Doctor Strange star Benedict Cumberbatch on last night’s Saturday Night Live did what any weirdly gorgeous reptilian sex god should do to get laughs (his description, by the way, at least the lizard part): He targeted himself as much as the day’s headlines. In a game show sketch that had the female cast members playing themselves as contestants struggling to verbalize Cumberbatch’s appeal (and Cumberbatch himself charming the doubt right out of Beck Bennett’s resentful game show host), Doc Strange himself was at a loss.
And in a spot-on parody of Apple’s legendary “1984” commercial, Cumberbatch demonstrated his personal aplomb even when perched on that most unsexy of appliances: The toilet. The digital short replaced Apple computers as the agent of change with a Koohl backward toilet, on which the user faces front, arms draped across the tank in rebel fashion. Cumberbatch was right at home on the throne, and the spot made a fine mash-up of commercial history and red-hot stardom. Watch it above.
Less successful was “Surprise Bachelorette,” a waste of the Cumberbatch cool and a surprise appearance by three Chicago Cubs. Dropping a male stripper routine smack dab in a Weekend at Bernie’s scenario, the bit had Cumberbatch and SNL newbie Mikey Day as dimwitted low-rent strippers trying to enliven an old lady’s bachelorette party – even though the old lady herself (Aidy Bryant) isn’t exactly there to enjoy it.
Cubs Anthony Rizzo, David Ross and Dexter Fowler made the first of their night’s two SNL visits, and they probably shouldn’t have been so greedy: Not even the comedy professionals could squeeze many laughs from whipped cream sex with an unresponsive granny. But judge for yourselves – I’ve been wrong before…
