Saturday Night Live's "I Am Your Mother" skit was an early sign Zac Efron had a comedy career ahead of him. While SNL's skits have a very inconsistent hit rate they've produced some all-time classics too, such as "Two Wild & Crazy Guys" and "MacGruber." In recent years, sketches that have broken out include "Haunted Elevator (ft. David S. Pumpkins)," where a couple takes a haunted elevator ride where Tom Hanks' Pumpkins is somehow the star attraction. The skit works thanks to Hanks' committed performance and its utterly bizarre concept.
Saturday Night Live also launched the careers of comedy trio The Lonely Island, consisting of Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schaffer and Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine). They were responsible for the likes of "Jack Sparrow" featuring Michael Bolton, "I'm On A Boat" and "D*** In A Box." The show has also featured guest hosts who've done a surprisingly great job despite not coming from a comedy background, such as Kristen Stewart, Justin Timberlake and Adam Driver.
Another host who surprised Saturday Night Live viewers was Zac Efron, who fronted a 2009 episode. Efron was best known for the High School Musical series at the time, but he showed an endearing willingness to poke fun at his teen idol image. There's perhaps no better example of how well he did than the sketch "I Am Your Mother," where he and Andy Samberg play actors in a commercial for pizza rolls. Fred Armisen plays Efron's mother in the advert, who takes her role very, VERY seriously.
SNL's "I Am Your Mother" centers around Efron's character making a gag about his mother's bad cooking and while Armisen's matriarch is supposed to reply playfully to the jab, each take finds her getting angrier. While Armisen's screeching mother is the skit's focus, Zac Efron's commitment is what makes it land. He looks increasingly frustrated and worried about his "mother's" behavior, and even more impressively, never once breaks character. A lot of hosts - and even performers - allow themselves a little smirk or chuckle during an intense sketch, but Efron gamely holds it together even when Armisen literally gets in his face.
In the years that followed his one-off Saturday Night Live hosting gig, Zac Efron appeared in the Neighbors duology, The Disaster Artist and The Beach Bum. SNL's "I Am Your Mother" showed his potential way back in 2009, and while he hasn't always had the best luck when it comes to comedy scripts - as Dirty Grandpa or Baywatch show - he always comes out with his dignity intact.