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Charli XCX and Oscar Isaac Duet as Singing Meatballs in This Unhinged SNL Sketch
The "Apple" singer performed a sweet duet with Oscar Isaac in Sarah Sherman's pretaped oddity.
Before BRAT summer, "Apple" singer Charli XCX was a cute little musical meatball.
The Grammy-nominated British singer-songwriter has reached a career high with her meme-spawning sixth studio album, BRAT, which mixes dancefloor-ready bops with confessional, contemplative tunes. But Charli made her Saturday Night Live debut as Musical Guest way back in the "Boom Clap" days of 2014.
When the Covid-19 pandemic foiled Charli's SNL return on December 18, 2021, Charli rescheduled to join Oscar Isaac's episode on March 5, 2022 — and wound up delivering a heartfelt, piano-driven duet with the Dune actor in Sarah Sherman's oddball pretaped sketch, "Meatballs."
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Charli XCX and Oscar Isaac duet as meatballs on SNL
In "Meatballs," body horror master Sarah Sherman plays a woman on her third date with a man who asks why she's always wearing a ribbon around her neck. (In a prescient bit of BRAT synergy, her ribbon happens to be bright green.)
"There's a little meatball guy on the side of my neck," she tells her date, played by Chris Redd. "Every time I take the green ribbon off and expose him to light, he wakes up and sings his little songs." A few more questions uncover the full truth: A full meatball band grows on her body, and they're equal parts gross and adorable.
"Yeah, they harmonize and sing together in time," Sherman's character admits, as Isaac, Sherman, Bowen Yang, Kenan Thompson, Aidy Bryant, Andrew Dismukes, and Melissa Villaseñor play tiny instruments, munch on cheese and sing their strange tune.
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"Once they get on a roll like this, it's better to keep them going until they get tuckered out," Sherman's character tells Redd's as Tiny Meatballs Oscar Isaac and Andrew Dismukes sing, "We are little meatball men, singing our meatball song, we are little meatball men, join us and please sing along!"
Catchy as their ditty is, Sherman's date decides to run for the hills. As he tries to deny her suspicion that "it maybe had something to do with the meatballs," he asks, "I'm sorry...is that a piano in your armpit?"
Technically, it's a keytar—wielded by the beautiful meatball that is Charli XCX.
"Don't give up on love just because of some meatballs," the "360" singer croons sweetly. "Don't give up on this girl because she's got eleven meatbaaaaalls," Oscar chimes in as the two gaze at each other in dreamy close-up.
"Someday you'll realize that in the end, true love will always win," Charli continues, waving her tiny, meaty hands.
"And I'm Jim," Thompson's meatball adds as a capper. It's a love song for the ages — guess Charli XCX was right when she sang that "Everything is romantic."
Watch the "Meatballs" sketch featuring Charli XCX and Oscar Isaac above.
