Adele hosting Saturday Night Live was an interesting experiment for the singer. You could argue her career in America was launched by her appearance on the show eight years ago, but whether she could handle the rigors of hosting — and the hectic nature of appearing in several sketches while trying to be funny — was unclear.
Every episode of SNL is different, but the show did its best to keep Adele doing things familiar to her. A sketch about The Bachelor, for example, had her quite literally playing herself and singing some of her biggest hits, while others had her doing more out there roles. One of those, however, proved to be a bit too much for an extremely giggly Adele. She starts to lose it just 30 seconds into the sketch, needing an extra moment to try to say her lines with a straight face.
At times doubled over with laughter and struggling to hide a smile, the singer appeared in a commercial for Africa’s tourism board with Kate McKinnon. Things started out fine, but as the double entendres about “bamboo” and other sexually suggestive bits built up, Adele was unable to keep it together and often broke character well before Heidi Gardner appeared on screen with them to say you can feel the rhythm of the place “in your stomach.”
Despite the multiple gaffes, the crowd was extremely supportive of Adele as she giggled and struggled to hide her laughter. The script for the sketch — which included a number of extremely suggestive lines while couples appearing to be increasingly enamored with each other passed behind them — certainly didn’t give her many breaks to catch her breath.
“Last night,” Adele said, giggling ahead of reading the lines off of cue cards, “I saw the face of god.”
The sketch: built on the belief that divorced women of “a certain age” seem to love visiting Africa, drew some ire on Twitter afterward. Either people loved seeing Adele laugh through it, or wondered if it wasn’t very appropriate or nuanced considering a pandemic making international travel impossible, not to mention anti-police brutality protests that have grown in Nigeria in recent weeks and attracted international attention.
That Africa skit was tone def, insensitive and inappropriate. Men and women in Nigeria, Namibia, South Africa and The Democratic Republic of the Congo are fighting for their lives and to reduce the continent as sexual destination for white women is shameful. #SNL
— Kamala’s Flat Iron (@GoldingGirl617) October 25, 2020
It’s as if SNL decided this season: “We’re gonna be the opposite of woke.” The Africa skit with Adele is the most glaring example.
I mean, really? SMH— meriah doty (@meriahonfiah) October 25, 2020
I actually teach about the horrors of white people traveling the world and having sex with poor Black folks in the Caribbean and in Africa. #SNL just did a comedy sketch about it. pic.twitter.com/4b9GmJsCJx
— L E F T, PhD
(@LeftSentThis) October 25, 2020
Hold on hold hold on. #SNL y’all gonna do that Africa sketch, followed by H. E. R. and her band wearing #EndSARS shirts. Like, whhhhhaaaaatttt?!!! How?! Truly wtf
— Brenson Thomas (@brenthomas112) October 25, 2020
I actually teach about the horrors of white people traveling the world and having sex with poor Black folks in the Caribbean and in Africa. #SNL just did a comedy sketch about it. pic.twitter.com/4b9GmJsCJx
— L E F T, PhD
I promise…I promise. I’m not in think piece mode on a Saturday night. But not feeling this #snl Africa skit aside from Adele breaking. If you’re gonna try to touch that, it’s gotta be just a little smarter & more nuanced or don’t touch it at all. Not rn.
— Dometi Pongo (@Dometi_) October 25, 2020
During musical guest HER’s second performance, for example, each member of her backing band wore a shirt with the hashtag #ENDSARS on it, a reference to the ongoing crisis there. But regardless of how well the sketch went over online, at least Adele made sure it got some laughs from somewhere.