It’s been said that, “You only get one chance to make a first impression.” If that’s the case, Bruno Mars has proven he’s got comedic chops to match his singing abilities.
In his second appearance on Saturday Night Live this weekend, the 26-year-old part-Puerto Rican Grammy-winning singer-songwriter did more than serve as the musical guest. He also hosted NBC’s long-running sketch comedy for the first time ever.
From Mars’ opening monologue to his final sketch, Mars’ appearance proved to be quite an entertaining affair and helped give NBC its highest ratings for an episode of Saturday Night Live since Lindsay Lohan hosted in March.
Mars, sans hat, broke into song partway through his opening monologue in a song that focused on his first-time-hosting nerves, singing “Can I put aside my fears? Can I be like Timberlake?” He closed the song with “Please be gentle,” then gave viewers his best pouty face.
Mars’ first sketch, which centered on a talk show called Haters with Sunny Taylor Tomkins, centered on a mother-daughter duo and featured Mars in his best To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar! impersonation. Playing a 17-year-old unemployed high school dropout named Crystal, Mars stole the sketch with dialogue.
“You’re just jealous ‘cause I’m young and I got a debit card and I know where to party,” declared Mars in character. “Ya’ll just mad ‘cause you ain’t got this. You ain’t got this. Quit hating alright, ‘cause Jesus made me perfect!”
Moments later, Mars appeared in the most memorable sketches of the night, as an intern at the Pandora Internet Radio Headquarters.
When Pandora suffers a power outage and the Green Day channel comes thisclose to going out, Mars’ geeky intern character Devon is called upon to impersonate Billie Joe Armstrong during one of the songs, which he does masterfully. He then impersonates Aerosmith‘s Steven Tyler, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Louis Armstrong and Michael Jackson.
And in the most poignant segment, a SNL Digital Short entitled Sad Mouse, Mars played a lonely guy who lands a job wearing a mouse suit in Times Square. His girlfriend had just dumped him and his dad had just left him for his other family, so he was worried what he’d do if people ignored him. “What if they don’t wave back?” he tearfully asked his new employer.
Mars wanders around in the mouse suit, desperately looking for love to no avail. Mars then pulls out the letter from his dad (Dear son, this is our other family) before finally connecting with a hula-skirted frog at the end.
In addition to his sketches, Mars took to the stage to perform two of this new singles. Mars first performed “Locked Out of Heaven” and later returned to sing his new ballad “Young Girls.” Both songs will appear on his upcoming album Unorthodox Jukebox.