Oz Rodriguez and Matt Villines | Prom Queen / 2015

the bet

by Douglas Messerli

 

Michael Patrick O’Brien (screenplay), Oz Rodriguez and Matt Villines Prom Queen / 2015 [5 minutes] [TV [SNL] Episode]

 

There is something so wonderfully silly and yet touching about Oz Rodriguez’ and Matt Villines’ April 4, 2015 film that it is now easily recognized as one of their best sketches.

     Cheeky Eddie Galavan (Michael Patrick O’Brien) is about to attend his sixth year of the school prom—giving one a sense of his intellectual inabilities—where he again expects to be chosen as Prom King, whoever he might chose to take to the event automatically becoming Prom Queen.

    But this year, Eddie’s best friend (Pete Davidson) is willing to bet him $200 dollars that it won’t work if he is allowed to select Eddie’s date. It’s a go!

     Eddie’s friend, however, chooses their nerdy math teacher Mr. Osterberg (Michael Keaton).

     Clever Eddie quickly arranges a visit to the teacher’s house, particularly since he’s having problems with algebra. Eddie clearly has problems with any intellectual and conceptual matters, but he does apparently see some worth in the unhappy professor, vexed and kvetched by his Vapo-rubbing wife (Vanessa Bayer). So unhappy is the mathematics teacher that he sees no problem with abandoning his role of annual chaperone to become Eddie’s date.

    But overhearing some students gossiping about the bet his new heartthrob has made, he prepares to be a no-show at the event. Eddie arrives on a rainy prom night, however, to admit that yes, he made a stupid bet, but he hadn’t expected to actually fall in love with Osterberg. And a minute later the teacher shows up in a full suit, returning in the last few minutes of the sketch with the Prom Queen’s crown on his head.

     Things have evidently changed on SNL long before they could in regular society. And Michael Keaton becomes a kind of charming hero/heroine. Zoe Dillon, writing in Medium reminds us that this is a satire of so many heterosexual rom-coms, most recently Robert Iscove’s 1999 teen comedy She’s All That. But Dillon goes even further, arguing:

 

“The resolution of the sketch is complete with Mr. Osterberg doing the seemingly impossible by winning prom queen, and his date walking away down the street fading out, and a circle closing in on him signifying victory, resolution, and happiness. Andy won the bet, even though what he truly won was his true love, and transitioned from a jerk into a hero of the sorts. Even though Prom Queen is a parody of the storyline of many rom-coms, there’s still a sweet sentimental ending that is a common theme portrayed in these movies of young love, innocence, and coming of age.”

    Moreover, both student and teacher may have found someone in their lives to truly love, freeing them both from the stereotypical types into which so many films have reduced them.

 

Los Angeles, February 10, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (February 2025).