WATCH: Pedro Pascal Is ‘Ah-Me, Mario’ In Hilariously Gritty SNL Trailer For Last of Us-Style HBO Parody
Saturday Night Live sent up Pedro Pascal’s star turn in The Last of Us with a parody trailer for a dystopian Mario Kart series.
Like the cold open and Weekend Update, parodies of television commercials have been a staple of Saturday Night Live since the very first episode — on October 11, 1975 — of a new show that was then called simply NBC’s Saturday Night.
The ad spoofs have provided some of the show’s most iconic moments, such as Dan Aykroyd’s handy Bass-O-Matic, or the late legendary Phil Hartman’s ad for fiber-rich breakfast cereal Colon Blow, the deceptively-named Happy Fun Ball, or Triopenin, the impossible-to-open pain reliever advertised during the first episode’s Weekend Update segment.
In the show’s early days, some of the commercial parodies were filmed ahead of time while others were performed live.
But the modern iteration of the spoofs are almost entirely filmed in advance, with convincing sets, graphics, and visual cues. One early running gag featured the announcer, Don Pardo, doing an on-air promo for the fictional Blaine Hotel (“Guests of NBC Saturday Night stay at the fabulous Blaine Hotel in midtown Manhatten. The Blaine, a tradition for more than half a century.”) — following a news item reporting some horrific crime at the hotel.
One favorite variation of the ad parody is the spoof movie or television trailer.
Pedro Pascal was the guest host on this week’s edition of Saturday Night Live. Coldplay was the musical guest. Variety reported on Pascal’s hosting gig, noting “This will mark the “SNL” debut for Pascal, who is currently leading “The Last of Us,” HBO’s adaptation of the PlayStation video games of the same name, which premiered on Jan. 15 and has already broken multiple viewership records.”
The actor is also known for roles in the HBO hit Game of Thrones, the Netflix series Narcos, and the current Disney+ hit The Mandalorian.
On this week’s edition of Saturday Night Live, host Pedro Pascal starred as Mario in a canny spoof of his current HBO hit The Last of Us that transplanted the tropes of dystopian horror onto the beloved wacky racing game.
Watch above via NBC’s Saturday Night Live.