The nostalgia of American Girl dolls just keeps taking hits lately. First, the company left its original fans feeling ancient after introducing historical dolls from 1999, and on March 4, “Saturday Night Live” host and recent Super Bowl winner Travis Kelce played the most unsettling American Girl doll fan imaginable: a grown man who thought his dolls were real.
In the hilarious sketch, Kelce stars as a man who visits the American Girl café with his two dolls and zero children. This leads to the waiter questioning him about the position of his hands and whether or not he’s allowed near schools. Kelce passes all of those tests, but when he starts talking about his dolls being on Keto and getting their periods, the situation becomes even more uncomfortable. By the end of the sketch, he was hitching one his doll’s high chairs to Kenan Thompson’s table so his doll could flirt with Thompson’s daughter’s doll.
Aside from playing an unsettling American Girl doll café patron, Kelce also managed to skewer his fellow Kansas City Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes, make fun of his past as a reality TV star on “Catching Kelce,” make his fellow NFL star and brother, Jason Kelce, laugh, and play the straight guy friend every gay man needs in his life. While having an athlete host “SNL” is always a gamble, Kelce made it clear in his monologue that as a lifelong fan of the show, he was all in when it came to embracing his silly side.
“It’s cool to be here,” an emotional Kelce said. “I grew up watching ‘SNL’ with my mother. I love [Will] Ferrell, the Sandman, Chris Farley — and to be standing on this stage . . . pretty surreal. And tonight, I’m going to give it everything I got.”
Ahead, see all of Kelce’s “SNL” sketches, including his solo visit to the American Girl doll café.