On any given week an SNL episode is only as good as its host. The general NBC lore dictates that every week the writers will descend on whatever celebrity is leading the iconic sketch show that Saturday with a deluge of ideas, each outdoing the other in terms of bizarre humour and hilarity. If the host is someone who takes themselves a bit seriously, or is worried about their reputation or what their parents will say when they see them fucking around on national TV, then they generally shoot down various ideas or sanitise them to make them less funny. The result is a 90 minute show which is, well, pretty boring tbh.
Anyway, this week Harry Styles led the show as both the musical guest and the host, and the result was the best, weirdest, wildest episode we’ve seen in quite some time. As well as driving sales of watermelon sugar seeds to dangerous levels as he debuted a new song, Hazza also got seriously into the sketches. He portrayed an anthropomorphic dog-boyfriend to Aidy Bryant in a scene that made that Cats movie look sane. He displayed some great Shaggy and Scooby Doo impressions as a horny airplane pilot. But in the best sketch of the night, he was a clueless and contrite social media intern who kept accidentally posting his weekend escapades on the company Instagram for Sara Lee bread.
Acting alongside Cecily Strong and SNL newbie Bowen Yang, Harry — as Dylan — keeps accidentally using his work account for personal (we’ve all been there). The result is that he’s been asking Nick Jonas to “wreck me daddy” or leaving an ill-advised string of emojis on a “random fashion twink’s” profile — 🍆🍆🍆💧🚂👻– referring to being railed to death, yes. His “bad for the brand” mistakes also include accidentally captioning company posts with TMI captions like: “Feeling really depressed after threesome. What was supposed to be a fantasy ended up more rejection. Must get rid of toxic in community.” Another post about cheesecake featured the caption: “A little moody after being used. Why do guys freak out when I ask them to spit in mouth.”
So yeah, obviously the scene was 1) the funniest of the night and 2) immediately seized upon by the thirst monsters of Instagram. Within hours of the sketch airing there were tens of thousands of comments on the bread’s company account, asking some presumably panicked social media manager to SPIT IN MOUTH and provide pictures of Harry Styles’ open throat.
In a statement, Bimbo Bakeries USA, who owns Sara Lee, said: “We didn’t participate in creating the sketch and its content doesn’t align with Sara Lee’s brand.” While they added that they were “taking it in their stride”, the reaction clearly had them rattled. Bowen Yang, who featured as the sketch’s Sara Lee harness enthusiast, accused the brand of deleting and disabling IG comments in the furore.
The result less than 48 hours later? Sara Lee cancelled. Must get rid of toxic in community.