‘SNL50’: Debbie Downer Is Back, Gets Choked By Robert De Niro

The return of Rachel Dratch’s Debbie Downer in the SNL50 anniversary special was a bit paradoxical for a festive occasion.

Although her gloomy comments might depress anyone, Debbie Downer is one of the Saturday Night Live characters that has taken on a life of its own. She is now commonly referred to as a pessimistic person.

Debbie works as a bartender in a backstage bar in the SNL50 sketch, where Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore, and Ayo Edebiri, all of whom are in a festive mood, stop by for a drink.

Debbie tells them that even a sip of alcohol can shorten life expectancy before the three of them can lift their champagne glasses for a toast. She then does her trademark closeup to a “wa-wa” sound.

She keeps interrupting the trio’s discussions with remarks about the avian flu and the approaching end of humanity.

He gets a little Raging Bull-style when Robert De Niro shows up, saying, “You talkin’ to me?from Debbie. Although a wink suggests that she might have done it on purpose, it turns out that she simply has dry eyes and is unable to see if he is speaking to her.

The Oscar winner is on the edge of breaking character when Debbies tells De Niro, who had requested a straw, that microplastics had “taken residence in your testes.”

“I want to laugh, experience joy, and have a shred of hope for three goddam hours of my life,” he tells Debbie after he quickly finds his Raging Bull. Before strangling her over the bar, I said, “I came here to get a little frigging break from our reality right now.”

After Fallon steps in, everyone raises a toast to Saturday Night Live.