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SNL comedian Marcello Hernández brings a Latin voice to SU

SNL comedian Marcello Hernández brings a Latin voice to SU

Marcello Hernández’s comedy show wrapped up SU’s Latine Heritage Month, mixing cultural reflections with sharp humor.

Marcello Hernández performing a comedy set for Latine Heritage Month at Syracuse University's Goldstein Auditorium.
Student Association
Marcello Hernández performing a comedy set for Latine Heritage Month at Syracuse University’s Goldstein Auditorium.

Eager students lined up around Schine Student Center on Saturday evening, their queue stretching to Bird Library, to welcome Saturday Night Live superstar Marcello Hernández.

As part of the Student Association’s Latine Heritage Month programming, the night began with two fiery opening acts delivered by comedian Matt Richards and SNL writer Asha Ward. By the time Hernández took the Goldstein Auditorium stage, crowds were already warmed up for his 80-minute set, welcoming him with roaring applause and deafening screams.

The SNL comedian opened his set with a series of airplane jokes that built up a gradual momentum in his takeoff. He poked fun at his fear of flying and saw the chance to take a jab at Syracuse’s small airport. 

“My agent was like, ‘There’s an airport in Syracuse,’ and I was like, ‘I would like to drive,’” Hernández said. “I don’t want to land in the mini airport.” 

The Cuban-Dominican comedian joined SNL as a cast member in 2022, making his “Weekend Update” debut on his second episode ever. He quickly became known as SNL’s secret weapon,” bringing a new Latin voice to the show, as seen in his popular bilingual sketches “Protective Mom” and “Sábado Gigante.” Most recently, his short appearance as doctor and model Domingo in the “Bridesmaid Speech” skit has consumed the internet with his catchy line, “Direct from Domingo.”

In resonance with his SNL skits, Hernández maintained the common theme of Latin heritage throughout the night, using comedy to cope with the character-building experience of growing up with a Latina mom. In one joke, he recalled his experience of going to the mall with his mom and the result that would come if he simply sighed when she suggested going to another store.

“The women’s bathroom in Miami in the early 2000s is a very Latino environment,” Hernández said. “I’m getting my ear twisted to hell, and there’s Spanish music playing in the background — and I look across the bathroom, and there’s another little kid, and he’s getting his ass beat.” 

He then went on to compare his childhood with the 1980s white-only sitcom Full House in a series of bits that seemed to drag on. Still, the conclusive landing was that his life would have been completely different if he had been born into a white family, a dicey joke that prompted scattered laughs from those who could relate. 

“I did want to be white; my life would’ve been different. I bet you I could’ve had ADD,” Hernández said. “When I told my mom I had ADD, my mom threatened to give it to me.” 

Hernández then picked up momentum when he joked about how the Latino experience involves the ability to not be offended. He poked fun at the common Latin experience of receiving a shameful nickname based on physical appearance, such as “Gordo” (fatty), “Pulga” (flea), and the one he received once he realized he was short, “Enano” (dwarf). 

Then, the self-proclaimed “short king” veered into the risky theme of discussing his opinions on nonbinary and transgender people, initially receiving a bit of hesitation from the crowd. But the comedian’s candid admittance that the Spanish-speaking community has yet to adapt to this new terminology won back the wary audience. In a joke, he explained that he doesn’t mind adapting to people’s new pronouns since, in Spanish, everything has a gender. 

“If tomorrow my sister called me and was like, ‘Marcello, I’m not a woman anymore, I’m a man,’ I’d be like, ‘That’s fine, cause you know who else is a man? The microwave,’” Hernández said. 

Later in the night, the comedian stopped his set to host an abrupt Q&A session with the audience, drawing nervous questions from fans. The last question begged him to recite the iconic Domingo line, to which he decided to conduct the crowd as they chanted, “Hey ma, came all this way, had to explain, direct from Domingo.”

The show closed with a series of jokes about Hernández’s cultural shocks during his college experience in Ohio, a closer that garnered recognition from any Latino student that has ever been to a Syracuse University party. The esoteric nature of Hernández’s humor made for a night of authentic Latin representation, catering to an audience that isn’t always included in mainstream comedy

Gabriela Peniston, an SU junior wearing a “Te Quiero Marcello” T-shirt, shared that the event made her laugh in ways she doesn’t always can. 

“It’s not often that we have a Latino come to campus; I was laughing the entire time cause I could relate to everything that he was saying,” Peniston said. “That was like the first time I was able to get that experience here on campus.”