This sketch from last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live takes place in an alternate universe, where, (a) groups of friends are able to shoot pool indoors at a bar in 2021 and, (b) the sorts of bros who would gather indoors in a bar in 2021 are in touch enough with their emotions to cry to “Drivers License†by Olivia Rodrigo. In this hilarious piece of short-form speculative fiction, host Regé-Jean Page puts the teen breakup anthem on the jukebox at a dive bar, and his buddies immediately go from skeptical (“wait, what am I listening to?â€) to completely sold (“she’s got a healthy beltâ€). Alex Moffat does the job of explaining that the lyrics are actually about “the kids from High School Musical,†and Page clarifies that he’s referring to “High School Musical: The Series,†breaking down the drama between Rodrigo, Joshua Bassett, and Sabrina Carpenter. Something about the songwriting and the raw emotion really speaks to these bros, including the old man in the corner played by Kate McKinnon, and it doesn’t take long before they’re arguing about Taylor Swift’s influence on the craft and singing and swaying along to the bridge.
Last night’s episode happened to fall on Olivia Rodrigo’s birthday, and she took to Twitter to react to the sketch, writing in excited all caps, “DRIVERS LICENSE SNL SKETCH IS THE BEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT EVER IM SHAKING.†The hooting and hollering live studio audience at Saturday Night Live last night sounded like they agreed.
Updated February 22, 9:50 a.m.: Joshua Bassett has also reacted to the “Drivers License†sketch, with a cute TikTok set to Kacey Musgraves’s “Happy and Sad†in which he both appreciates being called out on SNL, while realizing its in the context of Mikey Day comparing Bassett to his “bitch ex, Gina.†The question mark at the end of his caption, “dream come true,†says it all.