Lady Gaga’s talent for the absurd worked well for the show.
Lady Gaga made her name bringing a touch of strangeness to whatever she does, and on Saturday Night Live last night, where she played the host and musical guest, she delivered with over-the-top costumes and theatrical choreography in performances of songs off her new album, Mayhem.
For the two musical interludes, Gaga was at her most exacting and confrontational. During the dark pop-dance track “Abracadabra,” she lorded over a horde of stone-faced dancers like a priestess of terror, wearing a sparkly red, full-body jumpsuit and wielding a cane—hunching over when she wasn’t executing the thrashing dance. For a performance of “Killah,” she donned an oversize purple suit with ballooning shoulders. She seemed to channel both David Byrne and Prince as she pranced through the studio’s halls, occasionally writhing on the floor.
These acts were mesmerizing displays of Gaga committing to the eccentric. But the artist’s talent for the absurd translated to this week’s comedy too. Nearly all of the sketches in which she appeared were the kind of comedy that you either find hilarious or don’t get. The premises were a little complicated and surreal, using Gaga’s oddball energy to their advantage.
Take, for instance, the first sketch after the monologue, titled “A Long Goodbye.” Gaga, in a demure polka-dotted dress and bangs that recalled Zooey Deschanel, at first appeared to be playing something of a normie. The music insinuated a sentimental scene: Her character was sad to be leaving her boyfriend (Marcello Hernandez) to go to study cooking in Paris; Hernandez, holding a real black pug, wouldn’t join her in France, saying he would drag her down.
Quickly, though, the setup veered toward the preposterous. To go to the airport, Gaga hopped on “rideable luggage”—a suitcase that doubled as a scooter. She took it on the highway, where she met a biker gang that also used rideable luggage. But the flaws of the choice revealed themselves, cutting off the maudlin romantic tones that each character evoked: The suitcases were slow, leading to a recurring bit where each character broke from their tenderness to scream for honking cars to “go around.” Eventually, her man set out in pursuit of her, using the same impractical form of transit. Another ludicrous reality became clear—the battery on the scooter ran out, which turned out to be fine, because his dog had followed him on its own rideable suitcase. The whole sketch blended melodrama with inanity to great effect.
Elsewhere she played a Satanic Friendly’s employee, as well as a funeral director who really wanted to throw a Roaring ’20s–themed funeral. But perhaps her greatest role of the night was opposite Bowen Yang in “Wonderful Tonight,” about a couple on a first date in a fancy restaurant with 1980s vibes. Yang as Gianfranco, in a soul patch and a bolo tie, asked Gaga as Janelle to dance when she announced that she loved the song being played—the corny classic “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton. Initially, they performed the lyrics as written while swaying together. Then they went off book.
Yang wistfully belted, “It’s later that evening, and we’re wasted in Times Square,” to which Gaga responded, “So I eat a full Big Mac and I shave off my body hair.” As they continued, the song grew odder and odder, involving lines about nipple play and how “Italians aren’t white.” The punch line: These two freaky people were perfect for each other. Gaga, who wore a form-fitting red dress, didn’t look as ridiculous as Yang did, but she made up for that in her deadpan line deliveries and almost-too-good harmonies.
“Wonderful Tonight” again felt like an acquired taste of a sketch, at times off-putting in its goofiness and random in its references. It worked, though, because of Gaga’s dedication to getting as bizarre as possible while still using her famous pipes to their full potential. That’s the Gaga specialty, which SNL understood: She knows that art can be more intriguing when it’s a little outlandish. It may be a tad inexplicable, but it’s entrancing all the same.
