SNL's Roman Empire Sketch Kinda Nails What Kids & Moms Are Always Thinking About

Who knew that 2023 would be the year of the Roman Empire? This was the year that we first learned there are loads of men out here thinking about the Roman Empire two, three, four, five times per week and even daily. For real. And it came as a real shock to many women who are thinking about the Roman Empire, on average, around zero times per day. It’s a situation Saturday Night Live took on this weekend, when host Jason Momoa rapped about the Roman Empire in a hilarious video.

The video starts with SNL cast members Ego Nwodim, Punky Johnson, and Chloe Troast singing soulfully about their partners and what could possibly going on in their minds as they all stared blankly off into space. Another woman, perhaps? Or maybe their husbands are thinking about being happier on their own as they stare out windows or simply off into nothingness.

Nwodim, who played Momoa’s partner, nervously asks him as he sits on the edge of the bed, “Whatcha thinking about, baby?” and he suddenly breaks into a rap, dressed as an ancient Roman officer, “The Roman Empire, ancient Rome. Five times a day it pops into my dome.”

As his fellow Roman Empire-obsessed pals, SNL’s Mikey Day and Kenan Thompson, dance in the background, Momoa raps about Julius Caesar “drinking ice cold water from the aqueducts,” before his friends jump in with their own thoughts. While Day is meant to be thinking about the beauty of fatherhood, he’s really focused on ancient Roman statues.

As for Thompson, he steps away from a modern day conversation about bills and bank accounts to rap about, “Gladiators. Will they ever die? It’s not like the movies — they mostly stayed alive. They built roads so good, they’re still in use today. And Emperor Hadrian? Openly gay.”

Eventually, the women get tired of their partners obsessing over something that happened thousands of years ago. Nwodim slaps Momoa across the fact and tells him to get back to the present. “Look at our son,” she says as a young boy is seen staring off into space in the background. “You’ve got him doing it now too.” It turns out he’s not. He’s thinking about dinosaurs, which are sort of the kid version of thinking about the Roman Empire.

Then Nwodim reminds her husband to think about things that “matter today.” Like astrology.

Fans absolutely loved to the sketch, especially when it came to the dinosaur love. “Real men STILL think about dinosaurs,” one person commented on YouTube, while another added, “I was obsessed as a child by dinosaurs, now my grandkids are completely obsessed with dinosaurs, the kid rapping about dinosaurs just got me good!!!”

A former nanny shared that they have “never in my life had a child who wasn’t absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs. dead on.” Then there were the astrology fans, of course, as one commented, “As a triple Gemini, I feel majorly attacked right now.”

And finally, one person admitted that they knew Momoa would be thinking about Rome, “the second she said ‘what are you thinking about, baby?’ I just knew it was going to be about Rome.”

I guess the moral of the story is that we all have our own version of the Roman Empire obsession.