Saturday Night Live is back!
The late-night sketch comedy show returned for its 48th season after the mass exodus of the show’s most prominent cast members – Pete Davidson, Kate McKinnon, Kyle Mooney, Aidy Bryant, Alex Moffat, Chris Redd, Aristotle Athari, and Melissa Villaseñor – and the new addition of four actors to the team. With all these changes to SNL, what does it do? Obviously, they poked fun at the exit of the beloved cast members and the show during the very first sketch of the season.
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Becoming one of the rare hosts to lead a cold opening, Miles Teller portrayed former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning, joined by Andrew Dismukes as Eli Manning, to spoof the duos’ Manningcast on Monday Night Football. The two provided some real-time commentary on the Saturday Night Live cold-open sketch – and they did not hold back as they brutally ripped it apart! Jon Hamm even joined as a special guest while they made fun of the cast’s jokes, the political direction the show has taken, and even the “gratuitous stunt casting” of the show (courtesy of a cameo by Shaun White at one point). Ch-ch-check it out (below):
Very meta!
Following the cold open, Miles hopped back on the stage to perform his opening monologue, where he joked about making the Top Gun: Maverick movie and learning some new musical skills through J.K. Simmons — a call back to their film Whiplash. However, the most memorable moment in the monologue is Miles expressing how much he loves SNL. The actor even brought an old home video showing him and his sisters performing their own version of the Spartan Cheerleaders sketch from Will Ferrell and Cheri Oteri. See the moment for yourself (below):
Moving on…
At one point in the night, viewers finally got to see a parody of Nicole Kidman’s iconic AMC advertisement – if you’ve set foot in a movie theater you know what we are talking about here! Since the ad dropped, it has been meme’d, made into shirts, and even had audiences standing and saluting to it in the theater. It’s absolutely wild! And now, SNL has put its own twist on the ad, making fun of the phenomena and the cultish response it has had. Ch-ch-check it out:
Love it!!!
Of course, SNL also took a moment to mock some of the recent DM and cheating scandals that have plagued Hollywood. Miles played game show host Halen Hardy of a competition series called Send Something Normal. The rules of the game? He explained:
“The game is very simple. We have four male celebrity contestants, and all they have to do is reply to a woman’s DM on Instagram in a way that is normal. And fellows, if you send a normal DM, you win $100 million.”
The contestants included Adam Levine, played by Mikey Day, Armie Hammer, portrayed by James Austin Johnson, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, played by Kenan Thompson, and Bowen Yang – as himself. Given the lineup, you can probably guess how this turns out! Check out what happens (below):
Too funny!
Elsewhere in the show, Kendrick Lamar served as the musical guest for the third time. He first took the stage to perform Rich Spirit, followed by N95 – both of which are from his most recent album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. He later performed Father Time along with singer Sampha. See the phenomenal performances (below):
https://youtu.be/x1ursSZ0NCw
https://youtu.be/04qA4krEub8
What a way to kick-start the season! What did you think of the first episode of season 48, Perezcious readers? How do you think the new cast members did? Also, reactions to the weird new title font? Sound OFF with your thoughts in the comments! You can also check out the rest of the sketches from the night (below):
https://youtu.be/xurdxO-8_Fw
https://youtu.be/Z0xgH8wm_DE
[Image via Saturday Night Live/YouTube]