Amelia Dimoldenberg walked onto the SNL UK stage, brought up Idris Elba, brought up Cher, and then brought up a “world-famous, red-headed puppet with a hand up his ass telling him what to do.” And for one glorious second, you thought she meant Elmo. She even showed the Elmo clip. Then she deadpanned “No, the other one” and there’s Ed Sheeran’s face on the screen. That’s the whole bit. That’s also, not gonna lie, one of the better setups I’ve seen from a monologue in a while.
Okay, So What Actually Happened Here
Dimoldenberg, 32, made her SNL UK debut this past Saturday, September 26, and used her opening monologue to basically relive her Chicken Shop Date glory days – if you don’t know the show, it ran for years with her interviewing celebrities from inside a British chicken shop, deadpan questions, awkward silences, the works. It wrapped earlier this year. And apparently she’s not done getting mileage out of it.
The joke worked because of the misdirection, honestly. She name drops legitimately impressive guests – Idris Elba, Cher – then pivots to a puppet with a hand up his backside, which, fair, is a pretty accurate description of how puppetry works. Everyone laughs at the Elmo interview footage. Then bam, it’s actually about Sheeran. The photo from his 2021 Chicken Shop Date appearance flashes up and suddenly the joke lands twice. Once for the misdirect, once for who the real target was.
Why Sheeran, Though
Here’s the thing – this wasn’t random. Sheeran’s been in the middle of some backlash this month over his Loop venture (the specifics are still a little murky depending on where you’re getting your news, but it’s been enough of a story that comedians clearly feel comfortable poking at it). Dimoldenberg didn’t dive deep into the controversy itself. She didn’t need to. Just showing his face after setting him up as a puppet with someone else’s hand controlling him? That’s the joke. She let the audience fill in the rest.
Is This Even a Roast, Though?
I keep seeing this labeled as her “roasting” Sheeran and I’ll push back on that a little. A real roast is relentless, it’s mean, it keeps going. This was one line. One really well-constructed line, sure, but one line. What Dimoldenberg’s actually doing here is something she’s always done well – the backhanded compliment disguised as a normal sentence. She’s not screaming insults. She’s calmly comparing a Grammy-winning musician to a puppet controlled by someone’s hand, in the same tone you’d use to order chips.
“I’ve been incredibly privileged to have done so many interviews with people like Idris Elba, Cher and even a world-famous, red-headed puppet with a hand up his ass telling him what to do.”
Read that line again. It’s structured like a humble brag. It’s delivered like a humble brag. And then it turns into an insult about the biggest name on her old show. That’s kind of her whole thing, and it’s why Chicken Shop Date worked in the first place – she’d ask someone like Drake something absurd with a completely straight face and just let the silence do the damage.
What This Says About Her Post-Chicken Shop Date Era
The show ending earlier this year could’ve been the end of her whole persona, if I’m being honest. Shows like that live and die on the format. But this monologue proves the deadpan-slightly-savage energy travels. It’s not about the chicken shop set or the awkward silences anymore, it’s about her delivery, and that apparently survives the jump to a live SNL stage just fine.
What’s interesting here is she didn’t try to reinvent herself for the American-adjacent format. She leaned all the way into the bit that made her famous, referencing her own show, her own guest list, even her own most random interview (an actual puppet, for context, is not a normal interview subject, and the fact she’s done one is very on brand). That’s smart. Why walk away from the thing that got you the SNL UK gig in the first place.
The Elmo Angle Nobody’s Talking About Enough
Can we talk about the fact she actually interviewed Elmo on Chicken Shop Date at some point? Because that clip existing at all is kind of wild, and using it as a red herring in a joke about Ed Sheeran is exactly the kind of layered, slightly unhinged comedy writing that I don’t think gets enough credit. It’s not just a joke about Sheeran. It’s a joke about her own back catalog being random enough that Elmo was a legitimate guess.
What This Actually Means
Look, this drives me a little crazy when people act like every celebrity dig on a late night stage is some kind of career-ending shot. It’s not. Sheeran’s probably fine. He’s had a rough month with the Loop stuff, sure, but a well-crafted joke on SNL UK isn’t going to sink a guy with his track record. What it does do is confirm Dimoldenberg’s got range beyond the chicken shop format, and that her specific brand of dry, backhanded humor works even without the plastic tablecloth and the awkward silence.
Whether SNL UK gives her more hosting gigs off the back of this, I genuinely don’t know. But if this monologue is any indication, she’s not going to play it safe. And honestly? Good. We’ve got enough safe monologues already.
