The Internet’s Mommy and Daddy! Pedro Pascal, ever the “cool teacher,” discussed the importance of social media safety — and becoming an online crush — during his Saturday Night Live debut.
In a Saturday, February 4, skit, the 47-year-old Last of Us star portrayed high school teacher Mr. Ben, who was tasked with delivering a high school presentation on student technology use.
“OK. Let’s start. First rule: Do not access inappropriate content online and do not bully on social media,” Pascal’s character sternly addressed the students, who were played by the SNL ensemble cast.
Throughout his presentation, the students couldn’t help but interrupt Pascal and praise his ideas. “Come on girl, eat it up!” Ego Nwodim exclaimed.
While the Mandalorian actor was wary about the so-called compliment, he went on to tell the kids to no longer make “fancams” of the staff, such as the thirst-trap TikTok videos they made of him in the classroom.
“Nooo, skinny legend! Why are you doing this?” Bowen Yang cried out, leading the Chile native to point out that there are “thousands of fancams” of him — and he “isn’t sure what they mean.”
Sarah Sherman, for her part, explained that the high schoolers frequently create the “sparkly” montage videos because he’s “their beloved” and has them “in a chokehold.”
Pascal — who was in his “assembly era” in the sketch — wasn’t the only schoolteacher that served as the inspiration for a fan edit video.
“Mommy works remotely all day and doesn’t have time to eat it up, no crumbs left, so we made you Daddy and Miss Jenny [is] Mommy,” the Wicked actor, 32, quipped in the skit of the students’ reasoning for living online in a post-COVID era.
Sarah Paulson then walked on stage, surprising the SNL viewers, to play Miss Jenny. “We’ve told you, there is nothing going on between me and Mr. Ben,” Paulson, 48, insisted.
After the students questioned their romantic status, Pascal told the American Horror Story alum that the kids had “been through so much” and that they should come clean.
“Miss Jenny and I are in love,” he gushed to widespread cheers before Paulson chimed in. “Fine, it’s true! He’s Daddy, I’m Mommy and we’re all a happy family, no crumbs left,” she added.
The pair’s SNL team-up quickly went viral with social media fans in hysterics that both Pascal and Paulson called themselves “Mommy” and “Daddy.”
The Game of Thrones alum and the Ocean’s 8 actress, in real life, have been friends since they were both 18.
“I met you, Sarah Paulson, in September of 1993, my first month in New York City. I was really lucky because my first friend at NYU lived in Brooklyn, Kristen, and went to high school with you, so your guys’ posse kind of adopted me,” Pascal recalled during a September 2014 profile for Interview magazine, which was conducted by the Florida native. “We were 18-year-olds in New York City in 1993. [But] I remember all of us going to the Upper East Side. I insisted that we all go see that movie Fearless. There were eight of us sitting next to each other and, as I remember, we were all sobbing by the end of it.”
While the pair briefly lost touch after Paulson moved to Los Angeles, they eventually reconnected for “chapter two” of their friendship when Pascal made a similar cross-country journey.
Saturday Night Live airs on NBC Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET.
For more, watch the clip above!