Are you confused by the headlines about the ongoing debate among Canadian bra collectors? drake and Pulitzer Prize winner Kendrick Lamar? You’re not alone, Dua Lipa proposed as host and musical guest at Saturday night live. Posing as a local television morning show culture critic named Wanda Weems, Lipa tried – and arguably failed – to explain the origins of the dispute using this kind of support visually that one might expect to depict an international conspiracy or the work of a serial killer.
The dispute between the former collaborators has been brewing since 2013, when Lamar’s verse on Big Sean’s song “Control” appeared to take aim at Drake, along with other members of the music community. Things quickly escalated last month, when the pair began exchanging competing songs listing grievances against the other, as well as accusations of misconduct and other crimes.
See how easy it is? Again, I am not an employee Good morning Greenville, fictional locally broadcast morning show that SNL featured in its most recent episode. In the sketch, Mikey Day And Heidi Gardner provides disturbingly accurate representations of the kind of funny yet creepy people who host these shows. Quoting (sic throughout) “Kanye, Two Pack, Shoop Dog, As Soon as Could Rocky” as rappers mixed in beef “like they were chopped onions and cayenne pepper,” the host Day’s submission asked, “Why can’t I be Team Rap in general?”
Meanwhile, Gardner’s character asks “And where does Wayne Brady stand? Has he answered yet?”
After Derek the weather forecaster (Devon Walker) refused to participate, Dua Lipa walked in with a Southern accent. After admitting that she was qualified to assess the situation because she was an elementary school piano teacher, Lipa stepped in front of a board littered with photos, objects, and cross-pin sections of yarn.
What follows is an explanation that’s just dangerously accurate, punctuated by cancel-worthy questions from the host. The whole thing ends with a puppet show that satirizes racism and threatens to use racial slurs.
Would I have laughed at this sketch a little more if I hadn’t heard the many comments from this sketch expressed sarcastically in recent days by people who actually exist in the world? Maybe! That fact is probably what makes it a pretty solid sketch, but it’s also what makes it a little heartbreaking to watch.
