Saturday Night Live has a reputation for outrageously parodying TV shows – sometimes to the point of extreme ridiculousness – but their latest Riverdale sketch is pretty much on par with the real thing.
In the dramatic sketch, musical guest and host Halsey plays Lili Reinhart playing Betty Cooper. Beck Bennett plays Cole Sprouse playing Jughead Jones. Together they’re tasked with filming a season finale episode set in a morgue. Unfortunately, Pete Davidson, playing a background actor, takes his role as a corpse way too seriously.
Alright, let’s make some ‘Dale,” Kenan Thompson, portraying the show’s director, exclaimed. (Do they call it that? Should we all start calling it the ‘Dale now?) Halsey’s Betty then proclaims to the dead corpse, also known as her cousin Devin, that she “wanted to be the queen Bey of this drab hive” but that now all she wants is her cousin back.
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That’s when Davidson’s character kicks the scene up a notch. He begins making the most bizarre sounds he possibly can, which he later describes as “the usual hisses and moans you get from gas escaping the body.” He then explains to his co-stars and director that he has played a corpse plenty of times in his career, and that whole laying still and silent bit is a “totally inaccurate depiction of a dead body.”
Betty continues her monologue, spewing about how she was an “A1 River Vixen” and her “poor sweet Devin,” while Davidson's corpse continues to add background sound effects, much to the dismay of Thompson. But while the latter is completely annoyed with the extra’s extraness, Betty and Jughead agree that the corpse’s larger-than-life performance is spot-on. I’m inclined to agree.
Sure, corpses don’t typically convulse and make moaning sounds in the morgue, but Riverdale fans have seen and heard weirder things. Case in point: the Gargoyle King and the creepy, cult-like farm, with Chad Michael Murray soon to be introduced as their fearless leader. Also, the sketch’s dialogue is eerily similar and just as cringe-worthy as what actual Riverdale characters say, though I’d argue that Halsey’s Betty reminds me more of Cheryl Blossom.
Nonetheless, Halsey, Bennett, and Davidson have proved that they could totally guest star on Riverdale in season 4. Seriously, there are plenty of corpses on the show for Davidson to play.