Olivia Rodrigo’s SNL Ride-Share Skit Takes A Dancehall Turn With ‘Rasta Driver’
Olivia Rodrigo’s latest Saturday Night Live appearance included an odd skit in which a white ride-share driver discovers, mid-trip, that he may be a gifted Dancehall deejay.
The sketch, titled “Rasta Driver,” aired during Rodrigo’s May 2 episode, where the drivers license singer pulled double duty as host and musical guest for the first time.
In the skit, Rodrigo plays Marcy, one of two young women headed out for the night with her friend, played by Veronika Slowikowska. Their driver, played by Andrew Dismukes, seems ordinary enough until the music changes and he suddenly starts belting out a raunchy Dancehall track from behind the wheel.
“Ya put it on me and I go beast mode/Ya put it on me like chicken on rice,” he sings, startling both passengers into silence.
The joke turns less on the song itself than on the driver’s crisis afterward. He has no idea where the lyrics came from. Rodrigo’s character asks him directly what just happened, pointing out that he had started “aggressively singing a Jamaican dancehall song” at full volume.
Dismukes’ character tries to dodge the moment with ride-share small talk, then spirals when the passengers refuse to let it pass. “I just realized I’m one of the most talented MCs on Earth,” he says, horrified by the possibility. “I don’t want to be a white Rasta guy.”
When the women tell him the song was not that good, he rejects this and calls the performance “next-level.”
Within moments, he is back at it, performing another burst of dancehall-inflected lyrics while the passengers move from embarrassment to reluctant enjoyment.
The Guardian described the bit as an Uber sketch in which Dismukes’ driver breaks into an ad-libbed song over a Jamaican dancehall beat, calling it “possibly the best Dismukes has ever been on the show.”
Entertainment Weekly also singled out the sketch, describing Dismukes as a ride-share driver conflicted about being “a talented white rasta guy.”
The sketch landed during an episode that leaned heavily on musical comedy. Rodrigo performed “Drop Dead” and “Begged” during the show, while the episode also featured cameos from Aziz Ansari, Debbie Harry, and Connor Storrie.