Need a little Christmas cheer? How about Saturday Night Live’s cast impersonating the heck out of well-known musicians singing holiday songs?
This weekend, in a commercial-style sketch hocking a parody of the actual album “Now That’s What I Call Christmas,” the show was able to showcase the wide range of its actors’ talent as they gave spot-on impersonations of notable artists.
Jay Pharoah dropped a verse as DMX, rapping “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” in a laughably accurate impression of the star from 2003’s “Cradle 2 The Grave.” Yes, a DMX impression would have been funnier 10 years ago, but the false Ruff Ryder was still one of the standout performers of the sketch.
A babbling Shakira, played by Kate McKinnon, shook her hips through an incoherent Christmassy song. The female singer returned later to sing a duet with Pitbull, played by the show’s host Jimmy Fallon. The duo sang a ditty called “Santa’s in Miami” — which would probably be a smash it if it were a real song.
Despite all the great impressions, it was former SNL cast member Fallon who stole the show. Aside from Pitbull, the late-night comedian played Michael Bublé crooning a Christmas classic, while clearly enunciating every word. Fallon had the audience cracking up with his impression of Alan Rickman’s Severus Snape dryly reading a spoken word piece. And as Lorde, played by McKinnon, gave her take on a Christmas carol, Fallon adorably bounced around in the background as One Direction’s Harry Styles, sporting the boy band star’s moppish ‘do.
Bobby Moynihan also belted some impressive notes in the style of opera singer Andrea Bocelli, singing “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” He then capped the impression off with a dead on, high-pitched “thank you.”
Watch the clip below:
