They Thought I Was You
Hosts Becca Roth and Lani Harms revisit their childhood obsessions with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, analyzing their work, examining their impact on pop culture, and talking with the people who worked with them. It's the deep dive you've always wanted and the recognition the Olsen Twins always deserved.
They Thought I Was You
Saturday Night Live Starring Mary-Kate and Ashley (2004)
On Saturday, May 15th, 2004, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen had a decision to make: they could either attend their senior prom or host the season finale of Saturday Night Live. As you probably guessed, they chose SNL.
And as a consolation for missing their high school prom, Jimmy Fallon, Will Forte, Maya Rudolf, and Amy Poehler gave Mary-Kate and Ashley a miniature prom during their 5 minute monologue on the stage of Studio 8H. The rest of the night featured Mary-Kate and Ashley playing paparazzi, selling perfume, selling backpacks, spoofing The Swan, enduring Jimmy Fallon, and playing as angsty teens on home video.
So today, Becca and Lani give their review of the episode sketch by sketch* and discuss what the significance was of Mary-Kate and Ashley hosting Saturday Night Live. We are also painfully reminded of just how long ago 2004 was with how wildly racist, sexist, and homophobic so many of the jokes are. At least there was one sketch in this episode that we both agree was utter perfection (can you guess which one?)
We hope you enjoy this deep dive into this culturally significant moment in television and allow us to geek out over the construction of sketch scene (it's our expertise, after all). But most of all, we hope you join us in celebrating Mary-Kate and Ashley for successfully accomplishing the enormous feat of hosting this insanely difficult show on live television.
You can watch the video version of this ep and get more bonus content by subscribing to our Patreon here.
If you don't have Peacock, watch (most of) the SNL episode here:
Mary-Kate and Ashley Host SNL part 1
Mary-Kate and Ashley Host SNL part 2
Mary-Kate and Ashley Host SNL part 3
Mary-Kate and Ashley Host SNL part 4
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Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms
Email us at: theythoughtiwasyou@gmail.com
*We just learned that we missed the "Bloater Brothers" sketch during our review so here it is: bad sketch, but Mary-Kate and Ashley do a great job. And they look SO cute in 70s clothes & hair, OMG!
