As we all know, 90's nostalgia is at an all time high. Remakes and reboots of classic properties are being produced in increasing rates, as the trend continues to rake in the bucks for movie studios and TV networks alike. We've seen Fuller House and Gilmore Girls return to Netflix, and the upcoming Power Rangers movie is slowly increasing in hype. Saturday Night Live seems to understand this all too well, and one of their most popular new sketches involves Vanessa Bayer taking on the role of Rachel Green in Friends, and imitating Jennifer Aniston's strange affect when speaking as the character. And now Aniston has made an appearance and interacted with the farce. Check it out.
I mean, come on. This by far wins best sketch of the night for me, and hearing the Rachel voice in stereo is equal parts horrifying and delightful. Let's break down this awesome sketch, bit by bit.
Vanessa Bayer's Rachel made its debut a few months ago, to pretty universal critical acclaim. What makes this impression so exciting, besides the fact that it's spot on, is that it makes the audience realize how truly bizarre Jennifer Aniston spoke during Friends' ten year run. Basically, Rachel says every sentence as if it was a question, going up at the end. Additionally, she seems to compliment her dialogue with filler lines like "yeah" "what?" and, of course, "Ross". This, combined with her strange diction, are actually fairly easy to imitate once you hear it, and Bayer does so to fantastic results.
This recent sketch saw Rachel from Friends once again invading Weekend Update. In a typical sitcom fashion, any moments of punctuation quickly cut, and we see an exterior shot of Monica's apartment building, transitioning us into the next scene. Only the next "scene" is just Vanessa Bayer still at the desk of Weekend Update, but with some sort of prop involved. This continues for quite a while, and then Jennifer Aniston herself shows up.
Jennifer Aniston appears to be unamused by Vanessa Bayer's impression, as well as her incessant texts and attempts to make plans. Bayer breaks character in this moment, and tells Aniston that she's just a really big fan and wants to hang out with the A-lister.
The Friends actress also attempts to defend her speech pattern, saying that she didn't speak as ridiculously as Vanessa Bayer's impression implies. But during the course of her argument, she accidentally slips back into Rachel, and the two argue in questions and "yeah"'s for a few seconds. And it's great.
It's always fun to see a celebrity poke fun at themselves and not take themselves too seriously. Jennifer Aniston is exactly that person, especially when it comes to Friends. It doesn't look like the sitcom has any reunions or reboots planned, so for now SNL is the closest thing to a new episode that we'll likely ever to witness.
Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays on NBC.
