Peter Dinklage on Saturday Night Live

For those who were hoping for a lot of Game of Thrones jokes on last night’s Saturday Night Live, it must have been a mostly disappointing episode. The show did as many political-type sketches as they did Westerosi ones (that is to say they did one political sketch), not counting Dinklage’s opening monologue. And from all the reviews (including my own opinion), it’s probably best we don’t include the monologue, since the only thing about it that was good was that it ended quickly. Opening the show with a monologue where the show forgot to write any jokes was a bad omen.

This was followed by Dinklage as Winnie The Pooh, and the only thing really funny about it was Dinklage in a Winnie the Pooh costume.

But all was not actually lost. The digital short—for those who don’t watch SNL, that’s the sketch that’s taped ahead of time—starred Lesley Jones and Dinklage in a Celebrity Edition of that terrible Discovery Channel show Naked & Afraid.

This was then followed by the most memorable sketch of the night, looping in not only Dinklage, but musical guest Gwen Stefani. (It’s always great when they can get the musical guest to do more than just their regularly scheduled numbers.) This is the sketch that will probably be the most talked about from this episode, and remembered down the line as “SPACEPANTS.”

I’m not sure how funny “Trendy Restaurant” is to those who live outside of the super swanky urban enclaves where these sort of wannabe upperclass twits found in the sketch reside. But as a DC person who sees this sort of nonsense up close and personal on the regular, I laughed.

Fact: though I didn’t think SNL’s one Game of Thrones sketch was as good as it could have been (though the concept of going with Behind The Scenes was really sharp), Kate McKinnon’s Daenerys Targaryen cosplay was so on point that I forgave nearly everything. All the kudos to the costume department for this one, from the wig to the eyebrows to the gown.

Side note: Was Dinklage’s parade of wigs this evening also an homage to Game of Thrones, where the wig budget is through the roof? Just something to ponder. We should also consider that Game of Thrones’ enormous death count is probably why having one measly body floating in the water didn’t ruffle his feathers.

Dinklage hosting Vacation Nightmares, in yet another fabulous wig. This sketch might have been kind of blah, but everyone was so clearly having fun with their characters, it was worth it.

And finally, the Corporate retreat sketch, which was a reminder why magicians are the worst. I fell asleep before this one came on, and I’m sort of glad I did once I saw it this morning. It was sort of a meh note to end on.

Did everyone else watch last night? Which were your favorite sketches? Did you wish for more Game of Thrones-themed stuff, or was one major sketch enough?