Jason Momoa’s SNL "Rome Song" Is Everything Right Now
— NBC/NBCUniversal/Getty Images
Whether you’ve been afflicted by this or not, men are thinking a lot about Ancient Rome right now. While there are definitely some good reasons to dwell on this time in history — and plenty of things that men can learn about themselves from thinking deeply about a time when everybody could wear sandals year-round — the men-loving-Rome thing is a little out of control. Enter Jason Momoa and SNL with a new song that both celebrates this obsession and also reminds us that maybe we’re all into something that seems a little bit irrelevant, even if it’s totally the most important thing ever.
At this point, SNL’s newest season is on a little bit of a roll, and after last week’s Timothée Chalamet episode, his Dune big-brother Jason Momoa is back in action. While there were plenty of hilarious bits from Momoa’s new Saturday Night Live, the stand-out is totally the “Rome Song.”
It starts off like one of those memes, with Ego Nwodim, Punkie Johnson, and Chloe Troast worrying what their men are gazing out the window, thinking about. Surely, this is something deep and serious, right? Nope! It’s just Ancient Rome! With a level of absurdity and specificity, the “Rome Song” captures some of the magic of Lonely Island-era SNL joke-raps in a way that also wouldn’t work if Jason Momoa weren’t there. No lies, but if the “Rome Song” turned into a movie with Momoa as a Centurion, we’d totally watch it.
But the brilliance of the song is that it doesn’t let anyone off the hook. Kids are obsessed with dinosaurs the way dads are obsessed with Rome. And yes, there’s even a friendly jab at the obsession that a lot of partners and moms have with astrology. Not every parent is obsessed with Rome or astrology, and not every kid is obsessed with dinosaurs. But, every family can find the truth in this sketch because we’re all staring wistfully out the window, thinking about something, and if someone asked us what that thing was, the answer might sound very, very silly.