“SNL” this week trotted out a “Stranger Things” sketch which saw host Natalie Portman play the superpowered child Eleven as she meets a succession of others who were experimented on in the same way — though not all of them have powers that are quite as effective as Eleven’s.
The sketch is, essentially, a parade of super characters who explain their abilities and the side effects, like how Eleven has telekinesis but moving things with her mind makes her nose bleed. You can watch the full sketch in the video embedded above.
First up is Beck Bennett as Fourteen: “I can start fires with my mind but every time I do, I throw up a little in my mouth.”
Then Cecily Strong: “I’m Nine. I can read people’s minds but if I do, it makes me fart.”
“Oh really?” Portman’s Eleven replied. “Then what am I thinking now?”
“You’re worried that I’m gonna fart,” Strong said, after which she did just that.
Then it was Pete Davidson’s turn: “I’m Five. I can run really fast, like the Flash, but every time I do, I get a boner. So I have to start running to hide the boner. It’s not a good power.”
The sketch continued along those lines, with Aidy Bryant as a girl who can do a pretty good Borat impression but it puts her in a coma, Luke Null as a boy who can make a great pot of chili but it makes his brain bleed, Leslie Jones as 50 (as in 50 years old), and Kenan Thompson as a boy who is good at ending sketches — at which point a title card popped up reading, “Winona Ryder was evil all along?”
Portman’s episode of “SNL” was an eventful one, with Alec Baldwin returning to his President Donald Trump impersonation in the cold open and former “SNL” stars Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch appearing to rep the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots, respectively, in a Super Bowl-related sketch set during the American Revolution.