Winter may never come — if HBO‘s release schedule continues to gestate at a glacial pace.
That’s among the running gags in the Saturday Night Live Cut for Time sketch titled “Blonde Dragon People,” which pokes fun at the network-streamer and its star prestige series House of the Dragon. In the six-minute-long video, a group of friends become increasingly confused with the show’s short runtime and long shooting schedule, extraordinarily similar-sounding names and continuity errors.
Dorgos, Dormos, Dargomos, Dorgon and Dorman are just a handful of the names that confuse the group, which comprises SNL stars Andrew Dismukes, Heidi Gardner, Devon Walker and newcomer Jane Wickline.
As they watch the show’s recap — as played by Chloe Fineman, Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang and a heavily accented and nonsensical James Austin Johnson (clearly parodying Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen in HOTD) — the friends start to lose track of plot points, wondering why there’s a dog with “blonde dreads,” a stock video of a bat in place of a dragon and why “every person and city” has the “same weird name.”
“I mean even in Game of Thrones they gave us one guy named John,” Dismukes’ character remarks.
However, the host of Season 50’s premiere, Jean Smart, is given the most ridiculous lines yet, stating regally: “Yes, it is I, Dorgos, daughter of Doremos and sister of Daragmos, ruler of the seven five lands and keeper of the 11 three keys. Only I can reclaim the kingdom stolen from Doregmon, by the usurper Dormegon.”
She adds at another point, “You will never silence the people of East New Westersouth, from the isles of Rizzoli to the ranches of Hidden Valley,” referencing the drama show Rizzoli & Isles and popular ranch brand.
To further confuse matters, in comes surprise guest Andy Samberg (who appeared earlier in the night as the Douglas Emhoff to Maya Rudolph’s Kamala Harris during the Cold Open) and musical guest Jelly Roll, who appear as Orlando Bloom’s Legolas and Sean Astin’s Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings, respectively.
As such, the sketch turns to poking fun at the streaming wars, with Smart remarking that their show is on Amazon Prime instead. Thompson then goes on a short historical tangent as he outlines the transition of HBO from HBO Now, then HBO Go, then HBO Max and now just Max, which Samberg’s character says “sounds bad.”
With the recap concluded, the television announces — in signature Westerosi font — that the new season has concluded. “I just looked it up. The next season doesn’t air until 2028. It’s like the Olympics,” Gardner bemoans.
But that’s OK, since fans can watch something called “Dragging Dragons” in the meantime, about drag queens dragging the costumes from the show “only on, weirdly, HBO Latino.”
About the fractured House Targaryen and taking place nearly 200 years prior to the events of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon — which just completed airing its second season Aug. 4 after eight episodes — has been renewed for two more seasons for a total of four overall. A following installment is set for release in 2026, with production commencing early next year.
