TV Saturday Night Live parodies Downton Abbey and its low stakes in digital short By Maureen Lee Lenker Maureen Lee Lenker Maureen Lee Lenker is a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly with over seven years of experience in the entertainment industry. An award-winning journalist, she's written for Turner Classic Movies, Ms. Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and more. She's worked at EW for six years covering film, TV, theater, music, and books. The author of EW's quarterly romance review column, "Hot Stuff," Maureen holds Master's degrees from both the University of Southern California and the University of Oxford. Her debut novel, It Happened One Fight, is now available. Follow her for all things related to classic Hollywood, musicals, the romance genre, and Bruce Springsteen. EW's editorial guidelines Published on September 29, 2019 03:58PM EDT Photo: NBC Downton Abbey is no stranger to parody. When the series was on air, it inspired everything from a recurring Jimmy Fallon Downton Sixbey sketch to a Downton meets Breaking Bad spoof on The Colbert Report. It was even speared on Saturday Night Live with a sketch that posited what would happen if Downton Abbey and the now-defunct Spike TV were mashed up. But now that Downton Abbey has returned with a grand big screen extravaganza just in time for the SNLseason premiere, it’s providing fodder for spoofs once again. On Saturday night’s episode of the series, the season’s first digital short of the year lovingly mocked the new film with a fake trailer featuring Cecily Strong as Lady Mary, Kate McKinnon as Violet, Beck Bennett as Carson, and new cast-member Chloe Fineman as Lady Edith among others. “The beloved television show is now a feature film and it’s mostly about cleaning,” teases the sketch. To be fair, Downton Abbey does spend a lot of time on the housekeeping preparations for a royal visit from the King and Queen. It sends up numerous plotlines from the film and asks, “Were the stakes in the show always this low?” in a fake critic pull quote. For the record, yes they were, and it’s why we love the show. Seeing Downton Abbey in movie theaters has been a special treat for fans of the series, one that has extended past the multiplex as it’s provided audiences chances to see their favorite show once more the subject of hilarious sketches, late-night talk show appearances, and more. Watch the clip above for more. Related content: ‘Saturday Night Live’ recap: Woody Harrelson and Billie Eilish kick off season 45 EW reunites the Downton Abbey cast for another NSFW round of Cards Against Humanity Downton Abbey producer addresses Maggie Smith’s fate and future in the franchise