Sabrina Carpenter pulled double duty for her “Saturday Night Live” hosting debut.
With Season 51 of “SNL” underway, Carpenter appeared as both host and musical guest on Oct. 18.
The “Espresso” singer is no stranger to the late-night sketch comedy show. She performed as musical guest in May 2024 alongside host Jake Gyllenhaal, sang a duet with Paul Simon during “SNL50” and made a cameo during Quinta Brunson’s monologue back in May.
Carpenter’s episode was chock full of silly — and musical — moments, including the return of beloved recurring character Domingo, portrayed by Marcello Hernández.
The cold open brought back Chloe Fineman and Andrew Dismukes as Kelsey and Matt, a couple who have somehow stayed together despite her numerous affairs with Domingo, consistently revealed via song during life’s biggest moments, including their wedding, baby shower, vow renewal and now, Matt’s 30th birthday.
Despite it being Matt’s birthday, Kelsey surprised him with her best friends, played by Sabrina Carpenter, Sarah Sherman, Ashley Padilla and new cast member Veronika Slowikowska.
Keeping with tradition, the friend group sang about a trip they took to Nashville to “find the most magical birthday present” for Matt. They sang a parody of Taylor Swift’s new tune “The Fate of Ophelia,”featuring lyrics laced with details of Kelsey’s most recent infidelity and her “one night with Domingo.”
Kelsey promised Matt that the next song would not be about Domingo but was immediately proven wrong when her friends began to spell his name to the tune of Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” and shared more details about their meetup in Nashville.
She tried to assure Matt that Domingo was her in past, a statement that was also immediately refuted when Domingo appeared at the party — goatee and all — to declare their night together in Nashville was “anything but ordinary.”
For her musical performances of the evening, Carpenter first sang “Manchild” from her new record, “Man’s Best Friend.” During this performance, she censored some of the song’s more explicit lyrics in the chorus, singing instead, “Eff my life, won’t you let an innocent woman be?”
However, for her second performance of the evening, she let the original lyrics fly in “Nobody’s Son,” expletives and all.
At the end of the performance, which aired after 1 a.m. ET due to delays in the broadcast, Carpenter didn’t censor the lyrics to the bridge of the tune. Instead, she sang the unchanged line, “He sure f—– me up,” twice during the East Coast broadcast, which was featured in clips circulated on the social media site X.
“SNL” posted the censored version on social media, but as one fan pointed out in the comment section on Instagram, “It’s too late guys we already heard it.”
The moment felt reminiscent of a Season 50 audience blunder during Ego Nwodim’s appearance on “Weekend Update.”
In an unscripted moment while Nwodim riffed with the crowd, she referenced Sen. Cory Booker’s speech in front of the Senate, which set a new record. At the time, she told the audience, “Cory Booker out here with his filibuster. Shoot, I’ve had my fill of busters. Because these men ain’t what?”
“S—!” the crowd replied, much to the surprise of Nwodim and co-anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che, who immediately began laughing at the live television faux pas.
Nwodim went along with the blunder, adding, “We finna get fined for that. Y’all gonna have to pay for that. Lorne’s gonna be mad at y’all.”
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