Actor Oscar Isaac took center stage at 30 Rockefeller Plaza’s Studio 8H this past weekend to host Saturday Night Live (SNL) for the first time in his career. And it turned out to be a very memorable and hilarious evening.
We’re being facetious, but in case this whole movie star thing – or his new venture with Marvel’s Moon Knight – doesn’t pan out for Isaac, maybe SNL creator Lorne Michaels can give him a spot on the long-running sketch comedy show. Isaac definitely held his own alongside veterans like Kenan Thompson, Cecily Strong, and Aidy Bryant.
Oscar Isaac became the second Latine to host SNL during its 47th season. Oscar-nominee Ariana DeBose hosted the show on January 15, 2022. Here’s a look at five best moments from Isaac’s episode.
1
Kid Oscar
Isaac opened the show by reminding the audiences that he was born Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada. He joked that he allowed Hollywood to choose two of those names as his professional moniker. “Guess what they went with,” he said. “The white ones.” Isaac then shared real home movies of himself as a kid making movies with his friends. Footage of his first amateur film, The Avenger, featured a 10-year-old Isaac as a ninja assassin. “Arguably better than the real Avengers,” he said. “And I made it for half the budget – only $110 million.”
2
Mr. Fix-It
Kenan Thompson played the host of a home repair show called In Over Your Head where he interviews people who’ve failed at DIY projects. One of his guests is Felix Crewe (Isaac), a man who thought it would be easy to install a circuit breaker himself. Isaac showed up wearing burnt clothes and sporting ashy hair. It looked like he was blown up with dynamite in a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. “I kept telling my wife, it’s just wires,” Isaac’s Felix said. “Babe, it’s just wires. Honey, nothing’s going to happen, it’s wires.” And did Felix learn anything from this near-death experience? “Gloves,” he said. “You’ve got to wear gloves.”
3
Aspiring Writer
Playing an awkward high school janitor named Mike, Isaac stepped into a writer’s workshop where it is revealed that he, too, is an aspiring writer. So, the instructor of the class allowed him to read some of his work, which turns out to be erotic fan fiction where Mike imagines himself with singer Dua Lipa. “Sure, Dua Lipa, I can teach you how to make out,” Isaac’s Mike reads from his notebook. “Wait, can my friend come?”
4
Wildly Inappropriate
Isaac teamed up with Cecily Strong to play Donald and Maria, two HR representatives who host a seminar on harassment for employees of a pharmaceutical company. Unfortunately, Donald and Maria aren’t very good at assessing what is appropriate and inappropriate behavior in the workplace. When the employees question their professionalism, Donald gets offended. “So, you see a man and a woman working together, so automatically you think they’re having raw intercourse?”
5
Puppy Problems
City Councilman Herb Tangier (Isaac) speaks out in a campaign ad against the mayor of Adventure Bay for firing all the city’s police officers, firefighters, and paramedics and replacing them with the Paw Patrol. Isaac as Herb says, “Criminals and lowlifes are flocking here because they know there’s only one cop patrolling our streets – and it’s a dog!”