Watch Maya Rudolph’s Beyoncé Struggle Through Hot Ones on Saturday Night Live

Maya Rudolph hosted Saturday Night Live tonight, and of course she brought her Beyoncé impression along with her. Instead of a musical number or a “Prince Show” revival (RIP, Purple One), though, the sketch was focused around Hot Ones, the YouTube show where celebrities get interviewed while eating increasingly spicy hot wings. Yeah, it’s a little weird to reference that show in 2021—it’s not like Hot Ones has been making waves lately, and in fact it probably peaked in the public consciousness a few years ago—but at least it’s not something SNL has driven into the ground already, like a talk show or game show sketch.

The sketch itself heads in the direction you probably expect: Texas-bred Beyoncé thinks she’ll be able to handle the heat, and of course she can’t. Rudolph plays her rising anger and discomfort with stone-faced calm that gradually cracks, the burn of Scoville scale-busting spice forcing her to drop her intensely sculpted public persona while not quite letting her cool façade slip. It’s not all that clever or daring of a sketch, but the contrast between Rudolph’s stoicism and her obvious pain is good for a laugh, and Kenan Thompson pops up for a few seconds with a reliably funny Kenan Thompson cameo. If you’re a fan of Beyoncé or Hot Ones, you might dig it.