Last night, Dakota Johnson had her third go hosting Saturday Night Live. There on behalf of Michael Showalter’s first thriller Verity (hearing it’s decent), Baltimore rock band Turnstile made their Studio 8H debut and Taylor Swift crashed the opening monologue. But those weren’t the only surprise guests. During Weekend Update, Colin Jost (wait he’s still doing Weekend Update??) invited two video invaders to make their pitch to gamers for the holiday season.
“Grand Theft Auto VI is so highly anticipated that all other video games have pushed their release dates to avoid competing with it this November, except one,” says Jost. “Here to comment on their epic showdown are Jason from GTA VI and Link from the Ocarina of Time.”
Cast members Marcello Hernández and Mikey Day take to the desk as Duval and Link, respectively. But that’s where the respect ends. Vying to be November’s biggest video game, the two stars trade barbs for several minutes, largely revolving around how effeminate Link’s appearance is and how lunkheaded life in Vice City gets. The two eventually wave rocket launcher and fairy bottle props at each other. It feels very 2005 MAD Magazine in here.
Pretty tortured stretch, and almost as painful as Elon Musk’s Mario Kart sketch. Similar to last week’s Mamdani TikTok bit, you can really feel the thumb of Lorne Michaels on proceedings despite having one of the younger casts in the show’s history. While I won’t demand reverence on behalf of video game players writ large I will request respect for laughing. Though that said, the costume department went nuts on that Link outfit, Day giving him the same unpleasant fidelity of Nintendo’s upcoming remake.
As you have likely noticed, Grand Theft Auto VI has truly become a gravity well. Finally arriving this November, other major releases have given it a wide berth, not wanting to challenge the anticipated mayhem. That open lane only recently added a new free wheeler, when Nintendo made the surprise announcement that the Ocarina of Time remake would debut in that same time slot, albeit on a console that won’t be offering Grand Theft Auto just yet. Even if they aren’t locking horns on the Nintendo Switch, they will be trading blows in the media cycle, and so you get to see them take residence at 30 Rockefeller. Hopefully Jason didn’t stray too far off from his designated path backstage, or Land Shark might’ve gotten him.