Why Marcello Hernández is "Saturday Night Live's" Gen Z secret weapon

Notoriously, in this dating day and age, men under 5-feet-9 have been branded short kings. It’s an inescapable backhanded label, causing a bitter division between the haves and the have-nots or in this case, the tall and short.

But the comedian, who is a self-proclaimed short king, finds that there’s nothing wrong with the moniker. Actually, Hernández sees it as his advantage and is reclaiming his height as desirable. This makes him appealing to his plugged-in Gen Z audience, who understand the implications of being labeled a short king. He’s just as online as they are, as he spent the early parts of his come-up on the Miami meme page “Only in Dade.”

In his early appearances on “SNL,” the comedian successfully argued for his fellow short kings, saying, “I know I’m short. You know how I know? Because when I lie about my height I say I’m 5'9", which really means I’m 5’7" and a half, and I’m lying about the half.”

Hernández goes on to tell "Weekend Update" host Colin Jost that short kings like them “should be proud of our heritage. We come from a long line of greats: Kevin Hart, Bruno Mars, Prince, The Minions, Al Pacino.” He goes on to call himself a petite prince and a tiny titan, and such celebratory self-awareness is winning.

Hernández is  the fourth Latino in “SNL’s” cast history and the first Cuban-Dominican. His heritage and Miami origins are the hyper-specific background that he brings to his sketches.

Hernández isn’t shy about bringing Miami to “SNL.” In the sketch, “Night Club Line” he inhabits a Miami club owner, who attempts to shape his bouncer, played by Jason Momoa, into a kinder man to the ladies and clubbers.

Also, in one of his first appearances on the show, Hernández talks at length about his baseball obsession, which started in his hometown of Miami. His physical comedy is at its best when he describes how white announcers at baseball games change their accents when Dominican players come up to the plate. The smooth Hernández begins dancing merengue in his chair and pretends to bat like a Dominican baseball player, swinging his hips. “Do you feel that Colin? Everyone in the crowd is pregnant by the time he’s done batting.”

Additionally, his cultural background shows through sketches like “Can’t Tonight” in which Ryan Gosling, who is married to Cuban-American actress Eva Mendes, joins Hernández with their dueling Cuban accents. Their chemistry and understanding of Cuban culture hits different when they pronounce “Paramount+” like a Cuban uncle and it's always from a place of endearment instead of ridicule.

Despite his incredibly close ties to his hometown, the comedian left his cultural bubble to go to college in Ohio. Hernández explained to The Hollywood Reporter that his comedy is informed from his experiences in Miami and “then exploring places that aren’t Miami.” He said, “When you grow up the way I did — because Miami isn’t exactly America, it is kind of its own country in a way — I think that you see some of that in my comedy, just kind of my views on how I grew up and how different I found that it was from the way that other people I met later in life grew up.”

We see these experiences reflected in a sketch in which he brings his white gringa girlfriend to meet his protective Latina mom, played by . . . Pedro Pascal. It’s a dynamic a lot of us immigrant children know well, and Hernández and Pascal play off each other like a real mother and son. She cries when he comes home and hits him because she says he doesn’t call her enough.

The boy tells his mom, “Es una nice white girl” to convince her that his girlfriend is good for her son. But the conversation takes a turn for the worst when the girlfriend reveals that she took her boyfriend to her family doctor to get an ADD diagnosis. Pascal in mama mode says, “My son don’t have ADD! He just like to jump!” It’s a hilarious blend of intersecting cultures in a sketch that seems to only have the chance of working because people like Pascal and Hernández are at the center.

Unlike former cast member Pete Davidson, who quickly became a rising star on the sketch comedy show, Hernández has a different, warmer appeal. Davidson is known for his dark sense of humor, Staten Island accent and unconventional magnetism. On the other hand, Hernández has an almost unexplainable appeal known as the every boyfriend phenomenon. This universal boyfriend really just means being the guy – or playing one such guy – who charms all people, regardless of gender and sexual orientation. Internet boyfriends like Timotheé Chalamet, Jonathan Bailey and Paul Mescal come to mind. 

Some of Hernández’s everyday boyfriend qualities can be seen in sketches like the viral “Bridesmaids Speech” sketch that features an off-tune Ariana Grande, singing a speech to her best friend to the tune of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” During the sing-along, Grande and other “SNL” personalities reveal that their bride bestie Kelsey cheated on her new husband Matt during her bachelorette party with an elusive man named Domingo. To everyone’s surprise, Domingo shows up at the wedding, singing to Matt, “Hey Matt. Came all this way. Had to explain. Direct from Domingo. Kelsey’s a friend. She’s like my sis but we did hook up though!” He finishes with a thrusting motion and of course Domingo ends up with Kelsey in the end.

But Hernández’s boyfriend aura hits its peak in the most recent "Weekend Update" sketch, “The Couple You Can’t Believe Are Together.” Here he plays obnoxiously loud bro Grant, who you could probably find in every bar across the country. In juxtaposition, his girlfriend Alyssa is soft spoken, nerdy-looking and loves 18th century graveyards. “Opposites attract, bro! That’s science bro,” Grant yells. It’s annoying and endearing at the same time. A romantic balance showing how Grant complements Alyssa’s demeanor, further pushing Hernández’s everyday boyfriend stock higher.

Even though Hernández isn’t Puerto Rican, he culturally seems to have no difficulties in impersonating the territory's largest homegrown talent, reggaeton musican Bad Bunny. Hernández’s closeness to Latin culture lets him home in on what makes Bad Bunny be Bad Bunny. That means Hernández is wearing the singer's signature attire, using a mix of Spanglish and radiating the superstar’s coolness.

Hernández channels Bad Bunny in the sketch “$100,000 Pyramid,” the game show featuring different celebrity players. The actor leverages his physical comedy to ooze smoothness, grinding in his chair to show off how much Bad Bunny loves the club. It’s a small gesture that gets cheers from the crowd and an ode to the singer’s sexually loaded lyrics and his Latin dance skills. 

Hernández has also gotten his chance to dress up as inanimate objects or non-human characters, similar to other recent “SNL” breakout star Bowen Yang. Yang has been known to portray the iceberg that sank the Titanic or the adorable Thai pygmy hippopotamus Moo Deng. When New York City was rattled by an earthquake earlier this year, Hernández threw on a skintight jumpsuit and a cap with NYC on it to embody the trembler. He aggressively screams, Move over, guy who punched women in the face. I punched the whole city in the face. A whole bunch of teeny tiny punches like a massage.” The role is so glorious that he almost breaks character when he begins quaking in earnest.