Watch SNL's 80s metal sketch with Bill Burr and Snake Skin

"Snake Skin" performing on Saturday Night Live

(Image credit: Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images)

Less than a month after running an Oasis sketch that was greeted with near-universal derision, long-running US comedy show Saturday Night Live has upped the ante with a segment about 80s metal.

As anyone who's seen Spinal Tap or Penelope Spheeris's great documentary The Decline Of Western Civilization: Part II - The Metal Years can happily attest, the era lends itself to brilliant comedy – whether it's fictional or otherwise – so it's something of a surprise that the SNL skit is so witless.

In the sketch, SNL cast members Bill Burr and Emil Wakim stumble their way through a segment related to the band "Snake Skin", both mangling their autocue prompts as the film cuts to a series of performances from the band and a repertoire of songs so slight they make Steel Panther look like Van der Graaf Generator.

"This is real music, from when I was growing up," says Burr’s character. "No auto-tune, no mumble rap, just musicians."

"What was it called?" asks his son.

"80s sex rock!” responds Burr, a look on his face suggesting he knows exactly how slight the material is.

Of course, comedy is subjective, but this is subjectively the worst thing we've seen since, well, that Oasis sketch. Snake Skin's "songs" include Havin’ Sex on an Escalator (Sex-Scalator) – presumably named after Aerosmith's much wittier Love On An Elevator, and Nah-Nah Train, which contains the line "Your nah-nah is a train/ And I am the passenger/ Gonna ride your nah-nah/ It’s a bumpy ride/ Aboard your nah-nah," and was presumably composed by the 12-year-old son of one of the writers.

Having said that, the Colorado Springs mailing address at the end is a nice touch.

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Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.