Sabrina Carpenter shocks Saturday Night Live viewers with ‘hilarious’ lyric change

‘Espresso’ singer included an unexpected twist during her debut appearance on sketch show

Sabrina Carpenter dazzled Saturday Night Live viewers with a “hilarious” lyric change to one of her most popular songs.

The “Espresso” singer featured as the musical guest on the series 49 finale of the sketch show on Saturday (18 May), while Jake Gyllenhaal was the lead guest host.

As well as appearing in a sketch as Scooby-Doo character Daphne, Carpenter, 25, performed twice – her current summery hit “Espresso”, and a mashup of her tracks “Feather” and “Nonsense”.

In the final moments of “Nonsense”, a song about intense infatuation at the beginning of a relationship, Carpenter added some extra spoken lines in honour of her SNL debut.

Looking into the camera, Carpenter said: “He is 30 Rock hard ‘cause I said hi. My sense of humour is, but I am not dry. SNL I just came for the first time.”

Usually, she ends the song after singing: “This song catchier than chickenpox is / I bet your house is where my other sock is / Woke up this morning, thought I’d write a pop hit / How quickly can you take your clothes off, pop quiz?”

Soon after the performance aired, fans and viewers turned to social media to discuss the singer’s double entendre in her word changes – for one, “30 Rock” refers to the address of SNL’s studio.

Sabrina Carpenter on Saturday Night Live (SNL / YouTube)

“She’s hilarious, she ate that,” wrote one fan on X, while another added: “She is hilarious!! I love her!!!”

Not everyone was impressed with the singer’s creativity, however; one social media user remarked: “We’re bored with this.”

During her performance of the 2023 single “Feather”, Carpenter also modified some lyrics in a shoutout to her SNL starring moment, replacing the words “I’m so sorry for your loss” with “I’m on SNL and you’re not!”

Her latest hit “Espresso” has topped the charts in the UK and currently sits in the top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100.

Elsewhere on the episode, third-time host Jake Gyllenhaal shared his musical talents with a rendition of the Boyz II Men hit, “End of the Road” to mark the conclusion of season 49.

Backed by SNL cast members Kenan Thompson, Ego Nowdim, Punkie Johnson and Devon Walker, Gyllenhaal adapted the lyrics and sang: “They asked Pedro Pascal, but he wasn’t around. Zendaya said no because she’d be out of town.

“Even asked [Ryan] Gosling to come back again, just hosted three shows ago.”

Saturday Night Live will return to screens later this year for a landmark 50th season.