‘SNL’ Takes On ‘Brat’ Summer With Charli XCX-Themed Talk Show as Bowen Yang Plays ‘Brat or Nat’
variety.comEthan Shanfeld “Brat” summer might be over, but nothing is truly dead until “Saturday Night Live” gets its hands on it. On Saturday’s season opener of the NBC sketch comedy series, Bowen Yang transformed into Charli XCX to host a fictional series called “The Talk Talk Show,” in a nod to one of the British pop star’s song titles.
In the segment, Yang welcomed “Australian dingo twink Troye Sivan,” with whom Charli XCX is currently on the Sweat Tour. Playing the “Rush” singer was Sarah Sherman, who lifted up her shirt to reveal fake washboard abs. “Troye, are you happy to be here?” asked Yang, to which Sherman responded, “Naur!” Yang then ran through recent events and deemed them either “brat or nat.” The verdict: Hunter Biden’s laptop is “brat,” and Mark Robinson’s search history is “nat.” Barron Trump going to NYU is “brat,” but NYU itself is “nat.” Amy Adams in “Nightbitch”? “Brat.” Eric Adams’ indictment? “Nat.” Yang then brought on the guests of “The Talk Talk Show”: “queer nightlife icon Susanne Bartsch and hetero CNN icon Kaitlan Collins,” played by “SNL” host Jean Smart and Chloe Fineman, respectively.
Yang then proceeded to direct political questions to Smart’s Susanne Bartsch and questions like, “Have you ever done ketamine?” to Fineman’s CNN anchor.
Next introduced was the “bad girl of C-SPAN,” aka U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett from Texas, played by Ego Nwodim. The congresswoman then gave her unfiltered thoughts on everything from JD Vance (“smoky-eyed sofa-sexual can’t order donuts but has donut body”) to gerrymandering (“crazy-shaped crooked bitch”). “Brat,” Charli XCX’s sixth studio album, was released on June 7 and quickly captured the cultural (and, in some ways, the political) zeitgeist.
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