Druski Becomes First Digital Creator to Host 'Saturday Night Live': Whiteface Elizabeth Holmes Sketch Goes Viral and Divides Viewers
Internet comedy creator Druski hosted the fifth episode of Season 52 of NBC's Saturday Night Live on Saturday night, November 7, becoming the first host in the show's history known primarily as a digital content creator. According to NBC, the episode aired live coast to coast at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock, with The Strokes as musical guest.
Druski, whose real name is Drew Desbordes, is 32 and rose to fame with satirical sketches and over-the-top characters online, including his widely shared Coulda Been Records videos. Variety reported when the booking was announced in October that he would be the first online creator to host the show; he told his 13.6 million Instagram followers about the booking on October 22.
The most talked-about moment was a pre-taped sketch titled "Dru Can See Everything." According to TheWrap, the sketch parodied You Can See Everything, the documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes: Jane Wickline played Holmes and Ben Marshall played her husband, Billy Evans, who first ask Druski to make their documentary. Druski began by impersonating the film's director, Nathan Fielder, peeking around corners, then dressed in whiteface as Holmes herself for the reenactment scenes instead of casting an actress. In his monologue he had warned that he would not do a watered-down version of the show and might or might not do whiteface and drop an expletive, both of which he then did in the sketch. Druski has previously gone viral for sketches dressed as white women, most recently, TheWrap noted, as Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk.
The whiteface segment circulated on social media after the broadcast and divided viewers. CBR reported that some viewers criticized the makeup while others called the sketch brilliant, and the comments under the show's official upload were full of praise. Emma Stone, Druski's co-star in the upcoming film The Catch and a five-time host of the show, crashed his monologue. According to Bossip, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock and Michael B. Jordan were among those who joined him on stage at the end of the night, and Druski posted on X on November 8: "LEGENDS POPPED OUT FOR ME SNL."
Saturday Night Live, on the air since 1975, is one of the longest-running late-night comedy shows in the United States, and its hosts have traditionally been film and television stars and professional comedians. Druski's booking was widely read as a marker of online creators entering mainstream television: AllHipHop reported that he recently signed a multiyear deal with Netflix, and his scripted comedy Collect & Praise is due in December.
Source: NBC
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：Druski资料图，2025年摄于Essence文化节（Gabriel Brooks摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经Wikimedia Commons），非当晚节目画面。/ Druski in a 2025 file photo at the Essence Festival of Culture (by Gabriel Brooks, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons); not a still from the episode.
