Adam Driver , an actor most famous for playing the villain Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, showed off his comedic ability when he hosted SNL this weekend. The 32-year-old actor starred in skits that poked fun at his role in Star Wars , the Golden Globes, and even the Disney movie, Aladdin, Us Weekly reports.
Adam Driver: The new face of evil. #SNL pic.twitter.com/wSLfFgrFHi
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) January 17, 2016
In one of the funnier skits of the night, Driver reprises his Kylo Ren character and stars in an Undercover Boss parody. Driver, as Ren, goes behind the scenes of The Starkiller Base as a radar technician called Matt. Driver dons a blonde wig for the role and says: “I’m looking forward to having some real talk with some real folks.”
In the parody, Kylo proceeds to press the Stormtroopers to dish dirt on their boss, him.
“What do you guys think of Kylo Ren? Do you guys believe when he says that he’s gonna finish what Darth Vader started?” he says.
He also gets a little cocky.
“A buddy of mine saw Kylo Ren take his shirt off in the shower, and he said that Kylo Ren had an eight-pack,” Driver as Ren says at one point.
But it’s pretty hard for Kylo to maintain his cover, mostly because his infamous temper starts to flare when his authority or ability is questioned.
“I’m 90 [percent] sure Matt is Kylo Ren,” one employee played by Taran Killam says in a mock confessional.
When one of the Stormtroopers says this of Kylo Ren: “That guy looks like he weighs 30 pounds soaking wet underneath that black dress,” Kylo loses it and uses the force to throw him into the soda machine on the Starkiller Base.
But the whole experience seems to be pretty redemptive for Ren. At one point, he gives Taran Killam’s character a card to apologize for killing his son.
As this article in USA Today notes, the whole skit sparked Twitter users to coin the hashtag #UndercoverRen , and there were a couple of funny tweets about Driver’s Undercover Boss performance.
#UndercoverRen The most canon thing in the galaxy pic.twitter.com/9hjUbyLKa8
— *beep bop beeep* (@m4stry) January 17, 2016
I so want #UndercoverRen to be canon but they didn’t use Aurebesh and I just…….?????
— Eden (@EdenBelmont) January 17, 2016
SNL also poked fun at the Golden Globes with a sketch that starred Adam Driver and Vanessa Bayer. They play a married couple who go to the Golden Globes and win. During their speech, they tell their kids: “If you’re watching this, go to bed.”
“Do you think mommy and daddy are thinking of us?” McKinnon’s character asks. But they probably aren’t because Driver and Bayer’s characters are partying like crazy, doing shots, snorting coke, and just being overzealous Golden Globe winners.
Adam Driver Flies High as Aladdin on ‘SNL’ https://t.co/XFvtVaHorQ pic.twitter.com/Ekvn1GJEsn
— Harper’s Bazaar (@harpersbazaarus) January 17, 2016
The next really funny skit was a spoof of Disney’s Aladdin. Adam Driver and Cecily Strong showcase their decent singing skills as they performed “A Whole New World.” But their carpet ride isn’t so magical, because they keep getting blocked by birds, missiles, etc.
With this hosting gig, Adam Driver proved that he’s actually a pretty versatile actor, which could bode well for the next couple of films in the Star Wars franchise. According to Rolling Stone , Star Wars: The Force Awakens is currently the highest grossing film of all time in the United States.
The film has grossed over $750 million in ticket sales, surpassing Avatar , the previous title holder. Avatar amassed its world record sales in twenty days, while it took The Force Awakens the same amount of time to beat the record.