There are a lot of things to love about the Saturday Night Live reunion specials, but I think my favorite random little one might be the A-list audience.
Most SNL episodes are full of randoms absolutely stoked to be there, but SNL 40 and last night’s SNL 50 have crowds full of former hosts, massive stars and ex-cast members. It makes the crowd interaction bits that much more fun, as we saw last night with a Q&A segment, numerous audience cut-tos and my favorite, a ridiculous Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte song that trapped Jenna Ortega and Kevin Costner in the middle.
I have absolutely no idea if Ortega and Costner were in on the bit. People on social media were just as confused as I was, but watching the two Hollywood stars being bumped into and pushed together by Sudeikis and Forte, who were dressed up Times Square favorites a pimp and a cartoon character, was something else. Check out this madness below, which was part of a John Mulaney tribe to New York City musical sketch…
This clip is barely twenty seconds long, and it’s overflowing with things to discuss. Let’s just run some of them down real quick. 1) I love Jenna Ortega’s face when her personal space first starts to get invaded. She calmly moves her shoulders and head more to the center, thinking she solved the problem and having absolutely no idea Sudeikis is just gonna eat that space up like they’re playing Risk. 2) I love Kevin Costner calmly putting on his glasses like he doesn’t have a care in the world. There’s no rush or hurry. It’s like he needs to get them out to do a crossword puzzle on a lazy weekend morning.
3) I love Jason Sudeikis literally hitting Jenna in the face with the back of his hand. It’s like he decided to just take the bit as far as possible and literally push her face. He doesn’t do it hard, but it’s just flagrantly disrespectful and leads to some more fantastic facial reactions. 4) I love the various celebrity reactions you can see around them. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is just eating up every second of this sketch. Chris Rock is watching with his arms folded like a judgmental former cast member, wondering where the bit is going. Woody Harrelson and Jason Momoa look weirded out in a bemused way, which feels on brand.
You could go on and on. I’ve watched the clip like 10 times, and I’ve found new things to make me smile every single time. Fortunately, you could say the same thing about much of the rest of the night. SNL 50 was slammed with absolute legends of the sketch comedy game and Hollywood royalty having the best time. Some of them crushed their bits. Others flubbed lines in amusing ways, and some looked uncomfortable as they were crushed between Sudeikis and Forte who were so committed to the bit they didn’t even seem to notice.
SNL hasn’t announced any of its upcoming hosts yet, but it’ll return on March 1st with a regular episode. Fingers crossed they’ll just keep rolling with all the fun cameos by former stars the rest of the season though.
