GTA 6 Made It to SNL: Jason vs. Zelda's Link on Weekend Update, South Park's 'November' Joke, and the Week GTA 6 Went Fully Mainstream
Saturday Night Live put GTA 6's Jason on the Weekend Update desk against Link from the Ocarina of Time remake, and the clip passed 1.5 million YouTube views in under three days. South Park has made GTA 6 a running joke, and a Jason and Lucia mural is going up in Brooklyn. Here is what happened in the SNL sketch, the best lines, how much of it is true to GTA 6, and every other place GTA 6 showed up this week.
You know a video game has crossed over when Saturday Night Live assumes its whole audience knows the release date. On October 3, SNL's Weekend Update brought on Jason from GTA 6, played by Marcello Hernández, and Link from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, played by Mikey Day, to argue over who owns November. The official clip passed 1.5 million views on YouTube in under three days.
It was not the only sign this week that GTA 6 has escaped the gaming bubble. South Park is running a season-long joke about it, a mural of Jason and Lucia is going up in Brooklyn, and on November 18 an NBA team will play as Vice City. Here is the sketch, and the rest.
Watch the SNL GTA 6 sketch
What happens in the sketch
The setup is the Update desk's intro: "'Grand Theft Auto VI' is so highly anticipated that all other video games have pushed their release dates to avoid competing with it this November, except one other game." In walk Jason, asking the crowd if they are "ready to go to Vice City and steal some cars", and Link, offering to "solve some puzzleeees".
From there it is a pitch battle, refereed by Colin Jost and Michael Che. The highlights:
- The Barbenheimer bit. Jost: "I don't know much about gaming because I've had sex, but I'm told that people are calling your releases the 'Barbenheimer' of video games?" Jason: "The only way this is like 'Barbenheimer' is that I blow stuff up."
- Jason's day in GTA 6. He breaks his girlfriend out of prison, robs a bank, steals a car, then goes to the airport and steals "a Boeing Dreamliner", which he lands next to a strip club. Link's verdict: "Boring!"
- Link's day in Hyrule. "I woke up, bought magic beans from a shopkeeper, then played my ocarina." Asked what an ocarina is: "It's a ceramic wind flute. It controls time and the weather."
- TMPNG. Jason respects "all the 'Zelda' games", but they are all "TMPNG. Too Many Puzzles, No Guns."
- The shopping. Jason shows off a rocket launcher you can buy in GTA 6 "like it's Advil at a store". Link counters with a fairy in a bottle that costs "three magic frogs" and "heals all your hearts".
- The sign-off. Jason: "Yo, America, 'GTA VI' this November. Destruction, chaos and sex." Link: "Puzzles, light combat, my healed fairy, and full-frontal nudity." Jason: "For real?" Link: "No, I lied."
Link's insistence that Che knows what an ocarina is ("Che knows!") becomes a running gag of its own.
How accurate is SNL's GTA 6?
It is broad comedy written for a network audience, not a trailer breakdown, and that is the point: SNL could assume the room knew what GTA 6 was. Still, the writers clearly watched the marketing.
| SNL's GTA 6 | What Rockstar has actually shown |
|---|---|
| Breaking your girlfriend out of prison | Lucia is introduced in the Leonida Penitentiary, but her official bio says "sheer luck" got her out, not Jason. |
| Stealing a plane | Planes are in: Rockstar's screenshots show a private jet over the Vice City sign, and seaplanes over the Keys. |
| Landing next to a strip club | Strip clubs are in Rockstar's official screenshots, and a deleted PEGI summary says you can pay for private dances. |
| "Destruction, chaos and sex" | GTA 6's Australian and New Zealand ratings list "Sex Scenes". Our age rating breakdown has the details. |
The premise is an exaggeration of something real. Plenty of publishers have kept their games away from November 19, though not everyone: GamesIndustry.biz spoke to indie developers launching in the same month on purpose. And the rival is real too. Nintendo's remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time comes out on November 5 for Switch 2, two weeks before GTA 6. The pairing has been compared to 2023's Barbie and Oppenheimer double bill, which is exactly where Jost opens.
South Park's running GTA 6 joke
SNL is late to this. South Park's Season 29 has used GTA 6 as a running joke since its premiere.
| Episode | Aired | The GTA 6 joke |
|---|---|---|
| "South American Biker Gangs" (S29E1) | September 16 | After a gloomy speech about the state of the country, the punchline: "But hopefully things will get better in November. That's when Grand Theft Auto 6 comes out." |
| "Billionaire Weenietown" (S29E2) | September 30 | Power cuts caused by data centers only become a real crisis when people realise they threaten their GTA 6 saves. The episode again tells everyone to wait until November, when GTA 6 comes out, and stop worrying. |
There is a second layer to it. November 2026 is also when the US holds its midterm elections, and The Daily Beast's reviewer read the "things will get better in November" line as a nudge about those. The season runs until November 25, a week after GTA 6 launches, so expect the joke to come back.
The rest of GTA 6's mainstream week
- A mural in Brooklyn. A large Jason and Lucia mural started going up on October 1 at Wythe Avenue and North 11th Street in Williamsburg, RockstarINTEL reported, with the Grand Theft Auto logo and palm trees. Rockstar's hand-painted murals are a launch tradition, and according to Notebookcheck, Rockstar reportedly used the same corner for a GTA 5 mural in 2013.
- A fashion magazine cover. LOVE magazine gave Jason and Lucia one of the covers of Issue 27, and pre-orders sold out in minutes. Our LOVE breakdown has the new screenshots.
- An NBA team turning into Vice City. The Miami Heat will play as "Vice City" against the Bucks on November 18, live on ESPN, as covered in our Heat explainer.
Six weeks before launch, GTA 6 is a punchline on SNL, a recurring gag on South Park and, for one night, a basketball team's alternate identity. Our GTA 6 countdown tracks everything between now and November 19.
FAQ
Was GTA 6 on SNL?
Yes. On October 3, 2026, Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update featured Jason from GTA 6, played by Marcello Hernández, arguing with Link from The Legend of Zelda, played by Mikey Day.
Who played Jason from GTA 6 on SNL?
Cast member Marcello Hernández. Mikey Day played Link.
Is GTA 6 in South Park?
As a running joke. Both Season 29 episodes so far end up saying things will get better in November, when GTA 6 comes out.
When does the Zelda Ocarina of Time remake come out?
November 5, 2026, on Nintendo Switch 2, two weeks before GTA 6's November 19 launch.
Sources
- Saturday Night Live on YouTube - Weekend Update: Legend of Zelda's Link and Grand Theft Auto's Jason on Their Competing Video Games
- NME - 'GTA 6' battles Zelda in "Barbenheimer" of gaming on 'SNL'
- GTA BOOM - SNL Weekend Update Pits GTA 6 Against the Zelda Ocarina of Time Remake
- GTA BOOM - South Park Episode 2 Turns a Power Outage Into a GTA 6 Save Data Crisis
- Dork - South Park's GTA 6 reference explained
- Wikipedia - Billionaire Weenietown
- Nintendo Life - Zelda: Ocarina Of Time launches on Switch 2 on 5th November 2026
- GamesIndustry.biz - The indie games going head to head with GTA 6
- RockstarINTEL - A GTA 6 Mural Is Being Painted In New York City
- Notebookcheck - GTA 6: Huge New York mural apparently kicks off final marketing phase
