REMEMBER CHRIS GAINES?
Rapper and actor Donald Glover isn’t the first to host SNL with his musical alter ego
Donald Glover is an actor, comedian and auteur who created FX’s Atlanta and starred in NBC’s Community. Childish Gambino is a Grammy-winning musician who arrived on the scene as a rapper before exploring retro-funk. Glover is hosting this weekend’s Saturday Night Live with Childish Gambino as his musical guest.
Oh, also, Donald Glover is Childish Gambino, and Childish Gambino is Donald Glover.
SNL is no stranger to hosts who double as musical guests. Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Drake have all taken on the task, to name a few. But they’ ve all taken the comedy and musical stage under the same guise — not an alter ego.
It has happened one other time, though: When Garth Brooks hosted the variety show with rocker Chris Gaines as his musical guest.
For anyone who doesn’t remember — or for the lucky few who never knew in the first place — Chris Gaines might be the strangest thing to happen in pop culture.
It was 1999, and Brooks was at a peak. He wasn’t just a huge country artist; he was one of the biggest names in music. Wanting a challenge, Brooks created and starred in a movie called The Lamb, about a fictional rock star named Chris Gaines. The movie never came to fruition, but Gaines did.
Brooks donned some leather, grew out a soul patch, traded his Everyman charm for a brooding demeanour and became rocker Chris Gaines. As Gaines, Brooks released a real record.
It didn’t go well.
“When Brooks’ new persona and his album was revealed to the public, they were unforgiving — they didn’t think that he was playing a role, they simply thought he’d lost his mind,” AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine later wrote.
By the time the “duo” appeared on SNL in November 1999, it was apparent that the Gain es experimentwas a flop, albeit an interesting one. The SNL writers clever ly took the wind out of the Gaines experience through Tracy Morgan.
In the sketch, Brooks is backstage when Morgan approaches him to tell him “great show so far, Garth.”
Morgan tells Brooks that he enjoyed the Central Park concert, but he wondered why the O’Jays weren’t invited as a guest. Then, things take a turn.
“I’m talking about the O’Jays, baby,” Morgan says. “They’re better than that guy you got this week.”
“You talking about Chris Gaines?” Brooks says, eyebrows raised in surprised.
“I just think he’s bizarre,” Morgan says. “You’re a real dude, fixing your transmissions and everything, man. That dude is full of cake, man. He’s sweet like bear meat.”
Brooks stammers out a defence, but Morgan cuts him off and — things feel very outdated here — says that he heard Gaines “is batting both ways.”
Right then, Lorne Michaels walks up and puts his hands on Morgan’s shoulders and says, “Tracy, can I talk to you for a second?”
“One second,” Morgan shoots back, “I’m telling you, Chris Gaines is a weenie-beanie-bing-bong freak.”
Michaels keeps trying to pull Morgan away to no avail. Eventually, Morgan yells at his boss to “go get me a soda, b----.”
Michaels walks away, and Morgan resumes his roast of Gaines.
“He’s soft, man. The dude is chicken. And he’s fat, too.” “What?! Fat?!” Brooks whines. “He’s fat. You can see his gut through that outfit, man. If you were that big, they ’d be calling you Girth Brooks,” Morgan spits back.
The punchline comes when Michaels returns and Brooks walks off.
“Tracy, I hate to tell you this ...” he begins.
“I know, I know,” Morgan cuts him off. “Garth is Chris Gaines. You really think I’m stupid, don’t you?”
“I mean, did you hear the album?” he adds.
Given that Glover’s Childish Gambino is generally beloved — he has been nominated for seven Grammys, winning one, after all — SNL is not likely to stage such a negative sketch to commemorate his dual identities.