We get it—there is simply too much. So, as in years past, we are giving our editors a last-minute opportunity to plug the books, movies, albums, shows, skits, or any piece of cultural ephemera that didn’t quite get the attention or acclaim it deserved. To entertain your holiday guests, we present all the things you really should know about—as well as more of our year-in-review coverage—here.
One of my Roman Empires this year was as follows: Bad Bunny, dressed up as Shrek from the movie Shrek—complete with green face paint—describes a screenplay he’s written. “Shrek detaches the final escape pod, falling into the sun,” he says. “It explodes into saying ‘love.’” This is not a sentence spat out by ChatGPT but rather a sketch that appeared on a recent episode of SNL where Bad Bunny was both host and musical guest. I have watched it an inordinate amount of times since it aired in October, and it never fails to make me feel better. It was written by a comedy trio made up of Ben Marshall, Martin Herlihy, and John Higgins, who joined the cast in 2021 and work under the moniker Please Don’t Destroy. Their sketches generally take place in their tiny SNL office/dressing rooms, and the mood is generally unhinged, nonsensical, and often veers into the fantastical. Their magical realism captures the hopeless feelings of our modern time.
For those who might have missed this comical genius, allow me to curate a few of my favorites from their time at the show. There is “Wellness,” in which the three discuss their current self-care regimes: chocolate milkshakes, a new medication that’s “just like Zoloft, but just the side effects,” and intermittent sleeping. “Ever since the pandemic the light keeps getting dimmer,” Higgins says at one point, to which the other two respond with “Dimmer!” and “Fading, yes!” like a cheerleading squad for feeling bad.
In another, the boys reminisce about the “start of their careers” as tween Def Comedy Jam entertainers, making inappropriate jokes about Capri Suns and substitute teachers. Another pokes fun at the wholesome sitcoms from the ’80s and ’90s, with the trio starring as three goth guys who lead very basic lives. (“They’re all Disney adults!”) Describing the premises of these sketches will never be able to capture their funniness; you just have to trust me and watch the videos themselves.
The common thread throughout their sketches is their tight-knit friendship, which seems the most important thing in their lives. This was the main plot point in Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain, their first feature film, loosely inspired by kid-favorite films like The Goonies (or, for the millennial girls reading this, Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain, starring Christina Ricci and Anna Chlumsky). Herlihy, Higgins, and Marshall play three best friends who met in elementary school and are now confronted with the changing nature of their friendship as they get older and embark on their own lives. They decide to go hunting for a treasure in order to recapture that friendship spark.
A couple of weekends ago, I gathered my best friends for dinner and a viewing of the boys’ cinematic masterpiece. (Yes, we refer to them as “the boys,” and I will neither confirm nor deny that our group chat is named after them.) We were expecting to have a good time, mostly because we were all together, but it turns out Foggy Mountain was a very funny movie. It was silly and ridiculous and had the best John Grisham joke at a time where there simply aren’t enough John Grisham jokes, but it also featured some surprisingly, earnestly tender scenes between Higgins and his love interest, played by the fantastic Meg Stalter. When every day brings a new, fresh hell, giving into the absurdity of Please Don’t Destroy’s comedic stylings was one of the few things that brought me unbridled joy. So go ahead, press Push on that escape pod (YouTube video)—and explode yourself into the word love (and laughter).
