SNL‘s widely praised Season 49 sketch “Washington’s Dream” has found a permanent home at the United States’ official museum and national archive dedicated to the art of comedy.
The National Comedy Center now displays cue cards from the October 2023 sketch, in which first-time SNL host Nate Bargatze portrayed General George Washington envisioning an inexplicably specific future for the American measurement system.
The cards came straight from Bargatze, who personally donated them to the National Comedy Center’s Carl Reiner Department of Archives and Preservation.
Hailed as an instant classic by fans and critics, “Washington’s Dream” was written by Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell. It ranks as SNL’s third most-watched sketch of last season, with more than 11 million views on YouTube.
News of the cue card donation coincides with Bargatze joining the center’s Advisory Board of Directors, where he sits alongside comedy veterans like Amy Poehler and Jim Gaffigan.
The comic recently paid a visit to the Jamestown, NY museum, where he was photographed with the “Washington’s Dream” cue cards and a cardboard cutout of himself from the sketch.
“For an artist, it’s a tribute to this thing we work so hard at,” Bargatze said of the National Comedy Center, “and for the average visitor, it pulls back the curtain on what elevates it to being an art. The experience is just awesome.”
Following Bargatze’s breakout hosting stint last year, Lorne Michaels signed on to produce a CBS primetime special for the comedian, set to tape this November in Nashville.
Bargatze returns to host SNL for the second time this weekend, with musical guest Coldplay.
