Pablo Pascal hosted this weekend’s entry of “Saturday Night Live” on NBC and in doing so also sent up his current role on HBO’s acclaimed video game adaptation “The Last of Us”.
In the pre-taped segment for the sketch comedy show, a faux trailer is made for another HBO prestige drama adaptation of a video game – this time turning “Mario Kart” into a gritty dystopian drama.
In the process it reimagines iconic characters like Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Bowser, Yoshi and Toad whilst poking fun at HBO’s interpretation of “complex, dramatic characters” which translates to regular characters coming out as bisexual.
It also sends up “The Last of Us”, not just in terms of borrowing plot and character traits but also joking how the show hails from the producers of that series and “Mario Kart 1-8” in the same way ‘Last’ was always billed as coming from the creators of both the game and an earlier HBO drama (“Chernobyl”).
The clip comes ahead of the real Universal Pictures and Illumination animated feature “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” which will arrive on screens this Easter and begins its international rollout at the end of March.
Meanwhile the Pascal-led “The Last of Us” series continues on HBO with the fourth of nine episodes airing tonight.
HBO's adapting another iconic game pic.twitter.com/YtsIswwSBb
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) February 5, 2023
