Saturday Night Live’s Joker parody Grouch ruins Sesame Street

Sesame Street will never be the same thanks to David Harbour and Saturday Night Live’s Joker parody featuring Oscar the Grouch.

With the box office success of Joker, audiences could be in store for a wave of dark, gritty character studies featuring other pop culture characters. Saturday Night Live imagined just how far things may go with “Grouch.”

Despite some controversy surrounding the film, Joker has far exceed all expectations at the box office. The Todd Phillips-directed film has generated Oscar buzz already with particular attention given to star Joaquin Phoenix.

The movie may feature the most famous comic book villain of all time but Joker isn’t your typical superhero/comic book movie. You don’t see any capes or massive CGI scenes but instead an R-rated origin story that drew inspiration from Taxi Driver.

It is an interesting approach to a movie about the Joker but also one ripe for parody. And even after 45 years, nobody does parody like Saturday Night Live. With an assist from host David Harbour, the show predicts how far things can go if other characters get the Joker treatment.

There were a number of different characters that Saturday Night Live could have spoofed for this Joker parody. They even could have gone the political route and chose any number of public figures in the news right now. But the decision to go with Oscar the Grouch and Sesame Street was perfect.

It was not only unexpected but also gave the writers plenty of material to work with. Parodying Sesame Street is nothing new and especially not for Saturday Night Live. But few sketches would feature Bert and Ernie getting mugged in an alley or Elmo claiming racism while getting arrested.

Harbour is outstanding as he channels both Joaquin Phoenix and Oscar the Grouch. Now Harbour and Sesame Street are even with one parody each.

This sketch was by far the best of David Harbour’s episode. The Stranger Things star did well with the material he was given. But the Joker sketch proved that Saturday Night Live is still the best in the business when it comes to parody.