Lady Gaga’s return to Saturday Night Live this weekend kept LateNighter’s SNL Flubs Desk on its toes with a small handful of mistakes
As we’ve said before, if you don’t watch the show live, you’ll miss many of those flubs. That’s because, when they can, the show’s post-production team will correct errors for future airings, YouTube, and the archived Peacock edition of the show.
So which flubs did the show wallpaper over from this week’s episode, and which will live to see another day? You’ve come to the right place.
SNL Shows Its Cards
Though barely noticeable, a wayward cue card somehow fell out of the hands of SNL‘s legendary cue card team and onto the green-screened floor in “A Long Goodbye,” as Lady Gaga’s lovelorn motorized suitcase rider is joined by a motorized suitcase gang (played by James Austin Johnson, Andrew Dismukes, and Jane Wickline). Briefly visible hitting the floor on the left-hand side of the screen behind Johnson, someone’s arm can be seen entering the frame a few seconds later to retrieve the card.
The moment was apparently deemed inconspicuous enough to find its way onto the YouTube and Peacock versions of the sketch, where it will presumably remain an Easter egg for eagle-eyed viewers.
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Have a Heart
Less conspicuous were a pair of awkward moments in the “Birthday at Friendly’s” sketch. In the live version of the sketch, Marcello Hernandez (playing Mola Ram, the villain from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) is missing a key prop–Heidi Gardner’s beating heart, which she explains he’s just ripped out of her chest.
Hernandez delivers his line without it, though someone can be seen running into the shot to hand it to him after the fact. A beat later, a second missed prop cue leaves Lady Gaga momentarily without the heart sundae that’s meant to be the button on the sketch.
The YouTube and archived Peacock versions of the sketch replace the section with the two missed prop cues with the same section of the sketch from dress rehearsal, which also sees Bowen Yang deliver a different line in reaction to Heidi Gardner’s character after she says “Guys, he ripped my heart out of my chest.”
Watch both versions below:
Also of note: the live version of the version of the sketch did not include an end card, whereas the YouTube and Peacock versions end with a tag: “Friendly’s Don’t You Dare Lie to Us. All Praise Lamashtu”:
Gaga Doesn’t Give a “Sh*t”
Hard to say whether this was a flub or a choice, but in Lady Gaga’s live performance of “Killah,” she sings the lyrics “Talkin’ some shit with your hand on my ass.”
The moment aired live on the East Coast complete with the s-word, but on the West Coast (where for the last decade the show has aired live in primetime on a slight delay), the audio surrounding Gaga’s curse was dropped. The YouTube and Peacock versions of the song also drop the sh*t from her performance, but that version simply cuts out her vocal track for that one moment:
What did we miss? If you happened to catch any live flubs that were later fixed (or not), drop us a line and we’ll add them to this list.
UK viewer here. Watched the (UK premiere) broadcast on Sky Comedy last night, and the flubs in the ‘Friendly’s’ sketch were included, but after checking are also present in the version of the episode on-demand. Usually, the version of the episode on-demand is different to that broadcast (usually only in the exclusion of the musical performances).
I wasn’t taking particular interest in Gaga’s performances last night – so I don’t know how or if the cursing in ‘Killah’ was censored in the broadcast – but in the on-demand version it is censored in the online version fashion. Unusual editorial choice, then, to deliver a version of the episode to the UK which includes an edited form of one of the musical performances but not an edited form of one sketch to remove a props/stagehand error – especially given earlier in the season, we got the Peacock version of the Bill Burr episode with the dress rehearsal version of the “Trauma Support Group” sketch (which was also the version on-demand in Australia).
Something also to note is that there is one error in the ‘Friendly’s’ sketch present in both versions; Marcello’s character is seen holding Heidi’s heart AFTER we see it having been presented by Gaga’s character to Mikey, Bowen and Andrew in sundae form. Oversight by the writers?
“Also of note: the live version of the version of the sketch did not include an end card, “
Guess you missed your own flub. 🤣