Never mind your friend’s party or family traditions, have you ever rung in the festive season at an office-sponsored holiday event?
With the holidays in full swing, many companies are putting on their annual celebration for all their employees. Depending on the workplace, these parties can be impressive or underwhelming between open bars at fancy restaurants and cake in the office after-hours, but people agree they’re always entertaining.
Last night (December 15), Saturday Night Live parodied a stereotypical “office Christmas party extravaganza” in an all-too-relatable skit that’s prompted many fans to share their “unfortunately very true” experiences at their company party.
The skit, starring Heidi Gardner, Marcello Hernández, Sarah Sherman, and guest host Chris Rock, starts by focusing on an office during “the most insane event of the year.”
“Sixty employees and seven interns all going hard in the same space they were working in fifteen minutes ago,” the voice-over exclaims as “co-workers” awkwardly stand against the wall, sipping on drinks from their red solo cups in Santa hats.
“It all kicks off at 5:45 p.m. when your drab, boring office is utterly transformed into your same drab, boring office but with a few lights turned on,” the voice continues. “With music by Ja-Ja-Ja-Jason’s laptop as soon as he can figure out how to pair a speaker with it.”
Characters include “the shy girl from marketing who has one drink and reveals too much about herself” and “the guy who brought his kid and immediately regrets it,” while the harsh reality of the food and drinks is chalked up to “ice warm beers” and “the soggiest food you’ve ever seen.”
“Dana from sales,” played by Heidi Gardner, pretends to kick off a 45-minute-long “Secret Santa” swap before someone’s “quiet” boyfriend is introduced.
The drama begins when a male coworker, played by Chris Rock, introduces his wife to his “work wife,” the woman he’s closest with at the office.
“Drinks will be drunk, H.R. complaints will be created, and someone here is getting a DUI, but it’s not who you think,” the skit added before noting: “And just when you thought the party couldn’t rage any longer, it doesn’t cause it’s Tuesday night, and all y’all got work tomorrow.”
Immediately after watching SNL’s skit, viewers flocked to the comments section on TikTok, confessing the reality of their company’s Christmas party.
“Ours was during work. Catered food. We all grabbed a plate and went back to our workstations to eat. A multimillion-dollar company. Oh yeah, we got 50 bucks,” one candid woman wrote.
Another admitted: “We had a remote working Christmas party on teams. It was a grueling 1.5-hour meeting with mandatory cameras.”
“One of my coworkers brought her newborn baby to the company Christmas party this year lol,” a third shared.
Meanwhile, one individual said: “We went to lunch at a restaurant, and all had to pay our bills separately. There was 40 of us.”
Another viewer claimed her Christmas party experience was “worse” than SNL’s portrayal. “Mine got worse at the clerb,” she wrote before explaining how her office was expected to meet at 7 p.m. at the venue after leaving work an hour earlier. And to make matters worse, everyone was expected to be in the office the next day (Wednesday) at 8 a.m.
