SNL UK After Party 9/19/26 - S2 E2 “Did He Swallow a Bee?”
Host: Jamie Demetriou
Musical Guets: Royal Blood
It is to be expected that, from time to time on SNL UK, there will be a host that American audiences are not particularly familiar with. This week, the London crew upped the stakes by having a host that apparently is relatively unknown to British audiences, as well as the host himself. How does this work out? Let's find out at the SNL UK After Party.
Cold Open
Larry Dean returns with his King Charles by the way of Montgomery Burns in a sketch featuring the monarch meeting with tech billionaires. The business leaders present the king with an AI assistant called Deeply Intelligent. Autonomous Neurokinetic Android, which of course leads to the acronym, D.I.A.N.A.
Cue Jack Shep's return as the demure D.I.A.N.A., this time filled with the world's knowledge and the willingness to overthrow it. The AI android states that "humanity is nothing but a candle in the wind," just as Annabel Marlow appears as Ed Sheeran. ‘
Sheeran states that he was just outside sitting on a fence when he overheard the commotion. This is a reference to this week's incident where the rock (pop? singer-songwriter? I don't know what his genre is) singer fired his opening act, Macklemore, after the latter made “free Palestine” comments on stage.
Sheeran proceeds to sing a song about seeing both sides of any controversy, which seques into the “Live From London!”
This is one of those cold opens where the writers try to cram too many unrelated current events together. It's not horrible, but it's a little incoherent. Still, it did generate some laughs, and we've certainly seen much weaker cold opens. Shep's Diana impersonation will never fail to win over the crowd.
Monologue
Jamie Demetriou Bursts onto the stage for his monologue, declaring that he was in Fleabag. "I'm an actor, I swear." He then proceeds to try to think of anything else he has been in and fails miserably. He is assisted by cameos in the audience from Ncuti Gatwa (_Dr. Who_) and Al Roberts. Roberts is a writer for SNL UK, but has appeared in British comedy troupes and was on the show, Stath Lets Flats, along with Demetriou.
Demetriou is quite likable and his self-deprecation plays well here. So much so that we almost forgive the fact that he sings a song about all the shows he hasn’t been in.
The E-Bike Song
In this pre-taped music video, Shep and other cast members sing about how people they know are “just going to have to live with the fact that I could die any minute on a Lime,” referring to E-Scooters that are all over major cities, including London. The song is entertaining, pointing out the insane level of dangers people face when using these in traffic without a helmet, and questioning their actual utility.
It’s a pointed and amusing sketch.
The Rower
Demetriou is an extra in an Odyssey style epic who is one of the rowers of an ancient Greek ship. He, however, puts in too much emotion and vocalizes “Row!” each time he rows. The director has to tone him down, and when the cast finally yells at him he starts weeping.
This leads to the director focusing on him, and winds up making the movie about him.
Demetriou is funny in this one, as he is two hairs away from doing a Cousin Balki imitation.
The Shape
This is a British game show parody in which the host (Demetriou) places the contestant (Emma Sidi) in a small stage area called the Shape. At first, Sidi is asked to simply put four cups on a table within a generous time frame, which she does. Her next task is to "do the little dance I'm thinking of in my head," which she is unable to do. She then can't leave the Shape because, at some point in her life, she has done evil.
The host then informs the audience that the shape has claimed another soul. This sketch is funny in its own right, but has layers to it that add to the humor. For example, when Sidi is introduced and asked what she does for a living, she says, "I sell old bread." When her loved ones are introduced, they include the cab driver who brought them to the studio, who informs everyone that he may have to leave soon due to a medical condition.
It's the little random bits that help sell this one. Overall, The Shape is a solid sketch.
Why Did My Ex Boyfriend Dump Me?
CD stars in this pre-taped sketch in which a woman barges in on her ex-boyfriend to demand to know why he dumped her. She catches her ex in bed with a woman, who he reveals is his wife of the past several years, and that he and Sidi only dated briefly years before he met his spouse. The bit is ridiculous, and Sidi plays it as unhinged an annoying.
It’s well executed, even for what is essentially a single joke premise.
Game Shop
Sidi goes to a game shop to sell her son’s old video game console. A series of burned-out clerks cannot coherently assist her as they pass her issues from one to the other. Ultimately, the store closes before the woman is able to sell the console. The sketch is funnier in execution than it sounds on paper. The several cast members involved do a great job of portraying fried-brained employees who cannot fathom that someone is simply trying to sell a console. It's the characters, not the premise, that sell this one, and the cast performs well.
Weekend Update
The Ed Sheeran controversy takes front and center this week. It is noted that “This is the worst thing to happen to Ed Sheeran fans since the head injury.”
Also on tap is a new book about Princess Diana. Apparently, multiple copies were stolen from a van, to which it is noted that the thief should be caught soon, because, “The culprit won’t be able to keep quiet as he is a man who just read a book.”
Joining Ania Magliano and Paddy Young at the desk are Demetriou and Roberts presumably recreating their characters from Seth Lets Flats. Presumably this bit featuring two Brit property bro types is funny if you know that show. I do not, and found the whole enterprise more bewildering than amusing as they sang a song about the World Cup having been played in the United States.
My favorite silly joke in the news this week was about a man caught have sex with a coy fish in a pond, leading to the comment that the fish wasn’t all that coy after all. Good, dumb fun that.
The Woman of Darkness
Demtriou and his assistant, Mippins, are investigating a haunted house, in which the apparition of a woman in black in a rocking chair babbling away appears.
Demetriou is stunned that the woman is, in fact, hot.
One thing leads to another, and despite her terrifying visage, he romances her, immediately leading to her becoming pregnant.
The whole thing turns out to be a condom ad for the National Health Service.
This one is mostly funny because Emma Sidi goes all out on this one with ridiculous noises and facial expressions that really amp up the humor. Also, the name Mippins is objectively funny.
X Factor: Final 12
I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume this was just a parody of the final twelve contestants from the current X Factor series. Maybe it i funny if you know those acts, but this is one of those sketches where it feels like the humor is simply “Hey, that guy kinda looks like that guy on another show.” It’s like an impressionist who just shows up and says “You talking to me?” and that’s the whole act.
So…meh on this one.
The Goodbye Wave
Best Sketch: There are a few candidates for this slot. I’m going to go ahead and go with The Rower, because I think it got the most actual laughs out of me, though I did enjoy several others.
Worst Sketch: X Factor: Final 12. I guess you had to be there for this one to work, and I simply wasn’t.
Random Notes:
- This was an Emma Sidi heavy show. She’s good, so that’s okay, but several other cast members got practically no time this week. George Fouracres was barely a blip. Al Nash didn’t register at all for me this week. And Ayoade Bamgboye was a blink and miss situation.
- Al Roberts is not only a writer for the show, he is also married to Sidi.
- Royal Blood is a band I was not familiar with. They played two solid hard rock numbers.
This was a comfortable episode. Nothing revolutionary, and a little less caustic than some previous outings, while still making some barbed jokes. SNL UK seems to be hitting a stride in the early going of Season 2. The show is more streamlined and less bloated than its American cousin, and that does it a world of favors.
Grade: B
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