Sabrina Carpenter playfully clapped back at controversy over her album Man’s Best Friend during her appearance on Saturday Night Live.
The “Tears” singer, 26, pulled double duty as host and musical guest for SNL’s latest season 51 episode on Saturday, October 18. One shocking moment saw Carpenter twice use the word “f**k” during her performance “Nobody’s Song” without being bleeped on the East Coast feed, in an apparent technical glitch.
Elsewhere, Carpenter wasted no time in addressing criticism of the sexy lyrics and imagery on her seventh studio album.
“Some people got a little freaked out by the cover,” she told viewers in her monologue. “I’m not sure why? It was just this: me on all fours, with an unseen figure pulling my hair. But what people don’t realize is that’s just how they cropped it. If you zoom out, it’s clearly a picture from the [Saturday Night Live] 50th anniversary special of Bowen [Yang] helping me up by the hair — after Martin Short shoved me out of the buffet line, saying something like, ‘Daddy need his mini quiche.’”
Carpenter then offered to “clear up some misconceptions” regarding her feelings about sexuality.
Sabrina Carpenter Hits Back at ‘Obsessed’ Critics Who Say She’s Too Raunchy
“Everyone thinks of me as this ‘horn dog’ pop star, but there’s really so much more to me,” she teased. “I’m not just horny. I’m also turned-on, and I’m sexually charged, and I love to read. My favorite book is the encyclopedia. It’s so big, and it’s hard.”
Despite being name-checked by Carpenter in her SNL monologue, cast member Yang actually missed Saturday’s show to attend an awards show in Los Angeles. (Yang still contributed to the writing and appeared in a pre-taped sketch.)
SNL also recently made headlines on October 11 when Charli XCX had a cameo during musical guest Role Model’s performance of “Sally, When the Wine Runs Out.” Many suspected that Charli XCX’s decision to wear a “Max’s Kansas City” T-shirt may have been a not-so-subtle response to Taylor Swift’s Life of a Showgirl song, “Actually Romantic,” which fans theorized was about a beef between the two stars. (Charli XCX, 33, declined to comment when asked directly about the supposed feud in an October 14 interview.)
Meanwhile, Carpenter has her own history with Swift, as she was a support act on the Latin American, Australian and Singaporean legs of the Eras Tour in 2024. Carpenter most recently duetted with Swift, 35, on the latter’s Life of a Showgirl title track.
“The Life of a Showgirl” is the cautionary tale of a young dancer named Kitty who learns that show business is not “all flowers and magic,” according to Swift.
“When we were writing it, we finished it, and I just kind of thought, I want Sabrina to sing on this so bad,” Swift explained during her Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl event. “She’s someone who’s really well equipped for this career.”
Swift went on, “She’s so good at moving through backlash or criticism, or people being unfair to her or picking her apart. She has the temperament to pivot and use it as fuel.”
Sabrina Carpenter Interrupts ‘Saturday Night Live’ Monologue for Cameo
Meanwhile, Saturday Night Live underwent a huge cast overhaul following its landmark 50th season, with cast members Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow, Heidi Gardner and Ego Nwodim all leaving the show ahead of season 51. New featured players for the October 4 premiere included Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, Veronika Slowikowska and Please Don’t Destroy member Ben Marshall.
SNL producer Lorne Michaels told Puck News in August that it was a necessity to change up the cast since he couldn’t really make any wholesale changes in season 50.
“Last season, when we were at the party of the first show, quarter of four in the morning, Dana [Carvey, who played Joe Biden], comes over to me and says, ‘I don’t think anyone knows you called me June 4th [to play Biden],’” Michaels, 80, said. “I wanted people coming back and being part of [the 50th season].”
The producer continued, “So when Kate [McKinnon] hosted, Kristen [Wiig] and Maya [Rudolph] came back for it. That meant there couldn’t be those kind of disruptions, or anything that was going to take the focus off [the 50th season]. And we had an election.”
Saturday Night Live’s next new episode airs November 1 on NBC at 11:30p.m ET with host Miles Teller and musical guest Brandi Carlile. SNL has announced that comedian Nikki Glaser and Sombr will appear November 8, while Glen Powell and Olivia Dean are booked for the November 15 episode.
