Saturday Night Live Hilariously Spoofed Netflix’s Most Popular Series
Unlike the Saturday Night Live sketch, the series received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances but criticized the inconsistent tone of the story.
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In the last few months streaming fans have become engrossed in various documentaries and dramatizations of real-life stories about people pretending to be someone they’re not as a means to selfish ends. Shows like The Tinder Swindler and Inventing Anna have become so popular that timeless comedy sketch show, Saturday Night Live channeled their own version of Anna Delvey in a parody of the latter.
Aptly titled, Inventing Chloe, the Saturday Night Live take sees Chloe Fineman draw inspiration from the Netflix series. In the perfect Russian accent that’s also slightly German, the actress and comedian transforms into a walking con artist for the show. She takes a sandwich from Andrew Dismukes, refers to the week’s host Oscar Isaac as poor, and even uses the most popular line from Inventing Anna – “I do not have time for this, I do not have time for you!”
Inventing Anna’s opening credits also gets the Saturday Night Live treatment as Inventing Chloe, featuring a mural of selfies making up one big Chloe. The sketch has a satisfying conclusion as Kate McKinnon steps in to save the faux Anna, reminding her that confidence comes from within and not from being someone else. She then takes the oversized glasses Fineman was wearing, looks directly at the camera, and says, “There can only be one Delvey around here.”
Created and produced by Shonda Rhimes, Inventing Anna is a miniseries drama inspired by the story of con-artist and fraudster Anna Sorokin. Between 2013 and 2017, she pretended to be a wealthy German heiress named Anna Delvey, defrauding and intentionally deceiving wealthy acquaintances, banks, hotels, and more in the United States. She was arrested after collecting about $275,000 in her grand scheme. While a perplexing real-life story of deceit, it made the perfect Saturday Night Live sketch.
In real life, Anna Sorokin was convicted in New York state court in 2019. She was found guilty of attempted grand larceny, larceny in the second degree, and theft of services. As such, she was sentenced to four to 12 years in jail. This is a far cry from the humorous ending to her tale on Saturday Night Live. Following her conviction, Jessica Pressler penned an article for The Cut about the con artist called How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People. Netflix later purchased the rights to a production relating to Sorokin and developed the adaptation of her story.
Inventing Anna made its Netflix debut on February 11th, with Julia Garner starring as Anna Sorokin. Unlike the Saturday Night Live sketch, the series received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances but criticized the inconsistent tone of the story. However, the series holds a 64% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The site’s overall consensus praises Julia Garner’s intentionally daffy accent, calling her committed performance a great addition to the salacious story.
All nine episodes of Inventing Anna are currently available to stream on Netflix. Meanwhile, Saturday Night Live can be found at 11:30pm on NBC on Saturday nights.
