The Afterparty: How Yasper’s Episode Mocks Hamilton’s “My Shot” Song

Warning! SPOILERS for The Afterparty episode 3.

The Yasper-centric episode of The Afterparty features an extended musical number about his ambitions, which perfectly mocks Hamilton’s iconic “My Shot” song. The Apple TV+ original show The Afterparty follows a group of former classmates who attended the afterparty for their high school reunion where one student was murdered. As Detective Danner collects the events from that night and tries to uncover the killer, each suspect recounts their story as told through a specific genre, all of which spoof movies and characters from their respective styles.

The Afterparty episode 3 tells the story from the perspective of Yasper (Ben Schwartz), an A/V guy who intended to use the reunion and afterparty as a second chance to jumpstart a music career. Yasper recalls the night in the style of a musical, featuring three original numbers that reflect popular movie musicals and Broadway shows. Unsurprisingly, the first song that Yasper sings in his The Afterparty episode is a parody of “My Shot,” one of the most popular songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit Broadway musical Hamilton.

Yasper’s song takes a notable spin on Hamilton’s “My Shot,” which is a hip-hop style song in which Alexander Hamilton laments he won’t throw away his one shot to make a difference in the U.S. and leave a notable legacy. “My Shot” essentially is about each character having their own shot at greatness, and making their take it at this time in the revolution, instead of letting it slip away. Yasper’s song is also about getting his second shot at greatness through his music career, and particularly that he’ll make sure to use The Afterparty’s reunion and Xavier’s party to accomplish this. Since The Afterparty is about a reunion, it’s more or less about the characters taking the chances they never did while in high school, which is why Aniq also chimes in about having a second shot at love with Zoe.

One of the first lines in The Afterparty character’s “Two Shots” song is “what about those of us who missed our shot/didn’t rise to the top,” which perfectly mocks Hamilton’s repeated lines of “I am not throwin’ away my shot” and “rise up.” The Afterparty’s parody song then repeats the line “we all get one shot twice,” thus using Hamilton’s iconic number as a basis for Yasper and the other characters making something of themselves later in life after initially throwing away their shots. While the one-shot basis of Hamilton’s song was meant to foreshadow Alexander Hamilton’s death after being shot by Aaron Burr at the end of the musical, The Afterparty’s playfully mocking twist is a bit more optimistic in saying it’s never too late to achieve your dreams. However, The Afterparty‘s characters then have their second shots ruined when one of The Afterparty‘s guests kills Xavier.

The Afterparty’s “My Shot” parody is also clever in repeating the freestyle rap verse style of Hamilton’s song. Yasper, Aniq, and, briefly, Walt each get to rap about how they’ll be using their “second shot” at life at the reunion, similar to how Hamilton’s eponymous character, Lafayette, Laurens, and Mulligan each get in a verse about how they’ll be taking their shot in the Revolutionary War. Between verses, the characters in both The Afterparty and Hamilton all come back to sing the chorus about either not throwing away their shot, or being exciting to use their one shot… twice.

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Jordan Williams
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Jordan Williams is a Movie/TV Feature Senior Staff Writer for Screen Rant. She graduated from the University of Oregon in 2020 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies.

Jordan is based in Seattle, Washington and enjoys exploring the natural beauty the PNW has to offer. She runs on coffee and classic movies, taking pride in having watched every film on AFI’s 100 Greatest Films list and every Best Picture Oscar winner.

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