Brow Beat

Celebrate Mother’s Day With Saturday Night Live’s Salute to the Mom Haircut

Mother’s Day is a good time to reflect on the fact that anyone can have a child, but it takes more to be a mother. To be specific, as this Saturday Night Live sketch shows, it takes a particular haircut, one Cecily Strong aptly describes as “a soft waterfall in the front, but knives in the back.” Brie Larson plays a naïve mother-to-be who thinks she can avoid the inevitable; the rest of the cast play a Rosemary’s Baby–style cult of suburban moms warning her that “one day something will break inside of you, and you’ll know it’s time to get the cut.” All else follows, including an instinct for Mom interior design, as Vanessa Bayer’s great monologue reveals:

For me, it happened when I stepped into my bathroom. I closed my eyes and heard the ocean. In that moment, I knew. My bathroom must be an ocean. I need lighthouses. I need seashells. I need soap in the shape of a flip-flop.

So this Mother’s Day, may all your quotes be inspirational and all your magnets be hilarious. And save your gift bags—waste not, want not!