The Dakota Johnson-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live, which aired this past weekend, ended with easily the weirdest sketch of the entire season called Amazing Tales Of Truth. It featured a woman singing to her hospitalized father, followed by an Unsolved Mysteries-style announcer telling her that’s now how comas work and that he was not going to wake up. The hilarious bit felt like something we would have gotten from Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney back in the day, but in a surprise twist, the outrageous 10 to 1 closer turned into its own hot topic of conversation on social media after it wasn’t posted on SNL’s YouTube page.
Some fans thought the sketch wasn’t posted because it contained SNL star Veronika Slowikowska singing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and maybe the show couldn't obtain the copyright needed for it to be posted online. Others speculated the sketch wasn’t uploaded because it was too weird to publicize any further or perhaps because longtime showrunner Lorne Michaels wasn’t happy with how it came out.
Eventually, another theory emerged. Some fans who attended the dress rehearsal revealed that it was actually the first part to a two part sketch. Perhaps the show was saving the second part for a future episode. Or perhaps those involved didn’t think it worked well enough without the second part to further publicize it online. Well, we finally have the answer, which puts an end to the conspiracy theories.
SNL officially released the missing sketch this morning, and the decision was made to put the dress rehearsal version after the other one to give fans the full experience. You can watch both sketches in their entirety below…
It’s too bad this didn’t fully air during the show because I love it. The bizarre sketches that don’t always work with everyone are typically my favorites. I like a bigger, weirder swing, and these sketches are certainly big and weird swings. Andrew Dismukes also works well in this unhinged throwback host role.
Regardless, Dakota Johnson’s third time hosting was well-received by the majority of fans. The Taylor Swift cameo was obviously the buzziest moment, but there were a bunch of sketches that trended widely online, including the actress’ take on mean, scary girlfriends, which is already approaching 2M online views in just a couple of days.
SNL will return this weekend with an all-new episode hosted by Shane Gillis. In theory, take-no-prisoners sketches about a dead dog and a dad who won’t wake up would blend with his comedic approach quite well. Maybe Dismukes and company will try and pitch a second round of Amazing True Tales. We’ll just have to wait and see.
