Ireland’s relationship with US TV comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live is nothing to laugh about. In 2017, Saoirse Ronan was keelhauled through a dreadful sketch about Aer Lingus, where she affixed a rictus grin as the cast deployed some of the most atrocious Irish accents this side of a 1970s British sitcom.
Two years ago, Brendan Gleeson opened his hosting stint the show by admitting viewers might not know who he was and then apologetically bashed a banjo and brought Colin Farrell out for moral support. Now it’s the turn of Paul Mescal, dragged on to present the supposed American comedy institution by way of promoting his starring role in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II. Maynooth does Manhattan.
He comes away with dignity more or less intact and is to be praised for not pandering to America’s bizarre views about Ireland. In his opening monologue, he channels his Gladiator character by getting stuck in and displaying no mercy. “People ... think the Irish hate British people,” he says. “That’s not true, we just don’t consider them people.” Oof.
He also brings up the Notre Dame American football team and its fist-swinging leprechaun mascot. Are people at home offended by Notre Dame’s “Fighting Irish” motto? “Not at all; we do the same thing with the Americans. In fact, my high school’s mascot was the ‘Fightin’ Fat-Asses,” said Mescal.
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Mescal finishes by recycling the ongoing international joke about his beloved O’Neills shorts. He notes that Americans often mistakenly believe Irish people wear kilts. “No, that’s the Scottish. Traditionally, the Irish wear short shorts.”
The actor has never done comedy before unless you count playing Gaelic football for Kildare. But he’s at home on SNL and comes across as a good sport. In one scene he impersonates Bono on the red carpet for the premiere of the new Timothée Chalamet Bob Dylan biopic. While Mescal doesn’t get to say or do much, the Bono-ness is uncanny.
That said, his performance rings hollow in places. He starts his monologue by claiming that as a kid growing up in Ireland, it was a dream to host Saturday Night Live, when, in truth, he would never have watched Saturday Night Live let alone imagined one day fronting the show.
But he brings all his Hollywood charisma to bear in a funny sketch which imagines Gladiator II recut as a musical to cash in on the success of Wicked. “I’m gonna
stab my way to freedom, cut my way to the next act,” he sings. “While I’m in the Colosseum, when I go on the attack, someday they’ll know my name” He’s a decent singer: this is a film you’d actually watch.
There’s a case that Saturday Night Live was never funny to begin with. Certainly within living memory, it has been consistently dire. In that context, Mescal does well – maintaining his self-respect and avoiding the worst stereotypes so beloved of Irish Americans. A qualified thumbs up – with the caveat that Saturday Night Live is where comedy goes to die and should never be watched in the first place.
