Gird your loins, “Elizabeth” Rodrigo, because Saturday Night Live‘s resident Miranda Priestley suffers no fools.
In a new promo for Olivia Rodrigo’s first time pulling double duty as host and musical guest, Andrew Dismukes and Jane Wickline are offering the singer a warm welcome back when Tommy Brennan arrives with an urgent alert: “He’s on his way.”
As an anxious Dismukes and Wickline sprint away to fetch the good water and change into heels, “he,” it is suggested, is James Austin Johnson in full Devil Wears Prada mode—complete with platinum hair, designer sunnies and handbag, and a necklace to tinker with when staring into people’s shrinking souls.
Shirking his wrap while barking orders, James says, “I need a sketch takes place in an airport Chili’s, I need 40 extras between the age of 9 and 11 with red hair, and I need Coin Jost on the phone because I haven’t been on ‘Update’ in… how many weeks has it been?”
He then lets loose with a pitch-perfect, Merly Streep-y, “Why is no one read-dy?”
Rodrigo seals her fate by stifling a giggle when Dismukes offers JAJ two near-identical drinks to throw in someone’s face, and then saying as a first-time host, she’s just getting used to these “skits.”
“These… skits?” Johnson parrots back the words with a scornful look, before launching into a rat-at-tat-tat, sharply written and brilliantly edited rehash of Rodrigo’s SNL history as a two-time musical guest who, yes, popped up in a “skit” or two.
In other words, “I find it comical that you think these ‘skits’ have nothing to do with you” Johnson cooly observes, ” when in fact your entire career has been turned into sketches by the people in this very room.”
“Elizabeth” barely has a moment to recover from the take-down when Brennan pops back up to announce that the actual “he,” SNL boss Lorne Michaels, just got here, sending JAJ himself as well as the others into a whole other panic.
Press play at the top of this post to watch the promo.
