Sabrina Carpenter Sets the Record Straight on Her Public Persona in a Sharp SNL Monologue

Sabrina Carpenter pulled double duty on Saturday Night Live and used her monologue to poke at the running joke about her image. It was playful, self-aware, and just provocative enough to get Twitter chattering. Some people loved it. Others shrugged. The show went on.

What she actually addressed on SNL

• Her reputation as a so-called horny pop star, which she leaned into with a bit that was both cheeky and deliberately over the top
• The idea that there is a real person underneath all the glitz, wigs, and corsets
• The controversy around her new album cover, which she explained with a straight-faced, very silly backstory

"Now, since I’m here, I want to clear up some misconceptions people have about me. Everyone thinks of me as this, like, horndog pop star, but there’s really so much more to me. I’m not just h*rny. I’m also turned on. And I’m s*xually charged. And I love to read. My favorite book is The Encyclopedia. It’s so big and it’s hard and—wait, seriously. Okay, sorry."

Yes, she went there. The gag escalated on purpose, then she pulled it back to say there’s an actual human under the sparkles. The audience seemed into it, but the internet did its usual split: some thought she was charming and funny the whole time; others thought the monologue didn’t land. Carpenter, for her part, looked completely unbothered.

She’s been pushing back on that label for a while

This wasn’t the first time she addressed the whole horny-pop-star thing. In Vanity Fair, she shot down the idea that she’s the horniest girl alive. She acknowledged the obvious: some lyrics get spicy, and her stage shows can be provocative. But the way she frames it is simple: it’s about having fun, not taking herself too seriously, and leaning into wordplay and innuendo because it makes her laugh. If you know songs like Nonsense, that tracks.

The album cover dust-up, explained the funny way

Carpenter also took a swing at the blowback over the cover of her new album, Man’s Best Friend. The image that set off debate shows her on all fours with an unseen hand in her hair. Some fans said it echoed domestic abuse or objectified women. On SNL, Carpenter deadpanned that people were overreacting to a crop.

Her joke: if you zoom out, it’s obviously from the SNL 50th anniversary special, where Bowen Yang is helping her up by the hair right after Martin Short supposedly shoved her out of the buffet line with a very Martin Short-y, "Daddy need his mini quiche." It’s a bit, obviously, but the message was clear: she’s not giving much weight to the outrage.

Where she is right now

If it feels like Carpenter blew up overnight, that’s just how sudden the pop moment looked. She’s been at this for more than a decade across TV, movies, and music, but Espresso sent her global. Now she’s hosting SNL and dropping albums on major labels.

Man’s Best Friend is out on Island Records, released August 29, 2025.