Photo: Dana Edelson/NBCPeter Dinklage toyed with the idea of “Summer is Coming” in his promos with Cecily Strong leading into his first time hosting Saturday Night Live. The Game of Thrones actor, known for his charisma and ability to deliver a line with the wit and sarcasm that always plays well on SNL, doesn’t shy away from a challenge. Dinklage has a lot of live theater experience, far from the perils of Westeros, that should serve him well. So, how did he do in the cutthroat world of late-night sketch comedy? Here are three of the most interesting moments from Saturday Night Live with Peter Dinklage (and no, he doesn’t know if Jon Snow is alive):
1. HBO Game of Thrones First Look: SNL knows they shouldn’t miss the chance for a Game of Thrones video short when Tyrion Lannister himself is hosting. Kate McKinnon needs to get as much mileage out of those Daenerys Targaryen costumes as possible, right? This first look at the upcoming season gives Dinklage some screen time with “those scene stealers, the dragons.” Bobby Moynihan plays the motion-capture actor in a unitard with the dragon’s head on a stick. He’s the opposite of a Game of Thrones dragon: awkward and uncool. Watch for McKinnon’s Emilia Clarke trying to stay focused as the hapless dragon gets cleaned up after a missed bathroom break.
2. Space Pants: What starts out as a seemingly run-of-the-mill mob sketch in a supper club gets seriously out-of-this-world when Dinklage takes the stage. Wearing a white bob wig, he starts doing the robot and singing about his space pants. “My pants will blow your mind!” he says. The song is ridiculous, but infectious, and the act goes into hyper drive when he is joined by Gwen Stefani, who, for her part, is wearing space shorts. Gwen commits to the bit as she and Dinklage duet about their galactic garments: “My shorts are from a galaxy far, far away.” By the end, everyone is into it and probably wondering where they can get some space pants of their own.
3. Winnie-The-Pooh: This sketch takes us to Pooh’s birthday party. Dinklage is a roly-poly Pooh. What do you get the honey-loving bear with a comfortable home and close friends? He seemingly has everything he needs. Pants, of course. These come from his cousin, Denny The Real, a bear from the rougher side of The Hundred-Acre Wood. Denny tries to convince Pooh to leave the Hundred-Acre Wood with him to act more like a bear. “Your cousin was just in that movie The Revenant,” he says, trying to spur Pooh along. In the end, Pooh can’t leave his friends. “You do you, little Pooh,” Denny says. Hey, SNL, how about a buddy comedy with Bobby Moynihan’s Eeyore and Kenan Thompson’s Tigger?
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