Lady Gaga made her “Saturday Night Live” hosting debut this weekend, pulling double duty as musical guest, and the “Applause” singer had no problem poking fun at herself.
In a sketch about an album titled, “WHAAAT? The Worst Cover Songs of All Time,” Gaga hilariously mocked her feud with Madonna and the “Born This Way”/ “Express Yourself” controversy.
Counting Crows’ lead singer Adam Duritz (played by Taran Killam) opened the sketch — a TV ad for a compilation CD featuring ear-bleed-inducing performances, starting with Britney Spears (Noel Wells) singing Leonard Cohen’s ballad, “Hallelujah.”
Next up was rapper Rick Ross (Kenan Thompson) delivering a side-splittingly funny and awful version of Anna Kendrick’s “Cups,” from the movie “Pitch Perfect” – complete with a clumsy attempt to rhythmically clap plastic cups on a table.
“We’ve got some real star power on this thing, like Lady Gaga covering the work of Madonna!” Killam’s Duritz announced, as a chyron of “Express Yourself” flashed across the bottom of the screen.
However, instead of Madonna’s 1989 hit, Lady Gaga sang “Born This Way,” poking fun at the flak she took for the similarity between the two songs.
“That actually sounded pretty good… was it a cover?” Durtiz asked. “Who cares!”
Adele (Aidy Bryant) also made an appearance “singing” the instrumental “L.A. Law” themesong, followed by a cover of Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me” by Lana Del Rey (Cecily Strong) and Nathan Lane (Bobby Moynihan).
Jay Pharoah and Kate McKinnon closed out the sketch with a terribly entertaining version of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” as sung by Lil Wayne and Susan Boyle.
In another sketch, Lady Gaga – playing a beleaguered Mac store Genius sent to fix Kim Kardashian’s (Nasim Pedrad) laptop — got into a spat over style with Kanye West (Jay Pharoah) before staring into the camera to deadpan, “Honestly, I don’t care about fashion.”
“I think people who try too hard with their outfits are maybe hiding something,” she said with a wink, mocking her own theatrical, extravagant ensembles. “Like come on, dress like a person!”
The 27-year-old star also sang two songs: her new single “Do What U Want” (she was joined by R. Kelly for the sexy performance), and “Gypsy,” which she performed while playing the piano.
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— Erin O’Sullivan
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