To call this video a parody of Saturday Night Live’s opening sequence would be technically correct but missing the point—like referring to The Godfather as a family drama or Charles Manson as an above-average charismatic guy. Yes, Sabbath Night Live is a parody of those iconic credits, but it’s so much more.
At the risk of ever-so-slight overstatement, to watch this newest strange offering from New York-based comedians Jordan Olds and Drew Kaufman is to take the most eventful cerebral journey of one’s life. Okay, let’s take that back a notch or two: Sabbath Night Live is really fun! Right off the bat, you get the joke. (“Oh, ‘Sabbath’ instead of ‘Saturday,’ and they’re Orthodox Jews.”) That’s good for a smile. A quick look down at the timeline will show that there’s still another 93 seconds left to go. They can’t possibly stretch this joke out for a full minute and a half, can they?
Turns out they can, but with caveats. What begins as humorous quickly turns annoying, but then that annoyance morphs into a charming silliness. It looks like it’s going to be one of those jokes that’s funny because of how long it goes on, but then it takes a turn for the absurd, and by the end, it’s a resplendent fever nightmare. And that all happens in less than two minutes.
So far, there are only two videos on Olds and Kaufman’s Mrs. Woman YouTube Channel—this one and a similarly crazy ’60s-style Punisher parody—but they both show a lot of potential for the future.