Saturday Night Live aired its season finale this weekend. Musical guest Lil Nas X shook up the stage (and tore his pants), while The Queen’s Gambit star Anya Taylor-Joy hosted. The cold open for the show featured the SNL cast talking about their crazy season, which started back in October. Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Kenan Thompson start it off by highlighting their bad years (besides Thompson, who jokingly admits he had a great year). More of the cast join in before Chris Rock makes a surprise appearance.
Rock hosted the season premiere back in October. It seems like ages ago, but he highlights what was happening the week he was hosting. “Here’s how messed up the world was when I hosted,” he joked. “I wanted Kanye West to be the musical guest but he couldn’t do it because he was running for president! Remember that? Also, the week I was here, the sitting president who said COVID would disappear, got COVID.”
“Everyone else was fleeing New York but Lorne Michaels was like ‘We should go back for comedy,’ ” Ego Nwodim joked. It wasn’t all jokes with the cast though. They take a moment to speak on the lives lost during the pandemic, including the show’s music producer Hal Willner.