The Espresso-inspired bridesmaids speech featuring Ariana Grande is taking over TikTok, one lyric at a time.
Move over Timothy Chalamet. There’s a new guest host in town — and one of her sketches is already taking over TikTok. Ariana Grande hosted the third episode of Saturday Night Live’s 50th Season and in less than seven days her sketch “Bridesmaid Speech” has become the most watched sketch on SNL’s page.
There’s a lot of aspects that have people in love with “Bridesmaid Speech,” which involves Ariana Grande and cast members Ego Nwodim, Sarah Sherman, and Heidi Gardner singing a celebratory ditty about a memorable bachelorette trip to Charleston, North Carolina to the tune of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” The group croons out with flawless, off-key charm, spilling the beans that their friend Kelsey (Chloe Fineman) spent most of her bachelorette trip in the arms of another man, Domingo. But it’s Marcello Hernandez as Domingo that turns the bit from a simple laugh to hysterical. “Hey Matt,” he says to a screaming audience. “Came all this way. Had to explain direct from Domingo” / ”Kelsey’s my friend, she’s like my sis, but we did hook up though!” It takes less than 20 seconds for Domingo to claim the bride and in the days since the episode premiered, his appearance has taken the sketch from classic to a huge hit.
The sketch is close to five minutes, which can often doom SNL parodies, but the combination of the catchy melody and ridiculous confession has made the song a staple on social media apps, including TikTok. Since the SNL TikTok account posted a snippet of “Bridesmaids Speech,” the clip has been viewed over 80 million times, and the full video 3.5 million times on YouTube. This makes it the most-viewed SNL clip on TikTok, dethroning Timothee Chalamet’s viral rap sketch “Yeet Skrt” with Pete Davidson. There are also at least 10,000 videos using SNL’s official sound, with the large majority ranking the viral nature of the lyrics by how fast they got stuck in their heads on repeat. “Does Domingo do weddings?” says a comment that’s been liked over 100,000 times. People have used Domingo’s confident entrance to prove themselves at work. Others have simply expressed devotion to Hernandez’ delivery complete with an accented “direct from Domingo.” And the feeling that seems to be the most consistent is thousands of people saying they love the sketch so much that they’ve almost forgotten the real words to “Espresso.” Even Carpenter had good things to say about the spoof, calling the sketch “very nice and on pitch” on her Instagram story.
The viral popularity of Domingo and the bridesmaids also matches the general interest in Grande as host. According to Variety and Nielsen data, Grande’s episode was viewed by over 5.6 million people on the day it aired — making it the highest-viewed SNL episode since Elon Musk hosted in May 2021. It was a star-studded affair, with Stevie Nicks as a musical guest and Grande’s sketches including her as an angry mother, a clueless girl who ignores signs that her best friend’s father is a serial killer, and a traumatized vibrato. But online, Grande fans and haters alike are still getting their fix direct from Domingo.