The Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift Podcast Brought a Viral ‘SNL’ Sketch to Life
Yes, Taylor Swift is releasing a new album. Yes, the title, The Life of a Showgirl sounds like it’s the highly anticipated (to me) making-of documentary about the movie Showgirls. We don’t know much about the new album other than the title, and that it was released on the podcast New Heights, which is co-hosted by Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother, Jason Kelce.
For those of you not familiar with either man, a quick summary: Travis is the three-time Superbowl winning tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. His brother, Jason Kelce, was the center for the Philadelphia Eagles — considered to be one of the greatest players in that position in all of NFL history. They have a combined seven Super Bowl appearances. Before Travis started dating Swift, the brothers were famous in their own right, but they were football famous. Like, well known to your friend’s father, a man who is rarely seen without a Budweiser and who spouts Heisman stats as his main form of intimacy with other humans.
When Travis started dating Swift, one of the most famous women on the planet, everything changed. Infatuation with the Kelce family skyrocketed and the podcast the two brothers shared, New Heights, well, it soared to new heights. It all culminated in Swift announcing that she will be revealing her latest album on the pod in a teaser clip in the early hours of Tuesday morning, effectively marrying the Kelce and Swift fans in one very 2025 ceremony.
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Watching it made me cringe — it’s unsettling to watch people be so enthusiastic, happy and so unashamedly American in a time like this. Plus, why was Jason Kelce, a 37-year-old, 295-pound, 6-foot-3 retired NFL lineman the first person we get to see react to the new Taylor Swift album? It’s all so odd.
The clip of Travis and Swift showing Jason the new album also reminded me of something, but I couldn’t put my finger on what. Fortunately, the internet provided the connective tissue my brain couldn’t muster.
The beautiful brain of @girlishgl0w pointed out that Travis and Taylor are nearly mirror images of the Weekend Update bit “The Couple You Can’t Believe Are Together.” Played by Marcello Hernández and Jane Wickline, this recurring segment on SNL portrays a mousy haired woman and jersey-wearing man who just shouldn’t work in real life.
“Her love language is making me watch that TV show about an Australian guy who lives in a porta potty,” Hernandez’s character said during one Weekend Update appearance.
“He means Doctor Who,” Wickline responded.
“We watch it every night, and she's looking bad as hell watching Doctor Whoever while she’s sipping tea in her little nightcap like the bear on the box,” Hernandez continues.
If you go and listen to the Swift album Folklore and then read Kelce’s new GQ profile, you can get basically the same experience as watching the “The Couple You Can't Believe Are Together” sketches. Their promotion for New Heights is just the clearest visual representation of the comparison to date. It really is uncanny how much Travis and Taylor resemble the SNL sketch. They’re seated the same way, looking at each other the same way, talking to each other the same way — Travis is even wearing blue like Hernandez’s character, while Taylor is wearing the more muted color palette like Wickline’s character.
I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the many image consultants on Swift’s team used the SNL sketches as reference material.
I guess this would make Jason Kelce the Colin Jost of the scenario? I’m not sure who that’s a more unflattering comparison for, actually.
