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Kristen Wiig's Emmy-Nominated "Jumanji" SNL Sketch Gave Us a New Phobia
Wiig, who nabbed an Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series for her Season 49 SNL episode, played a woman with a fear that made game night awkward.
Between her seven years as a Saturday Night Live cast member and her subsequent Five-Timers Club status, Kristen Wiig has earned eight Emmy nominations for her work on the show. Her most recent nod arrived on July 17, when the 2024 Emmys announcement heralded Wiig's fourth Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series nomination as an SNL Host. And while Wiig crushed it as a terrifying Pilates instructor and brought back some beloved characters on her April 6 episode, one particular sketch introduced a new verb to the lexicon: "Jumanji-ed."
The first sketch of the evening following Wiig's star-studded induction into the Five-Timers Club, "Jumanji" starred Bowen Yang, Ego Nwodim, Chloe Fineman, and Andrew Dismukes as a group of friends welcoming their other pal (James Austin Johnson) and his new girlfriend Nina (Wiig) to a dinner party.
"I hope you guys saved room for fun, because I picked up this cool new board game for us to try," Dismukes' character announces, holding up a Ticket to Ride box.
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While the other friends are excited, Nina immediately looks stricken.
"Oh wow. Oh. No," Nina tells them. "Sorry."
But if you assume you're about to watch a sketch about someone who finds Ticket to Ride to be an onerous, rules-overloaded bore (we exist!), think again.
Kristen Wiig taught us what "Jumanji" really means on SNL
"Sorry, y'all," Johnson's character tells the group. "Nina doesn't play board games. She's kinda...freaked out by them."
Everyone — including Nina — agrees that being scared of board games would be super weird.
"I'm not afraid of board games! I'm afraid of getting Jumanji-ed," Wiig's character explains, delivering the lines like only she can."You guys ever seen the film called Jumanji, about the game? Well, I just want to be cautious playing games. Lest it should, I don't know, Jumanji me."
When the others try to dismiss her fear as irrational, Nina flies into a rage. "You literally can't prove that!"
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"A game doesn't have to be Jumanji for that game Jumanji me, just like getting 'roofied' doesn't have to be a roofie, it can be another substance," a testy Nina tells them when they point out they're playing Ticket to Ride. "It's the same for Jumanji."
The group gets momentarily sidetracked by a debate over Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, starring The Rock and Kevin Hart, versus the o.g. Jumanji film with Robin Williams. This pushes Dismuke's character over the edge.
"What even is Jumanji to you, lady? Because it sounds like you think Jumanji is going IN-to Jumanji. But in Jumanji, Jumanji comes OUT, The kids don't go INto Jumanji, Jumanji comes OUT of Jumanji," Dismukes says, hilariously delivering the word "Jumanji" more times than anyone ever has.
"Jumanji is a series of 'jungle emergencies,'" Wiig's character erupts. "That sir, is Jumanji, and we are NOT prepared for that. We have no medicines. We have no rope!"
If Nina's statement blew your mind too, know that "Jumanji" loosely translates to "many effects" in Zulu, according to The Independent — not "jungle emergencies," per se. But, as the ending featuring Will Forte reveals, Nina is clearly a wiser woman than she seems.
Watch SNL's "Jumanji" sketch above.
