Debbie Downer Gets Way Too Real as Rachel Dratch Reprises the Iconic Role for ‘SNL50’

Debbie Downer has returned. The character, played by Rachel Dratch, made an appearance during the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special. The sketch began with Jimmy Fallon greeting Drew Barrymore and Ayo Edebiri. When they go to order drinks, there’s Debbie Downer as the bartender. Debbie’s intro plays, song and all. She brings the conversation down—quick—with statistics on alcohol consumption, and it continues to get a little too real from there.

Fallon, Barrymore, and Edebiri keep trying to just celebrate SNL‘s 50th anniversary. They’re later joined by Robert De Niro, who gets a very intimate ‘I’m a huge fan’ type moment from Barrymore. Dratch teased to Collider’s Maggie Lovitt last year about a potential return, “One never knows… I don’t know how they’ll work the 50th. I did something on the 40th, and now there’s, like, 10 years more of cast, so I don’t know who’s gonna be in it.”

Who Invited This Downer to the Party?

Debbie Downer gets real about everything including the bird flu, telling Fallon, Barrymore, and Edebiri that they can’t have eggs because of the bird flu. She also has concerns about her dry eye as she makes a bit too much eye contact with De Niro. The segment ends with her concerns over feline AIDS, but not before she’s nearly strangled by De Niro, who was done with her nonsense. He, like many of us watching, are just trying to enjoy three hours of humor and fun, away from the world around us.

You can watch the sketch above. Stay with Collider for the latest updates on the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special.