“Saturday Night Live” used the occasion of Jason Momoa hosting and promoting “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” to revisit the recent meme-ing of men always thinking about the Roman Empire.
Saturday’s music video comedy sketch opened with several women singing about their distant male partners, wondering what’s going on in their minds as they stared into the distance. But rather than another woman, the emphatic answer came: Rome!
Momoa, no stranger to playing warriors from “Game of Thrones” to “Dune” to “See,” switched into full Roman gladiator attire as he delivered praises for the glorious civilization, its fun facts and its continuing influence.
“The Roman Empire, Ancient Rome / Five times a day, it pops into my dome,” Momoa declared. “Which reminds me, they invented the dome / Just one of the reasons that I think about Rome.”
“Caesar, straight didn’t give a f–k / Drank ice cold water from an aqueduct,” Momoa continued, before pointing to a quite detailed statue as he delivers the couplet, “But Romulus founded the Eternal City / Here’s him and his twin sucking on a wolf’s titty.”
Next up was Mikey Day. As his partner handed him his baby son, Day teared up — then transitioned to a Roman toga as he tossed the baby back to her.
“And I know his heart is filled with–,” she sang before being cut off by Day’s “Rome, Rome, bring a tear to my eye, in the year double-M, double-X, triple-I. Did you know that their statues weren’t white? They painted them in colors bold and bright.”
“Emperor Nero killed his own mother,” Day continued. Then, sitting next to Momoa: “When they took a s–t, they sat next to each other.”
Last up was Kenan Thompson. While he looked over bills, he quickly transitioned into his own ancient Roman attire and rapped, “Gladiators would rarely ever die / It’s not like the movies, they mostly stayed alive / They built roads so good, they still in use today / And Emperor Hadrian, openly gay.”
Other facts these Roman aficionados shared include that Roman homes had central air and heating.
Plus, we got to see Ego Nwodim slapping Momoa multiple times as she tried to get him back to reality, causing him to compare her to the Visigoths.
She pointed to their son gazing out the window, worried he was following in his father’s Roman Empire footsteps. But turns out he was young enough to still be constantly thinking about dinosaurs — which led to his own rap, before transitioning back to Momoa’s Rome verses.
Then we finally got the video’s women delivering their own rap. When Nwodim told Momoa that men need to be thinking about things that matter, the answer is clear: astrology.
“Astrology, astrology, the art of reading stars / And how their positions determines who we are,” they rhymed, adding, “See a Scorpio, I know he gonna cheat all day / And if you a triple Gemini, stay the hell away.”
As Momoa noted, the Romans were into astrology, too. (Sadly, there are no cameos by the Momoa-esque WWE Champion Roman Reigns.)
Watch the full “Rome Song” music video above.
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