Saturday Night Live parodied The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel with the show’s star, Rachel Brosnahan, as the host. In the pre-taped sketch, Leslie Jones played Midge’s maid, trying to make it as a black standup comic.
The sketch was a trailer for The Raunchiest Miss Rita, with Rita as a comic whose every other word is censored.
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The new show is billed as “a little less stylized and a little more in your face.”
After Rita finished her set, Midge asked Susie (played by Aidy Bryant instead of Alex Borstein) if Rita’s success would hurt her own career.
“Somehow, I don’t think there’s much overlap,” Susie said.
The show will also star “an even more exasperated Tony Shalhoub,” played by Kyle Mooney. Another scene has Midge taking Rita under her wing.
At the end, SNL sneaked in a Bill Cosby joke, with Keenan Thompson playing the disgraced comic.
“This next comic is a lot more clean-cut and wholesome,” Mikey Day’s host character said. “Please welcome Mr. William Cosby.”
This was not the first time SNL parodied the hit Amazon series. During the Dec. 16 episode, Cecily Strong played Brosnahan in a pre-taped sketch parodying the search for an Oscars host. In the brief scene, Aidy Bryant played The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and interrupted Brosnahan’s audition.
A few days after the sketch aired, Brosnahan expressed her excitement by tweeting, “You Guys” with a dizzy face emoji.
“I still feel that way. I’m still making that face,” Brosnahan told Seth Meyers on Late Night last month.
Brosnahan said she did not see it live as she was traveling at the time, but her friends quickly texted her about it.
“I was abroad, so I was six hours ahead and everyone I have ever met had sent me a text message by the time I woke up the next morning,” Brosnahan told Meyers. “Even if it had been terrible, I feel like I still would’ve been thrilled.”
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘s second season was released on Amazon Prime on Dec. 5 and the show has been an awards magnet. Brosnahan won her second consecutive Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy TV Series earlier this month, while season one also won the Best Musical or Comedy Series award last year.
Mrs. Maisel also won eight Emmys for season one, including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy for Brosnahan and Outstanding Supporting Actress for Alex Borstein. Sherman-Palladino also won Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the pilot episode.
In the second season, Brosnahan’s Midge continues to evolve as a character, as the stakes for her comedy career get higher.
“I think it certainly continues, but I think in the second season she’s also confronted with all of the ways that she has yet to change and grow, particularly in her relationship with [Borstein’s character] Susie,” Brosnahan said of Midge’s evolution in an ELLE interview. “They come from two totally different backgrounds. The stakes are different for them in this big risk that they have both taken and this path they have decided to walk down together. For Susie it’s all or nothing, and Midge has always kind of had this safety net.”
SNL airs at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC Saturdays.
