Sabrina Carpenter Highlights Provocative Image on 'SNL'
Sabrina Carpenter hosted and performed on 'SNL', joking about her provocative image and embracing her multifaceted personality throughout her monologue and performances.
Carpenter addresses misconceptions about her.
Shows album cover during her monologue.
Interacts with the audience on stage.
Performs two musical numbers.
Censors edit strong language in some regions.
Kenan Thompson appears with humorous props.
Sabrina Carpenter hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time and returned as musical guest on October 18, 2025. She used her opening monologue to address her hypersexualized reputation, explain a recent album-cover controversy and engage directly with the live audience.
Challenging the “Horndog Pop Star” Label
Carpenter opened by dispelling misconceptions about her persona. She quipped, “Everyone thinks of me as this, like, horndog pop star, but there’s really so much more to me. I’m not just horny. I’m also turned on and I’m sexually charged. And I love to read. My favorite book is the encyclopedia. It’s so big and it’s hard…”[1]
Explaining the Album Cover Backlash
The host displayed the cover art for her seventh studio album, Man’s Best Friend, which shows her kneeling in a black mini-dress while an unseen figure pulls her hair. She then revealed an uncropped version, explaining it was a still from Bowen Yang’s 50th-anniversary special—after Martin Short accidentally shoved her at a buffet.[2][1]
Live Audience Interaction and Arrest Gag
Continuing her reputation for crowd engagement, Carpenter invited a fan onstage and teased that his answers “turned her on.” She closed the bit by “arresting” someone for being hot. Kenan Thompson joined wearing pink toy handcuffs and joked he was arresting Carpenter “for impersonating an officer 200 times at your concerts”.[3]
Musical Performances and Censorship Incident
Carpenter delivered two musical numbers. The first was her No. 1 single “Manchild” on a bedroom-themed set, wearing a yellow SNL T-shirt and pink branded briefs. She closed with “Nobody’s Son” on a martial-arts-inspired stage. During the latter, she sang “He sure fucked me up” uncensored on the East Coast feed and Peacock, while West Coast affiliates muted the profanity on tape delay.[4][5][6]
Song
Set Design
Broadcast Notes
Manchild
Bedroom with prop bed
Live on NBC and Peacock; no censorship
Nobody’s Son
Martial-arts dojo
East Coast uncensored; West Coast muted profanity[5][6]
SNL Context and Season Highlights
Saturday Night Live returned for Season 51 on October 4, 2025. Carpenter’s episode followed hosts Bad Bunny and Amy Poehler and aired live on NBC and Peacock. The show’s long-running “Weekend Update” anchors Michael Che and Colin Jost also resumed their roles.[7][8]
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