'Saturday Night Live' Graced Us With a Mashup of 'The Handmaid's Tale' and 'Sex and the City'—and, Well, Praise Be
Last night, comedian Amy Schumer made a highly anticipated return to the Saturday Night Live stage to reprise her role as show host and star in a skit that’s essentially a mashup of two incredible—and very, very, different—shows we know and love. Behold, “Handmaids in the City,” a sketch that, however implausibly but undoubtedly successfully, combines Sex and the City and The Handmaid’s Tale.
Positioned as a new, faux-Hulu series, “Handmaids in the City” takes shape as a downright brilliant spoof on modern American television under the current political administration.
“Let’s face it ladies, in 2018, The Handmaid’s Tale is basically our Sex and the City,” the faux-show trailer begins. “So whether you’re on Offred, or an Ofwarren, you’ll love Hulu’s new spinoff show, Handmaids in the City.”
Playing on the internal monologues that guide both The Handmaid’s Tale and Sex and the City, the sketch starts with Offred (played by Schumer) pondering her fate as a female in this new dystopian society—but with a Carrie Bradshaw twist: “As I waited for the girls in downtown Gilead, I was feeling like an uptown gal-ead, and I couldn’t help but wonder: ‘Are women allowed to do anything anymore?'”
From there, Offred is joined by three other handmaids who laughingly discuss the bleak state-of-affairs that is their new subservient lifestyle. When asked how she’s liking her new home, Ofjohn (Aidy Bryant) replies, “Amazing! It’s rent controlled—John controls me, and I don’t pay rent!”)
Ultimately, the tongue-in-cheek spoof led by Schumer plays out perfectly, becoming equal parts a hilarious sketch and all-too-real social commentary on the gloomy-feeling state of affairs for women in American society. As the faux-commercial concludes: “Handmaids in the City. If you’re not traumatized, you’re not watching TV.”
Praise be.
Watch the sketch here:
Related Content:
Stormy Daniels Made a Cameo on Saturday Night Live to Troll Donald Trump
Amy Schumer Predicted the Lady-Chips Future With This 2016 Sketch
Aidy Bryant Responds to Criticism That Her New Movie With Amy Schumer Is Fat-Phobic