David Harbour stars as Oscar the Grouch in this new must-watch SNL skit
This past Saturday, SNL produced a faux-trailer starring David Harbour as Oscar the Grouch as we’ve never seen him before. Check it out!
If you’ve been on social media in the past couple of weeks, you’ve probably seen something about Joaquin Phoenix’s new film, Joker. Whether it’s been good or bad reviews or news about the possible violence theaters were expecting due to the nature of the film depends on who you follow. But no matter your views, it’s clear the anti-hero storyline is not going anywhere. And when something permeates pop culture that much, it will inevitably become a sketch on Saturday Night Live.
This past Saturday, SNL did just that. But with a bit of a twist.
Stranger Things’ David Harbour was the guest host this week, and he took the starring role in their version of a trailer for another anti-hero film. As Harbour has played many a sad white guy, it was clear he was perfect for this role.
With same aesthetic as Joker, the fake trailer showed David Harbour starring as the grumpiest guy of them all: Oscar the Grouch. In the short skit, we see Oscar as a grouchy garbage man.
But when he sees how the world on Sesame Street is deteriorating, he decides the world is too dark for him to live in as he is. We are then shown a montage of crime and corruption with Snuffleupagus as a pimp, Elmo getting arrested for crack, Cookie Monster begging for cookies on the street, Count von Count counting his pills, and Bert and Ernie getting mugged.
Watch the SNL parody here:
So Oscar changes his life. He lives in a trash can, smears his face with green makeup, and gains followers to his dark way of living who he insists call him “the Grouch.” Honestly, the best part is when he’s singing the Sesame Street theme song from inside his trash can. *chef’s kiss*
This skit perfectly demonstrates the genius of SNL. They may not get it right all the time — and they could definitely do with a more diverse cast — but when they take a piece of pop culture and skew it just enough to make it funny, they achieve something close to perfection.
It’s hard to picture anyone else in the role after you watch the clip. David Harbour and the other actors play it perfectly serious, and that’s what makes it so funny. The fact that the writers chose something that almost everyone loved as a child also makes it comical in an incredibly cringe-worthy way.
No one wants to see their favorite childhood characters from Sesame Street go dark. It’s the epitome of wholesome content which is probably why it drives the point home. We don’t need a dark and gritty movie about every villain or childhood character ever. Please stop, Hollywood!
Next. Looking back at Leslie Jones' funniest SNL skits. dark