For loyal Saturday Night Live fans the sight of cast members Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, and Cecily Strong dressed to the nine and striking poses throughout a pre-taped music video should look familiar. The trio have appeared in a recent string of hit girl-band music-video sketches like “First Got Horny 2 U,” “Back Home Ballers,” and “(Do It on My) Twin Bed.” But the duo behind all those musical sketches—former head writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider—left S.N.L. suddenly over the summer which is why “Welcome to Hell,” a cutting pop anthem about the realities of navigating the world as a woman, came as such a surprise.
The core trio of women joined by this week’s host, Saoirse Ronan, as well as Melissa Villaseñor and Leslie Jones, dressed as pouting pop princesses who, while preening, licking lollipops, and twirling their hair, proceeded to lay down some harsh truths about sexual predators including a “button under the desk” reference to NBC’s own Matt Lauer. “Now House of Cards is ruined,” Ronan’s platinum pop alter ego croons in reference to headlines about its star, Kevin Spacey, “and that really sucks. Well here’s a list of stuff that’s ruined for us: parking, and walking, and Uber, and ponytails, and bathrobes, and night time, and drinking, and hotels, and vans.”
The ladies of Saturday Night Live weren’t the only ones to address the flood of sexual assault claims currently jockeying for space in the news cycle. “I almost forgot about this week’s batch of predators,” the “Weekend Update” co-anchor Colin Jost,” drily noted as an image of Garrison Keillor, Lauer, and Russell Simmons flashed by. “That’s a whole segment of the news, now. Just gotta announce the names every week like Powerball numbers.” If he thinks that’s bad, the ladies of “Welcome to Hell” might be able to clue him in on what could be worse