Have you ever been on a business trip and were forced to stay in a shady run-down hotel room for the weekend? Well for their final sketch of the night featuring singer/songwriter Billie Eilish, Saturday Night Live humorously takes us through that experience.
Eilish plays Kathlyn the Desk Girl and co-stars SNL veteran Kate McKinnon as Kathreen who is “the same person” as Kathlyn. They start off their ad by talking about the hotel room which “provides” every comfort required by law.” Tiny soaps, bandaid colored blankets, and stains in places you have to touch are all covered here. This also includes the video taking us to the hot tub that is always occupied by a creepy boy who stares at you and, “he’s not get out until you do.”
The ad then moves us to the most hilarious tragedy of this video which is Concierge Doreen played by Aidy Bryant who is always having a bad month because no one wants to go see the local town caves. The sketch humorously hard cuts to an intense Doreen begging us to see the cave. She would love to go but sadly “can’t afford to.” Her dogs are driving her crazy and she was recently bitten by a feral cat that she rescued. With that sympathy card, she begs us one more time to “please, for me, please see the caves."
The sketch then cuts back to Kathlyn and Kathreen as they continue their ad talking about their reviews. “See why Tripadvisor called us ‘the stock photo you can sleep in,” Kathlyn said with Kathreen adding, “And why the news called us ‘The place that man did those things." This got a big laugh from the audience and this is when Eilish starts to fight herself from breaking character because McKinnon’s facial expressions/line delivery are just too good. Eilish’s Kathlyn continues by stating, “We put the hospital in hospitality,” which McKinnon’s Kathreen adds, “Situated between the DMV and the darkened Sonic. It's the location that will make your Uber Driver say ‘You sure?’” This is the point where Eilish breaks character and starts holding in laughter as McKinnon hilariously pokes her to get back into character.
Eilish snaps quickly back into place and the two take us to the breakfast part of the experience which includes showing off the wet eggs, “cereal in gumball machine”, and the yogurt that “gets padlocked at 8:59 A.M.” There is simply “No Mercy” at the Business Garden Inn and Suites and Hotel Room Inn.
This takes us to the next portion of the ad which features Eilish’s brother Finneas playing Trevor the Bellhop/Valet/Night Manager/In-House Doctor. Finneas’ hilariously morbid line delivery warns us that “I will drop your bags. I will scratch your car. I will watch Joe Rogen videos on my phone, no headphones. If you’re a man, I will tell you where the strip clubs are. I will offer to get you cocaine, and then I will Flake out. I am Chaos.”
Finally we get to “the less sparkly moments” that all their guests can experience at the hotel. This includes all the hits like Magic the Gathering tournaments, Business Conferences, Interventions, affairs with old men, cult deprogramming and hiding from the police. They “might not be the Ritz Carlton…” but at least you can “see the cave.”
This funny sketch capped off a very enjoyable night for SNL and between Eilish struggling to remain in character to McKinnon’s drop-dead funny line delivery to Bryant desperately trying to sell us on a cave, this was one of the most memorable sketches of the night. Eilish and McKinnon just had such a uniquely quirky chemistry that charming breaks in character made the whole experience that much funnier.
Next week SNL will have their final episode of 2021 with host Paul Rudd and musical guest Charli XCX and you can watch the full “Hotel Ad” sketch down below: