A certain Train-penned earworm received a savage attack in one of the first sketches on this week’s Michael Keaton-hosted “SNL” episode. Set in Detroit, Michigan, in 1955, the sketch takes place at a suburban home where an interracial couple looks to win over their family’s support for their union.
The actual Train song was inspired by ideas of what Burning Man could be like — its own potentially racially problematic real-life context, but not at all what’s presented in the sketch.
Ego Nwodim and Andrew Dismukes play the couple in a sketch titled “Forbidden Romance,” which opens with the families arguing before Dismukes urges them all to sit down. He explains to his parents, played by Heidi Gardner and Keaton, “Janey and I are in love, and we intend to wed.”
Keaton’s ’50s father responds, “Janey is a lovely girl, but a white man married to a black woman — that’s just dangerous.”
Nwodim’s Janey explains that they don’t care what people say as the couple’s love “is stronger than their hate.” Keaton responds that he still can’t consent to the pair marrying, while being apologetic about it.
Kenan Thompson and Devon Walker play the opposing family, Janey’s father and brother respectively. They stand up for the couple’s rights to marry if they want to.
That’s when Dismukes offers a solution.
“Maybe this will help. I’ve written a song,” Dismukes says. “About us. About what it’s like to be married to a beautiful Black woman. Maybe when people hear it, things will start to change.”
“Amen. Play your song, young man, play your song,” Thompson urges.
That’s when Dismukes picks up a ukulele and rips into what’s revealed to be the song we all know as Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister,” the polarizing earworm that became the band’s top-charting song when it hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Singing in the most earnest way imaginable, Dismukes begins to loudly sing right behind Nwodim, clearly making her uncomfortable as Keaton and Gardner look on and seem open to the tune’s message. Nwodim grits her teeth before having to recoil and shake her head as he hits the chorus:
“Hey, soul sister, ain’t that Mr. Mister on the radio? The stereo. The way you move ain’t fair, you know.”
Walker joins Thompson in delivering some of the longtime “SNL” stars patented side-eye in response. Dismukes moves to continue singing the song directly at the pair, with both fretting and shaking their own heads at the move.
On the other side of the room, Keaton and Gardner as the white parents are full-on dancing in their seats to the tune. When Nwodim tries to cut him off, Dismukes begins to bark the song’s bridge at her, and then he hits the line, “You’re so gangster, I’m so thug,” which gets a big “No” from Nwodim/Janey.
Walker chooses this point to exit the awkward situation, explaining that he’s going to wait outside. Gardner and Keaton continue to dance in their seats and sing along as the song concludes, to delighted applause from the crowd.
“Wow, son, just wow. I get it. I get it, you have my blessing,” Keaton says.
Gardner adds, “Mine too. Now that I hear how my son feels about his beloved soul sister, I can’t object.”
That’s when the sketch cuts to a pondering Thompson, who responds, “Hmm. Uh, young man, did you say that my daughter was so gangster?”
“Yes sir,” Dismukes says. “And I am so thug.”
Thompson nods and adds, “OK. OK. I think I’m going to retract my blessing, and I think I’m going to go a step further and say that maybe we should stick to our own kind.”
Nwodim reacts, “Dad!” but while there could be another twist here, she adds, “That is such a good point, I agree.”
A shocked Dismukes asks, “Wait, are we over?” To which Nwodim and Thompson both eagerly agree that this is, in fact, the case.
“OK, goodbye, everybody. We’re just going to exit through the kitchen,” Thompson says as they exit.
The parents comfort a distraught Dismukes, adding that they don’t think the song was a problem as Keaton adds some electric guitar to give the song a little “stank.”
Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister,” while an international hit, was widely panned by many music fans and critics. Business Insider named it the worst song of 2010, while L.A. Weekly ranked its lyrics as some of the worst of the year. The Village Voice’s critic wrote, “‘Hey Soul Sister’ is an orgy where bad ideas trade STDs, and the most syphilitic brain-fart stumbled in drunk from a Smash Mouth show.” Mother Jones argued that the song is “for people who refer to peanut butter and jelly as ‘soul food.’”
You can watch the full “SNL” clip above or see the music video for Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister” below:
