Pedro Pascal joins SNL skit that spoofs The Last Of Us while Sarah Paulson makes SURPRISE appearance

Pedro Pascal took on hosting duties for the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live, and no time was wasted to reference the actor’s recent hit series, The Last Of Us, with a spoof of an ‘upcoming’ new apocalyptic series titled, Mario Kart.

The Mandalorian star, 47, was also later joined by his close friend and fellow actress, Sarah Paulson, as she made a surprise appearance during a skit, much to the delight of the audience.

Towards the beginning of the episode, a pre-recorded, HBO-styled trailer began in a dystopian universe, similar to the setting showcased in the popular HBO Max series, with a voiceover announcing that the network, ‘is doing it again with another iconic game.’ 

Heidi Gardner could then be heard stating, ‘It’s been ten years since our kingdom fell. The only thing we have left, hope.’ The camera then cut to the SNL comedian as she talked seriously to an unknown character off screen. 

‘I have important cargo I need smuggled to rainbow road. People say you used to drive,’ she added, waiting for a response. 

‘People say a lot of things,’ the character stated, with the camera panning to Pedro’s back. When asked what his name was, the actor dramatically looked over his shoulder and stated, ‘It’s a-me. Mario.’ 

The talented star also dressed the part, wearing faded, blue overalls and a red T-short underneath. A cap was added on top of his locks for a final touch.  

The spoof trailer followed a similar plot to The Last Of Us. However, instead of Pedro going on a journey with a 14-year-old girl (Bella Ramsey) who may be the answer to a cure, Pascal must go on a trek with Princess Peach on Rainbow Road. 

The ‘kingdom’ had come to ruins under the villainous rule of Bouncer, and Pedro announced that it would be impossible to make the journey ‘on foot.’ 

Heidi’s character replied with, ‘You won’t have to,’ with the revelation of a red kart, in reference to the fake HBO adaptation of Mario Kart. 

The rest of the spoof trailer shows scenes of Pedro karting with Princess Peach as they try to make their way through Rainbow Road. ‘Karting out here isn’t a game. If we’re going to make it, we’re going to need all the help we can get,’ Pascal could be heard saying. 

Other beloved characters are soon introduced to help along with the journey, such Yoshi and Toad who announce they are bisexual, and Luigi, which the trailer labeled as, ‘Dramatic HBO characters.’ 

Reviews were shown on the screen with an added voice over. ‘HBO picked the wrong game to do this with,’ one stated, with another, ‘Yeah, this ain’t it.’ 

In conclusion, a concerned Princess Peach asked, ‘What if we crash?’ with Pedro responding with, ‘A little guy in a cloud comes and uses a fishing pole to put you back on the road.’ A dramatic Mario Kart title card, with similarities to The Last Of Us, then appeared on the screen. 

The Last Of Us is based on a 2013 video game of the same name, and premiered on HBO earlier last month with weekly episodes. Due to critical acclaim and high viewership, the show was renewed for a second season the same month of its initial release. 

In another sketch, a special guest made an appearance alongside the Chilean-born actor. Taking place at St. Lawrence High School, students were gathered for an assembly on Student Technology Use, which they are clearly not excited for. 

However, when they found out their favorite teacher, Mr. Ben, played by Pedro, will be conducting the seminar, they all became cheerful. He began presenting and telling students to not ‘access inappropriate content online’ and to ‘not bully.’ 

After a brief pause, he then announced, ‘do not make fancams of school staff!’ He then gave an ‘example’ and showed a TikTok styled montage of clips of himself that the students had put together. The trending SZA Big Boy song she sang on SNL played in the background. 

When the students showed dismay at the rule, Pedro explained that there were, ‘thousands of fancams of me, and I’m not sure what they mean, but I know it has to stop.’ The skit might be referencing to the actor trending on social media with similar TikTok videos. 

One student defended the fancams, and yelled, ‘But we make them because you’re our beloved, and you have us in a choke hold!’ Another later stated, ‘You’re so father, period!’ 

After reiterating that they are banned, the students let out cries of devastation. ‘I’m sorry. I want to be a cool teacher. I know I’m your bias and that I always munch on it, but I just don’t get it. Why does your generation have to make everyone a celebrity? Why do you film everything? Why?’ 

The students then blamed Covid and explained that, ‘Because Covid locked us down when we are 11, and now we are 14, so now we have to make you daddy.’ 

Pascal is known for being the ‘daddy of the internet,’ following an Entertainment Tonight interview for The Last Of Us. The interviewer had brought up a comment left by a fan who called him a cool, sl***y father. Pedro found the statement amusing, and humorously announced, ‘Yep. I am your cool sl***y daddy.’ 

The students then mentioned that another teacher, Ms. Jenny, was mommy, with Sarah Paulson, who is a close friend of Pedro, suddenly appearing, causing the audience to roar in applause. After denying they were an item, they ended up admitting, ‘We’re in love.’ 

‘He’s daddy, I’m mommy, and we’re all a happy family. No crumbs left,’ the American Horror Story actress announced, concluding the skit. 

Pedro had the chance to show off his comedic skills in various other sketches throughout the episode, such as The Big Hollywood Quiz game show, where he portrayed one of the contestants named Robert.

The host was Jack Delmar, played by Bowen Yang, with the two other contestants played by Chloe Fineman and Ego Nwodim. They had to solve questions based on famous Hollywood projects, and the show began with topics from 1950s through the 1980s. 

However, they soon reached the 2020s category, leaving the contestants stumped each time, such as their inability to solve Netflix’s ‘current top show,’ Ginny & Georgia. The sketch also referenced to Andrea Riseborough’s surprise Oscar nomination. 

Towards the end, Pedro was asked to name three films from the past five years, and after naming Top Gun: Maverick, Bowen asked him if he could name others, which he stated, ‘Nope,’ giving up, but ended up referencing to Jordan Peele’s 2022 sci-fi thriller, and won the game.

In the third skit, Pedro played the role of Charlie, a husband who had just woken up from a coma. His wife, sister, friend and doctor surrounded his hospital bed for the big moment. 

However, upon waking, he had lost his memory, and didn’t recognize his wife and other family and friends. He had also developed a ‘Los Angeles’ accent that he never had before the coma. 

Throughout the sketch, he was shown photos and videos to somehow jog his memory, and he could be heard saying in a clip his wife showed him, ‘Hey, babe. Made it to Arkansas. Pretty cool place. Miss Ya,’ with no LA accent. 

‘Okay. He’s the hottest guy I’ve ever seen. Why does he live in Arkansas?’ Pedro jokingly stated, and was soon told he was hit by a Party City truck in the state. His wife soon began to cry, and Pascal began to give a dramatic speech. 

‘Look, I don’t know who you are, and despite what they say, I can speak Spanish. But the most important thing is you’re my soul mate, and you and I-you and I are going to be fine,’ he stated, breaking character to hold back a laugh. 

The end of the skit showed everyone in the hospital room gathering around Pedro to hug it out for a hopeful ending. 

The next sketch was a commercial for a restaurant called Wing Pit and the ad was centered around tasty meals for Game Day, referencing towards the upcoming Super Bowl LVII later this month in February. 

Pedro was one of the partygoers watching the game and eating wings with other pals gathered around. An ’employee’ explained the party portion sizes of wings available, with prices starting at $24.99 and for a little more, the price went up to $39.99. 

However, the price sky-rocketed to $89.99 for ’20 dozen wings, five ethnically troubling sauces and a gallon of ranch.’ Pascal seemed excited with the price, but others were a bit upset at the high price. 

Another option became available, which consisted of, ‘600 of our succulent wings plus 16 butt-destroying sauces and a keg full of ranch,’ for $205.99. The game watchers didn’t want to hear any more options, with one saying, ‘We don’t need all that!’ 

But the commercial kept going, later revealing a party option of ‘5,000 wings, 10,000 beaks, a full pallet of hot sauce and also air-dropped ranch.’ Chicken wings began to flood the house, with Kenan Thompson and Pedro begging why that was happening. A voiceover stated, ‘To honor the chicken god of death.’ 

The Wing Pit logo suddenly appeared on the screen, with ‘Let The Slaughter Begin’ underneath. 

Another skit showed two college students, played by Chloe Fineman and Marcello Hernandez, who were dating. Marcello was bringing Chloe to visit his mother for the first time. 

‘Babes, so before we go in, I just want you to know my mom can be pretty protective of me, and I just don’t want you to get scared off,’ he told Chloe before they walked inside. 

The mother quickly appeared, which was Pedro. He donned a gray wig and wore a pink sweater. He showed his happiness to see Marcello, and was introduced to Chloe, who announced that she brought vegan sliders for their dinner. 

Pedro accepted the food, and then proceeded to dump the items into the trash. The trio sat down at the kitchen table, and Pascal began quizzing Chloe. After she revealed she was studying Baroque architecture, the actor retorted with, ‘So she doesn’t like money?’ 

Marcello tried to defend Chloe in Spanish to his mother, and once there was silence, Fineman asked if she could say grace before they ate dinner. The question immediately put Pedro in a good mood, and asked Marcello, ‘Grace? Oh, why didn’t you tell me she was a woman of God? Now where are my grand children?’ 

The last two skits of the night took place at an Italian restaurant. The first showed Pedro as a waiter at a table of five women enjoying a girls night out for a fancy dinner. While he was kind to the women, he was less nice to Sarah Sherman’s character. 

While he called the ladies beautiful, he called Sarah ‘smart’ instead. Later, while the women at the table were offered a tasty treat, Sarah was given a giant bowl of chili. 

Pedro then assumed her job was a writer, and she corrected him by saying she was an actress and was in a movie. He then guessed she was in The Babadook and accused her of driving a Harley. 

Upset, Sherman soon stalked out of the restaurant, tired of being bullied by the wait staff. Her friends demanded Pedro to explain why he treated her that way, and he admitted, ‘Oh, I must confess. Whenever there’s a group of women, we team up against one and flatter the others for more tips.’ 

While they expressed that was wrong, they also revealed that the scheme had worked. ‘I mean, it was definitely working on me. I was going to give the biggest tip of my life.’ 

The last sketch showed Pedro back in the fancy Italian restaurant, except he was now a customer sitting at a table with other SNL comedians. 

He sat next to Ego Nwodim, who was playing a character who traveled from Temecula to celebrate her sister’s birthday. While everyone at the table had already gotten their meals, she was finally given her ‘extra extra well done’ steak. 

‘Cook my meat. I don’t want to see one speck of red. I can’t be sick tonight, I got to be in court in the morning,’ she explained. Pedro then commented that her job as a lawyer was amazing and added, ‘I really admire that.’ 

However, Ego’s character was far from impressed. ‘What is going on with your little friend?’ she asked her sister. ‘He’s doing the most trying to get some butt tonight.’ 

She then tried to eat her steak ‘in peace’ but due to how well it had been cooked, she couldn’t cut through the meat, causing the table to shake and knock all the drinks and food all over. 

Most of the SNL comedians, such as Bowen Yang, and Pedro himself, couldn’t hide their laughter during the sketch.

The opening monologue began with Pedro stepping out in a colorful, purple dress shirt and black pants as he was greeted by a round of applause from the studio audience. 

He mentioned his critically acclaimed roles in The Last Of Us and The Mandalorian, and explained that he was, ‘still getting used to people recognizing me.’ He revealed that his earlier roles were on crime shows such as Law And Order, and gifted fans a few throwback photos of his ‘two’ roles on the series. 

The talented star stated that he was born in Chile, but moved to the U.S. with his parents and sister when he was only nine-months-old. 

He emotionally explained, ‘They were so brave, and without them, I wouldn’t be here in this wonderful country, and I certainly wouldn’t be standing here with you all tonight.’ 

He then sent a message in Spanish to his loved ones in Chile and translated, ‘Which means, I love you, I miss you, and stop giving out my phone number,’ Pedro jokingly added.

Coldplay was the musical guest for the episode, who is also nominated for three awards at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards held on Sunday, February 5. 

The first song appeared to be a track called The Astronaut, which was a collaboration with BTS member, Jin. During the performance, Chris Martin was joined by a one-eyed alien and a choir to back him up for a moving performance. 

The second performance offered a bit of nostalgia for fans. The beginning began with Martin singing with the backup vocalists acapella, which then turned into Fix You along with instrumentals. 

The lights were dimmed on the stage to offer a bluish glow as he wore a casual ensemble of black pants and a T-shirt with hues of blue with an alien cartoon embroidered on the left side.