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Saturday Night Live dug up a pop rock anthem from 2009 in what viewers have dubbed a “brutal” sketch.
The 19 October episode of the long-running sketch show was hosted by actor Michael Keaton, with music coming from Billie Eilish.
It also saw the return of Alec Baldwin to the show for the first time since being cleared of manslaughter charges following the 2021 shooting on the set of the western film Rust.
The sketch took place in 1950s Detroit, where a mixed-race couple, played by Ego Nwodim and Andrew Dismukes, shared their relationship with their families, played by Keaton, Heidi Gardner, Kenan Thompson and Devon Walker, who disagreed about the pairing.
After hearing both sides of the argument, Dismukes told everyone in the room: “Maybe this will help. I’ve written a song.”
He adds that the song is: “About us. About what it’s like to be married to a beautiful Black woman. Maybe when people hear it, things will start to change.”
Dismukes then pulls out a ukelele and launches into a rendition of Train’s divisive 2009 smash hit “Hey, Soul Sister,” which has been derided by some publications as the worst song of the 2010s.
His over-the-top rendition of the song is lapped up by his white parents, who immediately change their minds about the relationship.
However, the same can’t be said for the Black family, with Thompson citing one of the lyrics in the song, asks: “Hmm. Uh, young man, did you say that my daughter was so gangster?” Dismukes replies by saying: “Yes sir, And I am so thug.”
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The twist in the sketch is that Nwodim is also so appalled by the song that she decides to leave Dismukes, who is consoled by his parents, who reassure him that it wasn’t the song’s fault.
By reviving the song, SNL has prompted viewers to react to the lyrics, with some being stunned at what they uncovered.
One person wrote: “Because of SNL I looked up the lyrics to ‘Hey, Soul Sister.’ I’d heard the song before -- there are some things in this life that you simply can’t control, but [I] had never really *listened* to it before. Those lyrics are unconscionable. They are proof the devil lives among us.”
A second person said: “I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ by Train is one song that immediately turns my stomach into only bile. Heinous and vile.”
Meanwhile, a third viewer said: “SNL is always so late to the party but I am always here for ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ jokes. That song is deranged.”
The song was a major hit for Train, reaching number three on the Billboard Top 100 chart, with frontman Pat Monahan, claiming that the song is actually about “a group of beautiful women at Burning Man dancing around the fire”.
One of the band’s founding members, Charlie Colin, died in May 2024.
