Summary

• Nate Bargatze's SNL episode had standout sketches, with "Washington's Dream" being a top favorite.
• Bargatze's clean stand-up comedy style resonates with audiences and brings hilarity to banal stories.
• The "Washington's Dream" sketch showcases Bargatze's perfect portrayal of a weird George Washington, earning viral success.

The Nate Bargatze SNL episode had some of the best sketches of the season, and the George Washington one may have reached the top of my personal rankings. Nate Bargatze is a longtime stand-up comedian who has only recently broken into stardom. The Nashville, Tennessee comic, who works clean, has been delighting audiences with his hilarious stories and bemused reactions, all told with a slight Southern lilt, that makes every word out of his mouth funny. Even the most banal story becomes a riot when Bargatze tells it.

I was a bit surprised that Bargatze was selected Pete Davidson hosted the season premiere, but usually, they're also big-name actors. I'm so glad they did invite Bargatze because his episode, from the monologue where he reminded the audience, "reading is the key to smart" to a skit where he profusely apologized to Kenan Thompson for making incredible soul food, was fantastic. And that's not even to mention "Washington's Dream".

Why The Nate Bartgatze "Washington's Dream" Sketch Is The Show's Best

Nate Bargatze Is The Perfect Weird George Washington

Written by Mikey Day and Streeter Seidel, "Washington's Dream" is one of the funniest SNL sketches I can in recent years. In the sketch, James Austin Johnson, Bowen Yang, Kenan Thompson, and Day are dressed as American Revolutionary troops. Nervous about their potential for success, George Washington shows up, played by a Nate Bargatze who looks like he has just woken up from a nap. Washington inspires his troops by reminding them what they are fighting for: freedom, specifically to use our own brand of weird unit measurements.

The musical guest for season 49, episode 3 was the Foo Fighters.

I'm a proud American. I root for the US in the Olympics and light legally purchased fireworks on the 4th of July. But never before have I felt so patriotic when it comes to our very odd and unintuitive units of measurement. Bargatze lists off nearly every scientific unit of measurement, with each one being more ridiculous than the last. None of the assembled soldiers can follow his train of thought and that's not even the best part of the skit.

Bargatze plays this weirdly fixated Washington perfectly and his pauses before itting each unit of measurement make it seem like he knows how much of a bad idea it is, but he's plowing ahead anyway.

I laughed the hardest each time Kenan's character, a Black soldier, earnestly asked Washington what would happen to men of color after the war. "You asked about the temperature," Washington replies after a blank pause. Bargatze plays this weirdly fixated Washington perfectly and his pauses before itting each unit of measurement makes it seem like he knows how much of a bad idea they are, but he's plowing ahead anyway. I've been there. Seidell and Day spoke with IndieWire about the skit, saying,

"The sketch played well at the table read, strong enough to get into dress rehearsal. I don’t want to speak for Nate, but I think he felt like, 'This is kind of my humor. This is in my lane.' You could see 'weights and measures' being a standup bit of his. So he really wanted to do it... Nate’s a standup, he knows how to react to an audience. He knows when to pause for laughter. When we were rehearsing, he wasn’t taking those pauses, because it’s weird to take a pregnant pause and stare off and then deliver a line to no audience. His punchlines were coming right on the end of everyone’s setup lines. But once the dress crowd got in there and he heard the laughs, he played it perfectly."

Does he ever play it perfectly. I need Bargatze to resurrect Drunk History so I can see him as more oddball historical figures.

"Washington's Dream" Is The "David S. Pumpkins" Of The 2020s

Both SNL Sketches Were Written By The Same Writers

"Washington's Dream" went super viral with 10.3 million views on YouTube as of July 2024. It had 4 million after only 12 days. Who knows? Maybe give it some time we'll see it reaching "David S. Pumpkins" numbers (25 million YouTube views as of July 2024). Both SNL sketches were written by Day and Seidell (and Bobby Moynihan for "Pumpkins") and had the same instant online popularity. Both also sketches feature a host in an unexpected role, as characters who are extremely odd and seem to be the only ones in on the joke.

Seidell compared the two,

"I think we had a similar thing with [2016’s] David S. Pumpkins. It came together perfectly at the time that it mattered. And then in seven years, we’re gonna do it again."

Come on guys, if Washington can believe in an America where a ton is 2000 pounds, but a word for 1000 pounds doesn't exist, you can believe in another winner sooner than seven years.