Kristen Wiig, Annie Mumolo and James Corden Reimagine ‘The Crown,’ ‘Queen’s Gambit’ and More in Hilarious Sketch

While promoting their absurd new comedy Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, co-stars and co-writers Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo stopped by The Late Late Show with James Corden to ham it up in a little socially distanced sketch comedy. In the bit, Wiig, Mumolo, and Corden reimagine the popular TV shows The Queen’s Gambit, The Crown, and The Undoing with themselves as the woefully clueless stars. “The chemistry between us was undeniable and that’s why we were cast together in some of the most popular TV shows of all time,” deadpans Mumolo. “Unfortunately, we were fired from all of them.”

First up is Queen’s Gambit, with Mumolo and Corden facing off over the Operation game (“chess is boring”) while Wiig drunkenly stumbles onto the set because she was “method.” The highlight of the sketch is easily Mumolo as Charles and Wiig as Diana in a spoof of The Crown, as Wiig cranes her neck while frantically shouting “LOOK AT MY BIG EYES, CHARLES, CHARLES, PLEASE!”

Corden as Hugh Grant and Wiig as Nicole Kidman in The Undoing wraps up the bit, with Corden spoofing Grant’s famous line from Notting Hill: “I’m just a boy, standing in front of a girl, saying I didn’t kill that lady.” At the end of the sketch, Wiig jokes that the ultimate cut was firing Corden from Barb and Star and Simon before settling on just Barb and Star. ” Wiig explains that as actors they have to “cut the dead weight, and sometimes that dead weight is your friend.”

Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar is currently available on-demand, and the creative follow-up to their 2011 hit Bridesmaids is the insane comedy that the pandemic-ridden world needs right now. However, Wiig and Mumolo made it clear in Variety that Barb and Star was its own animal. “We wanted to go in a more of a direction of silly,” Mumolo explained. “Something where we weren’t overthinking.”

“That’s our sense of humor,” Wiig agreed. “It’s the same sense of humor, but they are very, very different. We want people to enjoy this on its own. I don’t think there was a deliberate, like, ‘Oh, this has to be really, really different.’” The ridiculous tale of two middle-aged Midwestern best friends heading to Florida for the first time before getting caught up in a murderous plot really is different from Bridesmaids, but the underlying sweetness and importance of friendship is a common thread that remains.