Last Night’s Saturday Night Live Belonged to Ego Nwodim’s Sad Disney Mom

Last night, all of Twitter was lit aflame with Saturday Night Live talk. Everyone seemed to have their eyes on it. It even appeared to have a direct effect on stock prices. We assume all of this hubbub was because of one thing that made last night’s episode different: Ego Nwodim’s hilarious new character, “Pauline, a weary mother in her darkest hour.� Pegged to the reopening of Disneyland after over a year of pandemic closure, Nwodim plays the sort of parent at the end of their rope that you’re wont to see at the theme park, with operatic exasperation. Pauline recounts how she “stood in line for two hours at Splash Mountain so I could sit my haggard ass in a log flume, only to have that very flume break down,� and have her pants soaked with “foul Disney water.� From directly addressing the ride as “Mr. Splash Mountain� to describing how her ingrate kids want Mickey Mouse to be their mommy, the beauty of Nwodim’s “Weekend Update� character is in the absurd details and the absolute despair with which she shares them. Add to that a third-act plot twist where she reveals that Michael Che is the absent father of her son, “Che Jr. Che,� and you have a perfect Mother’s Day character. “That park ain’t right, Michael.�