Ariana Grande portrayed an extremely competitive and somewhat abusive woman while participating in a game during a Saturday Night Live sketch. On October 12, 2014, the Thank U, Next singer hosted an episode of SNL, and impressed the audience with her comedic skills and timing. One of her sketches featured her Wicked co-star, Bowen Yang, and was titled Charades with Mom.
According to Grande, she came up with the idea after surviving a brutal family game night over Labor Day weekend. It started as fun and games until her brother-in-law started getting too competitive.
“We’re playing the skit and Hale’s brother, my brother-in-law’s brother… was like, ‘Haha, we’re winning’. This was its limit. He was like, ‘Woo-hoo!’ We’re ahead,'” the pop star recalled on a recent episode of the Las Culturistas podcast. Then his mother came back with snacks and said, “And my mom says, ‘Tiny-dick syndrome, huh?'” which shocked everyone.
Surprised by her mother’s comment, the Positions singer told her, “Don’t make comments that could hurt. Mom, stop. This is not funny. I thought it was intense and hurtful. It was really intense!” He remembered saying.
Luckily, everyone else found it hilarious and started laughing. But his mother maintained her sharp comment.
Later, Grande started doing it for fun and had everyone in tears laughing hysterically. So he messaged Yang and suggested that they should make a related sketch because it was “so silly” yet hilarious. “My jaw dropped,” he said of his reaction. “I was like, ‘Joanne.'”
In the SNL sketch, Grande played a matriarch who began insulting her son’s boyfriend while aggressively playing charades. After winning a round the boyfriend jokingly says, “Diane (Grande) in front of you” and that’s when she takes the insult very seriously.
The singer admitted that her family can be competitive when playing games, so she feels like an alien. “I’m somewhat of an outcast in my family because I’m so…I don’t care. I just want to have fun and I want to be out there and I’m here to have a good time,” she said.