Cinema Classics Sketch Explores Origin of Gaslighting With Will Forte

Saturday Night Live was hosted by former cast member and MacGruber star Will Forte who also participated in a hilarious sketch poking fun at a classic film that was at the origin of the word ‘gaslighting’.

The skit was titled Cinema Classics – likely a parody of PBS’ series Film Classics – and it was presented as a classic movie-focused program hosted by Reese De’What, played by recurrent cast member Kenan Thompson. De’What begins by introducing the program’s topic with an interesting piece of information that most cinema buffs would surely have already heard: that the term ‘gaslighting’, which has come to mean the use of underhanded tactics to wrap another person’s perception of reality, originated from a 1944 psychological thriller film of the same name. Gaslight starred the extraordinarily beautiful and talented 3-time Academy Award-winning Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca) as well as Joseph Cotton (Citizen Kane), and Charles Boyer (Hold Back the Dawn). In the film, Bergman played a woman whose husband drives her to believe she is losing her mind by dimming the gas-fueled lights in the house and then denying doing it.

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The skit features what are introduced as “scenes from the film” but are in truth Kate McKinnon and Forte playing the main roles of the husband and wife. Parodying the seriousness and dramatic interpretations in 1940s films, the black and white scenes show Forte deceiving McKinnon, not in the dramatic way it’s done in the original film but hilariously thanks to their over-the-top interpretations. When Paula (McKinnon) asks Gregory (Forte) to turn the burning lights as high as possible, her husband does the opposite, turning off the lights completely. To this, McKinnon breaks her over-dramatic tone with a confused “And that was up? Because to me that seemed like not up.”

snl-cinema-classics-gaslight-sketch-will-forte — Image via NBC

In another scene, featuring the pair, Forte tries to make McKinnon believe the pineapple she is being served for dinner is in fact a stake. This time, the wife replies with amused skepticism: “Dude, I don’t care how crazy I am: This is a pineapple”. As Paula gets progressively more suspicious, to the point where she accuses Gregory of not loving or kissing her anymore, Forte responds to her accusations by kissing their 18-year-old maid and acting as if he is kissing her.

This is when McKinnon’s character Paula reaches a breaking point: “I won’t let you gaslight me any long” she asserts “Maybe I’ll gaslight you!”. She indeed attempts to make her husband believe his tie is a steak, however, with little success.

But in the end, it seems like McKinnon is no longer deluded and earned a valuable lesson: “Well, at least I know the truth now. Can’t believe you told me it was 9 inches and I said ‘oh lucky me’”.