the-dark ceiling stars, that TV with bullt-in VHS player in your childhood bedroom…
The twist? That perfect ’90s room is in a zoo on the bug people planet.
“Every day when the sun comes up/ The bug people come look at me/ They let the zoo members come in first/ And the older bugs get in free,” sings Rodrigo, describing her everyday, and later pining over her big bug crush, as though the song’s a diary entry. “They watch me through my boy band posters/ Beady eyes all in a row/ They sit on bleachers while I use the toilet/ When I flush, they clap like it’s a dolphin show.”
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