Saturday Night Live wrapped up its 46th edition this past weekend and host Anya Taylor-Joy (TV’s The Queen’s Gambit) was in top form during her sketches throughout the season finale.
Like every SNL host, Taylor-Joy, who is Argentine-British, started the night with an opening monologue where she mentioned that it was the first time this season the audience was at full capacity (and fully vaccinated). She also broke down her ethnic background.
“Now that you’re hearing my accent, you may be surprised to know that I was born in Miami, raised between Argentina and London and my first language is Spanish,” she says. “So, legally, my ethnicity is Fashion Week.”
Then, Taylor-Joy said she wanted to start the show in Spanish: “Tenemos un show increíble para ustedes esta noche. Lil Nas X está acá así que por favor no se vayan a ningún lado.”
Some of the standout sketches of the night included Taylor-Joy and SNL regular Aidy Bryant playing bra store owners who specialize in customized big bras, including one called the “Load Bearing Wall” made by miniature two-by-fours. “This isn’t an undergarment,” Taylor-Joy says. “It’s scaffolding.” Bryant adds: “Designed by the same guys that unstuck the boat from the Suez Canal.”
In another skit, Taylor-Joy plays an angel who is reviewing the design of what the human man will look like. “What’s going on here?” she asks. “Are these the reproductive organs?” Another character responds: “Yup, the dangler and the wrinkle pouch.”
Taylor-Joy also danced and sang with some of the cast during a preview celebration of Pride Month during “The Pride Month Song.” Wearing knee-high, pink socks, she intros the song by telling viewers that last year Pride Month didn’t happen because of the pandemic, “So now we’re making up for lost time.”
Let’s just hope if Netflix decides there should be a season two of The Queen’s Gambit, none of the ideas the cast presented to Taylor-Joy in one of the evening’s sketches will make it to the writers’ room.