Saturday Night Live can be pretty hit-or-miss, but comedienne Melissa McCarthy always brings the laughs whenever she comes on the show. Even a sketch that was cut from the live broadcast for time purposes was so hilarious that it’s hard not to wish that the episode had sacrificed the Kanye West performance in favor of McCarthy as contestant Padget in a spoof of the Supermarket Sweep game show. Padget had to battle time as well as gravity in order to take home the big bucks, but don’t worry – she had a plan. Check it out!
Seriously, Melissa McCarthy as Padget would have been way more fun to watch on Saturday night than Kanye West coasting on the fumes of a temper tantrum. Supermarket Spree being cut is a shame only made somewhat better by the YouTube release. Considering that she probably needed to replace some electrolytes after barreling through the aisles of a grocery store and then quite literally taking down her opponent, McCarthy definitely deserved to have this sketch seen by the public.
Melissa McCarthy was the star of the clip, but kudos must be given to Vanessa Bayer as contestant Melanie. I didn’t even realize that it was possible to appear that mild-mannered and dainty while still bringing the funny, but Bayer pulled it off. McCarthy needed a straight man of sorts to offset Padget's intensity, and Bayer's mild Melanie was perfect.
Perhaps my favorite part of the sketch was that it unfolded in real time, meaning that Melissa McCarthy was really racing around the store to set up each sight gag. We saw the whole two minutes of Padget wrestling hunks of meat and wheels of cheese and pieces of machinery into her shopping cart, and McCarthy was clearly doing the work herself. I want to give her a round of applause and a Gatorade for managing it at all.
McCarthy’s latest appearance on SNL was the fourth time that she hosted an episode; between the sketches that made it onto the air and the hilarity of Supermarket Spree, I’d say that we can count on McCarthy being invited back to take on the hosting duties again in the future. Her sitcom Mike & Molly may have been cancelled, but she’s keeping plenty active on the big screen. She’ll continue to be a hot comedic commodity, and we can only hope that she'll make time to return.
Am I still gagging from the image of Melissa McCarthy breaking into the mayonnaise like she did? Maybe a little bit, but that’s not going to stop me from rewatching the Supermarket Spree clip another time or two. Saturday Night Live is currently on a break from new episodes, but it returns on March 5 at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
