When a Saturday Night time Are living parody tune starts, there’s typically a second of anticipation the place you surprise what the punch line goes to be. That used to be the case final night time as a bunch of feminine forged individuals started a ballad about their aloof spouses, one questioning, “Is he dreaming of every other lady he desires greater than me?”

Then the cartoon reduce to what the lads had been considering. What used to be on their thoughts: The Roman empire, after all. Sure, it used to be perhaps a few months behind schedule, however the rap tune that ensued used to be concerning the meme that males are virtually at all times brooding about the main points of the Roman empire. The night time’s host, Jason Momoa, took the lead: “5 instances an afternoon it pops into my dome, which strikes a chord in my memory: They invented the dome. Simply some of the causes that I take into accounts Rome.”

With the burly Momoa, there to advertise his newest flip because the DC superhero Aquaman, SNL’s writers had a paragon of muscle-bulging masculinity to deploy. The “Rome Track” cartoon used to be simply one of the the place they used Momoa’s quintessential dudeness to provide some—infrequently fun, infrequently overly simplistic—comedy on gender tropes.

The Roman empire bit used to be the primary some of the night time that leaned into this theme. Momoa’s large shoulders have compatibility completely right into a Roman warrior dress, however he used to be in the long run joined via the solid individuals Mikey Day and Kenan Thompson, who additionally spat out details about gladiators and marble statues.

The cartoon had any other remark on fixations. When it peeked into the mind of just a little child taking part in the son of Momoa and Ego Nwodim, the boy started to rap about dinosaurs. And as for the ladies? Neatly, ladies are at all times residing on astrology, which led Momoa to show that “the Romans had been in reality into astrology too.”

Learn: Aquaman has no industry being this just right

As a complete, the cartoon used to be smartly achieved—the “dinosaur” interlude used to be a in particular lovely addition—however it presented not anything new by the use of remark at the meme, which at this level has already been performed out throughout social media. Plus, there’s not anything in reality subversive about announcing, necessarily, that males obsess over historical past whilst ladies take a look at their horoscopes. Actually, it’s just a little reductive.

The episode didn’t get all that extra insightful because it went on. Later, Momoa performed the hunky ex-fiancé of a lady portrayed via Chloe Fineman. She had concept him lifeless after a aircraft explosion, however he returned from being stranded on an island sexier than ever, a lot to the dismay of her new partner (Andrew Dismukes). She used to be smitten, and it used to be a very simple gag, a exhibit of Momoa’s sturdy, wild-man character and now not a lot more.

However in all probability the night time’s strangest tackle gender got here close to the top of the display. In a riff on Netflix’s Untold documentary collection, Sarah Sherman gave the impression as the fictitious tennis participant Charna Lee Diamond, who, on this model, had a battle-of-the-sexes match ahead of Billie Jean King did. With the exception of Charna wasn’t such a success. She challenged a person to a fit and were given paired up with Momoa as Ronnie Dunster, who “on the time used to be the most important guy to ever play tennis.”

That’s the place it verged into absurdism. When Ronnie served, the ball actually went thru Charna, leaving a bleeding hollow within the middle of her abdomen. She screamed, “Did I break it for ladies?” She pressed on. Her head got here off together with his 2d serve. Charna attempted to modify historical past and died doing it.

The gross-out gruesomeness of the cartoon prominent it, however it used to be in the long run simply every other reminder of ways large Momoa is, and, in flip, how manly. The underlying sentiment: Come on, a woman can’t beat that man.

Many hosts arrive on SNL desperate to subvert their public character and display their comedic vary. Momoa threw himself into the sketches with verve, however he didn’t take a large number of dangers to problem his symbol, and neither did the writers. With Momoa as a symbol of enormous male power, they dove headfirst into drained binaries.