Saturday Night Live gave a nod to the overwhelming Chris-ness of Hollywood’s superhero films, with an opening monologue from host Chris Pine that jokes about how easy it is to confuse him with Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, and Chris Pratt.
Pine opened the monologue by announcing that he had a movie coming out this weekend, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and the audience actually cheered and clapped for him. “See? You see?” he said. “I knew that was gonna happen. I’m not in Guardians of the Galaxy! That’s Chris Pratt.”
To the tune of “Uptown Girls,” Pine then sang lines like, “I’m not that Chris / I look just like him, but I’m not that Chris” and “We’re all white guys / but these aren’t the white guys I am / I’m six feet tall, and Chris Evans…Chris Evans is six feet, as well.”
Kate McKinnon offered some suggestions as to why the Chrises are so easily confused: “Well, I think it’s because you’re all named Chris, and you’re all kind of scruffy and squinty and jacked, but in a sweet way.”
Pine then pulled out two hilariously similar photos of Chris Evans’ performance as Steve Rogers and his own as Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman.
“See,” he said, “Chris Evans’ character is Steve Rogers, and in Wonder Woman I’m playing Steve Trevor – a completely different Steve, played by a different Chris altogether.”
Though the lines weren’t as clever as they might have been, this song still gave me the giggles, because it’s ultimately making fun of the deep diversity problem in mainstream superhero films. The fact that there are so many very-similar-looking actors named Chris in these films is indicative of a big problem in central casting. They have one specific image of heroism, and thanks to white supremacy and patriarchy, it looks like these four.
Plus, Leslie Jones killed me with this tweet, which I read before I saw Pine’s monologue:
Just met Thor!! pic.twitter.com/90mlO2um0T
— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) May 7, 2017
(Via Pajiba; image via screengrab of SNL’s video)
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