On the popular variety show Saturday Night Live, comedian Pete Davidson rapped about films—especially about how some of them are super long these days.
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And thanks to that skit, Netflix, the biggest streaming platform, has instituted a new policy. They’ve granted his wish for shorter—er, “short-ass”—movies.
“These days, when I sit down to watch a movie, I can find just about anything in the world,” Davidson said in the skit. “But night after night, there’s only one kind of movie I’m always looking for, and that’s a short ass movie.”
Davidson then begins to rap, with fellow SNL cast member Chris Redd, about his short attention span and how they need shorter movies—”like, at most, an hour-forty.”
The show’s musical guest, Gunna, showed up in the rap, spitting, “I’m not pushin’ P unless it’s under two hours/ Like Lion King or Bad Moms or all three Austin Powers.”
Then Simon Rex (aka Dirt Nasty) hopped into the skit, suggesting all nine of Ernest P. Worrell’s films. Then Dirt and Davidson joke about The King of Staten Island, and Davidson says, “Oh, it was, uh … two hours and 17 minutes. But we needed all those minutes.”
Davidson and friends spoke, and well, Netflix listened. The streaming giant has instituted a “Short-Ass Movies” section with 90-minute films.
“good idea http://netflix.com/shortassmovies,” Netflix wrote on Twitter, sharing the video from SNL.
So far, movies in the section on Netflix include Zoolander, Lady Bird, and Stand By Me. Perhaps this will bring around a shorter film renaissance in the wake of some three- and four-hour options, many of which include recent very popular Marvel releases.
Shorter movies, which are more often, by definition, smaller films, were once the rage and maybe they will ride again. (We’re with Davidson, so we hope so.)
What is your favorite movie-length? Comment below.
