“The once friendly neighborhood of Sesame Street has now become a haven of crime and corruption,” declares Guy Smiley of ABCDEF News in a Saturday Night Live video short tonight that may become as well known for its soiled wit as much as Joker has become recognized for its prolonged Martin Scorsese homage.
With this week’s host David Harbour playing a garbageman named Oscar who takes to the trash in a whole new way, the satirical trailer for Grouch sure mixed a lot of genres. But, as the video below shows, could you expect less from a hard-hitting drama (of sorts) with the brooding Stranger Things star in the lead role, Phillips allegedly behind the camera and a screenplay by the author of “P is for Potty”:
𝘗𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦. #SNL pic.twitter.com/Q45eJzQuEm
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) October 13, 2019
As you can see, Grouch features that certain Oscar, once game show host Smiley, and appearances by Sesame Workshop regulars Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, the Cookie Monster, an arrested Elmo, the Count. With nods to Grover and Mr. Snuffleupagus too, Grouch lovingly ribs the Golden Lion winning Joaquin Phoenix starring film and sticks a shiv in at the same time.
“If everybody calls you trash, and everyone treats you like trash, why don’t you become trash?” Harbour’s the Grouch announces to the world in a sharp-ish elbow (not Elmo) to both the blockbuster R-rated Batman nemesis tale and the 50-year running educational children’s TV series. Which actually makes sense on more than one timely level as Joker and Sesame Street already co-exist in the same corporate universe.
The big screen former comes from Warner Bros and DC Entertainment. The small screen latter is currently on HBO and set to move to upcoming streamer HBO Max next year. They are all part of WarnerMedia, which is owned by AT&T.
So maybe Grouch could become more than just a joke ….