snl
Page: 16
Lizzo brought some holiday cheer to Saturday Night Live on Dec. 17.
Stepping in for previously announced performers Yeah Yeah Yeahs — who canceled because the band’s guitarist Nick Zinner is still recovering from pneumonia — the pop-rap star served as the NBC sketch comedy series’ final musical guest of 2022.
For her first performance during the Austin Butler-hosted episode, Lizzo transformed the stage into her own personal bedroom while delivering “Break Up Twice,” a moody track from her latest album, Special, which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in July. Dressed in a silky white nightgown, the performance began with Lizzo rising out of bed to shut off a buzzing alarm and ended with the artist belting out the song with the backing of a full band.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Later in the show, the singer-rapper treated viewers to a cover of Stevie Wonder‘s 1967 holiday classic “Someday at Christmas,” which she released as an Amazon Music Original in November. In true holiday spirit, Lizzo donned a silver and gold dress while passionately delivering the song amid several beautifully decorated and lit Christmas trees.
“I chose to cover ‘Someday at Christmas’ not just because it’s a classic, but because it’s a reminder to us that almost 60 years later, we are still fighting for peace, compassion, and equality,” she said in a past statement. “A friendly reminder to spread love and kindness this holiday season.”
In addition to serving as the evening’s musical guest, Lizzo also made a cameo during the “Please Don’t Destroy Me” skit, where host Butler gets pitched on the idea for a plastic clothing line. “I ain’t got no planties on,” she whispers to her boyfriend Martin.
Lizzo pulled double-duty on SNL earlier this year, serving as both musical guest and host. In between hilarious sketches, the artist debuted her Special title track and performed her Hot 100 chart-topper “About Damn Time.”
Watch Lizzo’s SNL performances below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes as well.
[embedded content]
[embedded content]
Cecily Strong is the latest cast member to depart NBC’s Saturday Night Live.
Strong’s final show will be Saturday night’s (Dec. 17) edition. The news was announced Saturday on SNL’s social media accounts (see below).
She joined the sketch show, executive produced by Lorne Michaels, in 2012, its 38th season. Over the years, she created such characters as “The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With at a Party” and impersonated such celebrities as Kendall Jenner, Megyn Kelly and Liz Cheney.
It’s understood that the plan had been for Strong to return for only the first half of the current season. Fans had noticed her absence from the opening credits of the season premiere in October, but at the time she was appearing in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and thus was unable to tape SNL in New York.
Strong next stars in the second season of AppleTV+ Schmigadoon!, which is also executive produced by Michaels. She also took a hiatus from SNL while filming that series.
Strong follows on the heels of other cast members who have recently left SNL, including Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Pete Davidson.
Saturday night’s SNL features host Austin Butler and musical guest Lizzo.
Austin Butler tried to make a quick visit with Jimmy Fallon to get some advice before his SNL hosting gig this weekend. Instead of finding Fallon, he found an Elvis on the Shelvis in a skit for The Tonight Show.
“Who is this?” Butler — who starred in a biopic about rock ‘n’ roll icon Elvis Presley — asks in the skit, picking up the doll off the mantle.
Elvis on the Shelvis, played by Fallon, then comes to life for a musical performance.
“Well, I move around the house when I’m a-home alone/ You did what you did/ You done what you done/ Elvis on the Shelvis never tell no one,” Fallon’s Elvis sings.
“You’re going on the top of my tree,” Butler says after the Elvis on the Shelvis show.
Butler’s SNL episode with musical guest Lizzo airs Saturday (Dec. 17) on NBC.
Watch his clip with Fallon below.
Succession‘s Kieran Culkin and Only Murders in the Building‘s Selena Gomez popped into the latest episode of Saturday Night Live for a Father of the Bride reunion.
Steve Martin and Martin Short both hosted the Dec. 10 show, which saw the comedic duo reprise their iconic characters, George Banks and wedding planner Franck Eggelhoffer, respectively, in a bit that riffed on the film and franchise sequels.
Culkin returned as a grown Matty Banks, while SNL castmembers took the family’s other various roles, including Chloe Fineman impersonating Diane Keaton in her role of mother Nina Banks and Heidi Gardner as the titular bride Annie, originally played by Kimberly Williams-Paisley. Bowen Yang also starred in the sketch, appearing as Howard Weinstein, second-in-command to Short’s Eggelhoffer — a role originated by BD Wong.
Returning to 24 Maple Dr., the Banks family is gearing up for yet another wedding for Annie, who is now 52 in Father of the Bride: Part 8. The imagined sequel follows Annie “three decades and seven divorces later,” as she opens her heart to the potential of marriage yet again.
In typical fashion, Martin’s George is dragging his feet, though this time it might be easier to understand why. “Annie, what makes you think I can afford another Nancy Meyers-style wedding?” he gasped. “I’m financially drained!”
“But daddy, I’m your little girl,” Gardner’s Annie whines before Martin snaps back, “You’re 52! Your mom started driving Lyft to pay for your last wedding.”
It’s quickly revealed that a shrimp tower and performances by Nicki Minaj were included in previous weddings, ceremonies orchestrated by none other than Yang’s Weinstein and Short’s Eggelhoffer, who is still using his signature and unintelligible accent.
“That’s right, Martin Short is back as the beloved wedding planner Franck doing an accent that I think is still OK,” the sketch’s voiceover says. “Let’s all agree it’s still OK.”
Culkin and Gomez make their appearances soon after, with the Succession star’s voiceover introduction hilariously acknowledging that audiences likely forgot the actor was in the film, but that it’s OK. “Did you forget that Kieran Culkin is in this movie? So did we, and so did he. But he was, and now he’s on Succession, so good for him.”
Gomez, who crashed Martin and Short’s monologue earlier in the night, ultimately makes an appearance as Annie’s wedding performer. “How much is she gonna cost me,” Martin asks before Gomez casually responds “$1.8 million easy.”
But it’s a price Martin’s George is willing to pay for his “little girl — my menopausal little girl,” he joked.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
Brandi Carlile returned to SNL as the musical guest on Saturday (Dec. 10), delivering one of her classics, 2007’s “The Story,” and her Grammy-nominated “You and Me on the Rock” featuring Lucius.
For her first performance of the night, Carlile was introduced by Martin Short, who co-hosted this weekend’s episode with Steve Martin.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Brandi Carlile,” Short announced, as Carlile launched into “The Story,” the title track from her sophomore album.
Carlile took the stage again later in the evening, introduced this time by Steve Martin and accompanied by Lucius for “You and Me on the Rock,” who were also featured on the track on Carlile’s In These Silent Days album.
She’d previously graced the SNL set in 2021, when she performed “Broken Horses” and “Right on Time.”
An excited Carlile tweeted a photo of herself holding one of Martin and Short’s SNL cue cards Saturday morning, after calling the hosts “the funniest people in the world” in a tweet following a rehearsal earlier in the week. “I’m in love,” she said.
Watch Carlile’s SNL performances below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes as well.
Steve Martin and Martin Short brought their A-game to their joint Saturday Night Live opening monologue, reading each other eulogies and surprising viewers with an appearance from their Only Murders in the Building co-star Selena Gomez.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Before diving into each other’s eulogies, the comedians took a second to reminisce about their past SNL hosting gigs, with the Dec. 10 episode being Martin’s 16th time hosting the show and Short’s third.
“You see, we are like Harry and Meghan,” Short said, referring to Netflix’s new docuseries from the couple. “No one’s rooting for us, but you’ll tune in to watch anyway.” Martin then went on to joke about how working with Short for him is like watching the World Cup: He just can’t get into it.
When Short told Martin he adores working with him and wishes they could do it forever, Martin said Short can’t because he won’t live forever.
“It’s sad because you won’t be able to hear the wonderful things I’m going to say at your memorial,” Martin told Short. “So, I thought why wait? So, what I did was I wrote up your eulogy so you can hear it now.” Short quipped back that he did the same.
“I will always be haunted by Marty’s last words: Tesla autopilot engage,” Martin said in his eulogy for Short.
“I learned so much from Steve,” Short said. “For example, he taught me that you don’t need to restrict the urinal to just number one.”
Throughout the opening monologue, the co-stars and touring partners threw playful shade at each other.
“Even at the end, Marty had a wonderful girlfriend smart, beautiful and so realistic,” Martin said. “He was always sexually active — as long as there were batteries in the house. He was taken away from us too soon, but sadly, not before he played Jack Frost in Santa Clause 3.”
Watch the opening monologue below:
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
NBC announced Saturday (Dec. 10) that Lizzo will step in for previously announced performers Yeah Yeah Yeahs on next weekend’s Saturday Night Live as the final musical guest of 2022. When she joins host Austin Butler on the Dec. 17 episode, it will mark the third time the pop-rap star has performed on the show.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs announced on their socials that they had to cancel because guitarist Nick Zinner is still recovering after contracting pneumonia last month. In addition to SNL, the band also pulled out of KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas festival in Los Angeles on Saturday.
“As many of our fans know Nick has had pneumonia over the past month and it’s been an up and down recovery process,” the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ statement reads. “The band’s top priority is supporting Nick through a full recovery, as a result we had to pull out from our engagements of KROQ’s Acoustic Christmas and Saturday Night Live.
“YYYs have enjoyed the incredible highs of being supported on KROQ and the huge honor of being chosen to close out SNL’s 2022, we are deeply thankful and expectedly heartbroken we cannot rise to these occasions,” the statement continues. “It’s been a tough week, and it’s been a tough year on the health front for us alongside so many artists who are committed to connecting with audiences amidst a pandemic. We send our love to our fans and supporters, thank you for your understanding and well wishes, it means the world to us. Wishing you a healthy and happy rest of 2022, we’re looking forward to a strong return in 2023. Much love, Karen, Nick, and Brian.”
Find the Twitter announcements below.
Kenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell and orange soda reunited for the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live in a sketch that sees Keke Palmer and the two comedians caught in a soapy love triangle storyline with a pregnancy twist.
Thompson and Mitchell, who became teen stars thanks to their work on All That and later their beloved titular roles in the 1996 Nickelodeon sitcom Kenan and Kel, appeared on the Dec. 3 episode as part of a sketch reimaging the show decades after it went off the air. Dubbed Kenan and Kelly, SNL host Keke Palmer is the one who pitched the faux series, which offers an aged-up dramatic spin on the comedic shenanigans the original kids show was known for.
The sketch opens with Palmer selling Thompson on the reboot that will see her replace Kel as “Kelly” in the title card. That’s right before the SNL cast member reveals that what he thought was going to be a “Jordan Peele-produced streaming series” was nothing of the sort.
“I had already sold the show before I even met Kenan,” Palmer hilariously reveals in a confessional. “I told the producers we wrote it together.”
Returning to the original series’ ridiculous antics, Palmer puts her own spin on the world of the popular ’90s sitcom — including swapping out Kel’s famous catchphrase “Aw, here it goes!” with “Oh, here comes the bus!” But she also adds darker, more dramatically soapy elements, including a store shooting and pregnancy storyline.
“Keke was gunning for an Emmy Award so she wanted gritty, dramatic moments in it,” Thompson says in his own confessional. “I thought, ‘That won’t work.’ And I was right.”
After Palmer — who incorporated her newly announced pregnancy into her character’s storyline — delivers over-the-top monologues about being pregnant with Thompson’s child and having a distraught, fatherless childhood, Kel seemingly arrives to reunite with his old screen partner but is overcome by his love for orange soda.
“Well, we just started and I think we have a tone issue, but people seem excited about it, I guess,” Thomspon remarks before fellow SNL cast member Devon Walker offers a spot-on impression of Mitchell’s character — braided wig and all.
The skit ends on a dramatic and comedic high note, with Kel getting shot while attempting to stop a store robbery and Palmer revealing the baby is actually his, not Kenan’s.
“The show is not good, but Jordan Peele called us,” Thomspon says before Mitchell adds, “He wants us to do a sequel to Nope.”
The reunion is the latest from the former onscreen duo, who also reunited at this year’s Emmys, appeared onstage at the 2019 NHL awards together and starred in a Good Burger skit on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2015.
This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter.
SZA is looking for a “big boy” this holiday season.
In addition to serving as the Saturday Night Live musical guest on Dec. 3, the TDE singer-songwriter also appeared in a pre-recorded musical sketch about a group of single women looking for love during the cold winter months.
“It’s cuffing season, now we got a reason/ To get a big boy, I need a big boy,” SZA sings amid a snowy background and a group of stout male dances sporting Santa hats and pajamas.
Elsewhere in the clip, SNL host Keke Palmer — who announced her pregnancy during the opening monologue — raps about finding a man with “polar bear arms” who can “bring in my groceries in just one trip.”
SZA was also the musical guest during the Dec. 3 episode, where the singer performed two songs from her upcoming album, S.O.S. She opened with her latest single “Shirt,” which debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November, and closed with the debut of the new track “Blind.” She also revealed during the episode that S.O.S will drop on Dec. 9.
SZA recently covered Billboard’s R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players issue. In the cover story, she questioned her longevity in music and where she sees her career going forward.
“I feel like music, in this capacity, I don’t see longevity,” SZA admitted. “I like to create, I like to write, I like to sing, and I like to share. But I don’t know if chasing after superstardom or whatever I’m supposed to be doing right now is sustainable for me or for anybody. I’mma take a good swing at it, and I’mma give ’em my absolute best.”
Watch the “Big Boys” musical sketch below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes as well.
If you’ve ever dated Drake, met him at a party, talked on Instagram, or even made flirty eye contact with him at a restaurant, you may be entitled to financial compensation.
In a hilarious sketch form the Dec. 3 episode of Saturday Night Live, the Toronto rapper is asked to pay up by the women he’s written about in his profitable songs.
“For too long, we have witnessed Aubrey ‘Drake’ Graham write hit after hit about women who have wronged him,” SNL cast member Chloe Fineman’s character says on behalf of thousands of women. “Only to earn millions of dollars.”
SNL host Keke Palmer chimes in to announce that the women have officially unionized as the “United Tingz of Aubrey” in an effort to stand up and fight for their rights.
The angry group includes Courtney (played by Ego Nwodim), who left Drake a voicemail about a car payment and ended up as an interlude on the rapper’s album. Next, Palmer explained how Drizzy’s “In My Feelings” — which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 10 weeks in 2018 — destroyed her life.
“That ‘Kiki do you love me?’ song ruined my damn life,” Palmer shouts angrily. “That man had the whole internet asking if I was the Kiki. Well, yes I an the Keke, just not that Kiki. It was my name first. Stop acting like we smashed and give me my damn $6 million.”
Watch the “Drake PSA” sketch below. For those without cable, the broadcast streams on Peacock, which you can sign up for at the link here. Having a Peacock account also gives fans access to previous SNL episodes as well.