With Squid Game still dominating the streaming charts and recently becoming Netflix’s biggest series ever, it was only a matter before Saturday Night Live parodied the South Korean hit – however, I don’t think anyone was expecting the US sketch show to give it a country music mash-up.
Saturday’s show saw cast member Pete Davidson and this weekend’s host, No Time To Die star Rami Malek, sign up for the Squid Game in a musical skit featuring the boiler suit-wearing guards, the Squid Game symbols and of course, the Red Light, Green Light doll.
The three-minute sketch opened with Davidson and Malek dressed in cowboy gear as they sung about their money troubles, having “just got laid off” with a bar tab to be paid off, before coming to the conclusion: “I guess I’ve got to play the Squid Game.”
The pair then change into the Squid Game green tracksuits, with Davidson wearing Gi-hun’s number 456, as they recreate a number of scenes from the show, including the moment the contestants are given an egg and a bottle of water, Gi-hun’s smiley mugshot and the Squid Game cookie challenge, where the competitors had to carve shapes out of dalgona biscuits.
“Weird cards, pink guards, locked us in a big room,” Malek sings, before Davidson chips in: “They got symbols on their faces like the ones on Playstations and the main guy looks like Doctor Doom,” with the camera cutting to a shot of the Front Man.
Han Mi-nyeo, the manipulative girlfriend of gangster Jang Deok-su, even makes an appearance, with Melissa Villaseñor portraying the character as Malek sings: “Got a crazy girlfriend, I think she might stab me.”
The NBC show even recreated the first episode’s Red Light, Green Light challenge, with Malek and Davidson regularly pausing the song to freeze for the huge creepy doll, before Davidson’s character eventually wins the Squid Game and heads home with “a cool red haircut“, just like Gi-hun.
Saturday Night Live is currently airing its 47th season, with Loki‘s Owen Wilson and reality star Kim Kardashian West hosting at the start of October, while Ted Lasso star and former SNL cast member Jason Sudeikis will be fronting the sketch show next week.