SNL UK viewers praise 'catchy' pub song sketch which may be your next earworm

The UK version of Saturday Night Live continued on Sky One on Saturday (28 March), as the name suggests, with The Fall actor Jamie Dornan presenting the second episode and Wolf Alice being the live music act.

Last week’s launch episode with Tina Fey and Wet Leg featured a cold open about UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer struggling to call US president Donald Trump, guest appearances from Graham Norton and Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan, and a sketch about Sir David Attenborough’s “last supper”.

This time around, the programme opened with Jack Shep playing another member of the royal family after his iconic portrayal of Princess Diana last week (Prince Andrew, before he lost his title), and included sketches about a pedantic hostage and a haunted Jools Holland.

But arguably the most popular sketch of the night came in the form of a comedy song, which has found itself stuck in the heads of people who have watched it.

Simply titled “Pub Song”, the skit opens with Shep’s character explaining that they are in Bristol Airport getting ready to fly to Spain.

“The most beautiful place in the world. A country of art, culture and culinary delights,” he says.

Fellow cast member Annabel Marlow then adds: “And when we get there, there’s only one place we’re going to go…”

Cue the tune “to the British-themed pub, pub, pub, pub” becoming your earworm for the next week.

It’s certainly proved memorable for some SNL UK viewers:

“This song is so catchy,” tweeted one:

Referencing a sketch from last week, another wrote: “what kind of irish is your themd pub”:

A third quoted the song’s chorus and added: “Proper banger that, another moment I’ll be singing out loud all week”:

And a fourth commented: “Fear british themed pub is going to be stuck in my head”:

However, not everyone was on board with the song, as some took to X/Twitter to criticise the programme – and this particular sketch - over alleged “generative AI”:

“Pleeeease tell me this isn’t AI slop,” wrote one user, sharing a screenshot of three on-screen postcards shown during the sketch:

Another tweeted: “snl uk… I’m gonna need you guys to stop using gen AI for random onscreen graphics etc”:

“SNL is so brilliant but the use of generative AI has to stop for next week,” said a third:

Sky UK has been approached by indy100 for comment.

Saturday Night Live UK continues next week, when Sound of Metal actor Riz Ahmed is on hosting duties and Kasabian are performing.

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