Us, Jordan Peele’s terrifying followup to Get Out, has only been in theaters for a week and has already established itself as a record-breaking hit. More importantly, though, because it’s a detail-packed superpuzzle with a relevant message, Us has also already had a cultural impact worthy of its predecessor, flooding the market with memes, Twitter threads, and think pieces by the dozen.
So, of course, SNL was bound to give the movie its due when the show returned from hiatus last night.
The main theme of Us–if you’ve somehow managed not to see even the trailer yet–is duality, the self against the self. SNL chose to comment on the Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man-ness of it all through the vessel of those annoying Discover card ads. You know the ones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKpIikS2Oik
In SNL’s interpretation, a woman clearly based on Lupita Nyong’o’s character from Us (played here by Ego Nwodim) calls Discover to talk about a case of identity theft, only to end up talking with a woman clearly based on Lupita Nyong’o’s other character from Us (also played here by Ego Nwodim). This short sketch at once honors the movie as a cultural juggernaut and takes a playful, clever swipe at a glaring-but-easily-ignorable plot hole from the movie. (Where did all those jumpsuits and scissors come from?)
What’s amazing is that Peele’s film (and especially Nyongo’s bravura performance) is so successful at getting under viewers’ skin that even a parody of it can’t help be a little unsettling.
Watch the full clip below.
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