For as long as Saturday Night Live has been on the air here in the U.S. (which is roughly 732 years if we’re going by feel alone), it’s surprising no other country had thought to option the brand name until now. British panel gameshow Taskmaster—a.k.a. the best show on TV—has a half-dozen other versions in different countries, but SNL finally only has this one new one. And in order to get people in tune for the first episode of SNL UK which will premiere March 21, Sky TV has a promo with the new cast and first host Tina Fey…as Mary Poppins.
The teaser has the entire new cast of the series (including personal faves Emma Sidi and Ania Magliano who were both on Taskmaster) discussing how they could possibly get the word out about the premiere. This is classic SNL malarkey, as though we aren’t already watching a commercial. Who should appear to help but Mary Poppins! It’s Tina Fey of course. The bit is that she has a bag full of stuff that will help promote the show. Including a very long shoe, for some reason.
This promo really gets to the essence of what Saturday Night Live often is, which is not funny. To like SNL is to realize only about 20-30% of any given episode is actually funny. It’ll be intriguing to see how well the British sensibility translates to this very American franchise. It’s not like the UK doesn’t have an incredible history of sketch comedy. I truly hope the writers and performers don’t try to emulate more of SNL than the episodes airing live on a Saturday night.
But we’ll find out! Presumably Sky TV will post some clips for us Americans to check out. SNL UK premieres March 21 with host Tina Fey.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.