Wicked costars Ariana Grande and Bowen Yang proved besties do it better during the Saturday, October 12, episode of Saturday Night Live.
Grande, 31, returned to host Saturday’s episode — her second time emceeing the variety show after 2016 — where she showed off her enduring bond with Yang, 33. (Grande and Yang, of course, met while filming the upcoming movie musical Wicked, starring as Galinda/Glinda and fellow Shiz University student Pfannee, respectively.)
To kick off her monologue, Grande sang a meta tune about her intentions not to turn the episode into a musical. (The pop star did end up singing multiple times on SNL, including a parody cover of Sabrina Carpenter’s viral hit “Espresso.”)
“And I’m not gonna talk about Wicked / ‘cause tonight I don’t give a —,” Grande sang before she noticed Yang in the corner of the stage wearing a replica of her pink Wicked ballgown; tiara, wand and all. “Bowen? Didn’t anyone tell you? We cut the Wicked sketch.”
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Yang jokingly appeared as if he was unaware of the script changes.
“Oh, um, that’s OK, I didn’t want to do it anyway,” he quipped.
Grande revealed that was “great” since his wand was really a hidden “flask.”
“So, if you can keep that piano away from me / because that’s the last thing I’m gonna do,” she continued singing. “Is modulate the key!”
Grande and Yang then reunited in additional sketches, including one about a family game night. Grande and cast member Andrew Dismukes played the parents of Michael Longfellow, who brought his new boyfriend (Yang) home for the first time. As they played a “competitive” round of charades, Grande and Yang ended up arguing.
“Haha in your face, Diane,” Yang quipped to Grande, who replied that the dig “wasn’t necessary.”
“You got a tiny pecker or something?” she retorted. “You must be compensating for something, you poor sick loser?”
The pair’s animosity continued heating up as they traded verbal barbs — and more.
“I don’t have a problem. I’ve got love and a family. What have you got?” Grande said. “A toad show?”
Yang’s character, however, was fed up with the disses about his size and stature.
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“How about I beat your ass right here, right now?” he quipped before Longfellow asked what was going on. “What does it look like? I’m about to fight your mom.”
Grande, meanwhile, pointed out that fights in “this house” need to abide by “street rules” as she smashed a wine bottle over Yang’s head.
Yang, in retaliation, pretended to toss and shake Grande (really a life-size doll while the actress hid behind a couch) over his shoulders and shouted, “This is what she deserves.”
He ultimately apologized for getting “a little carried away” and Grande clapped.
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“Well, well, well, you did it. Finally — one of my son’s boyfriends stood up to me,” Grande said as the background music swelled. “I need my son to have a man like you, who will protect him, because my son is so, so weak and I don’t have any respect for him.”
Yang then gushed that Grande’s character was “incredible” and they shared a passionate kiss.
“Well, to be fair, they did have crazy tension,” Jane Wickline, playing Grande’s daughter, jokingly added before the scene cut to black.
Saturday Night Live airs on NBC Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET. Wicked Part One, meanwhile, debuts in theaters November 22.
