Saturday Night Live

The White Lotus star makes for an impressive host in a week that sees Sharon Stone, Amy Poehler, Allison Williams and, surprisingly, Joe Biden pop up.

But more than that, it was also the most rounded SNL has felt in years, thanks to the use of George Santos as through line, as well as an overriding focus on queer humor. Hopefully, this speaks to a new sense of focus for the show. It’s very obvious to everyone except leader Jake Sully (Day) that the spies are two members who are clearly “butch ladies from Arizona” (Heidi Gardner and Plaza). M3gan star Allison Williams shows up to put a stop to things, only to change course and embrace the fun after all the clubgoers fawn over her for having “her as ate” on Girls. Luckily, the show goes out on a much stronger note with a scene from an old black-and-white mystery movie that sees Johnson’s hardboiled PI accuse Plaza’s sultry widow of murdering several aged husbands. Then, Plaza plays a TV director shooting a commercial for the HIV treatment Lovato. But the sunny Knope would rather pick Jost’s brain about his job (Poehler gets a big laugh when she talks about watching Update “when Seth Meyers did it by himself with no one else”). It’s about as close to a piece of performance art as any SNL musical number has been in recent memory (if not ever). She furiously renounces her faith and embraces sin, before Sister Clarence wins her back with a rendition of Lady Gaga’s Shallow (a call back to an earlier joke). The wealthy, spoiled tourists of White Lotus – including characters played by Jennifer Coolidge (Chloe Fineman) and Michael Imperioli (Johnson) – find themselves butting up against a no-nonsense, all Black (save Plaza’s fiery Latina) staff that refuses to indulge their nonsense. Next, at a cul-de-sac game night, a group of neighbors welcomes the new couple that’s moved next door. Fresh off memorable turns in the new season of HBO’s The White Lotus and the acclaimed indie thriller Emily the Criminal, the actor celebrates having recently been voted the most famous person from her home state of Delaware.

In her first time hosting 'Saturday Night Live,' Aubrey Plaza went above and beyond, even getting an actual presidential cameo with the return of Leslie ...

He commented from the field in both congressman’s navy blazer and a red sequin dress with a full face. Plaza, as April, took a seat at the news desk, grimacing at Colin Jost from under the hood of her signature grey sweatshirt. The Weekend Update segment alone would’ve rendered the episode the best of the season even if the rest of the show had stuck to pat Joe Biden impressions.

The first SNL in over a month catches us up on all the pop culture and political chaos that's happened since. A recap and review of season 48, ...

[Nelson Franklin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np6xlLW2JqU&t=468s), [ Harvey Guillén](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJr7SwQ03pg&t=118s), and [Jon Lovitz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpKLHWg2Ffg) have all played George Santos, the Talented Mr. However, it’s still campy enough that the gay community immediately [claimed it](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/movies/m3gan-gay-sensibility.html), and for good reason. (She also once played an NBC Page on [ an episode of 30 Rock](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5HIUO1klbw).) She spends the bulk of her charming monologue giving viewers a tour of the studio, complete with the same kind of made-up factoids [ she has mentioned in interviews](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAVcOHAPkNk) she used to lay on audiences when she was giving those tours for real. [ Jennifer Coolidge impression](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFxlJ1inle0) in the previous episode, this sketch seemed like another showcase for her in its opening moments. [Emily the Criminal](https://www.vulture.com/2022/08/emily-the-criminal-movie-review.html) — the inaugural release from her [ production company](https://linktr.ee/EvilHagProductions) — and eating up a meaty role in [The White Lotus](https://www.vulture.com/tv/the-white-lotus/), the closest thing to a monoculture hit we now have, 2022 was Aubrey Plaza’s year. [M3GAN](https://www.vulture.com/article/m3gan-review-good-enough-for-january.html) has just enough actual horror to transcend being more meme than movie. [ her moment of truth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcMfZyXCl9s&t=60s). Instead, it turns out to be a corrective of The White Lotus’s staggering (and deliberate) lack of Blackness; all the decadence, all the intrigue, none of the foolishness. [ an adorable and touching story](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKwralwfbiw) about why getting to do so was a dream come true. Plaza has so successfully shed the skin of her first defining character that it’s almost as jarring as it is nostalgic to see her [ revive Ludgate](https://youtu.be/a7rfGuTKIXA) for a reunion with her Parks co-star Amy Poehler in the middle of hosting SNL. (It didn’t help matters that she once played Daria in a viral [ College Humor video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBQXugKu8L4), or voiced the titular character in 2014’s [ Grumpy Cat movie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmeF5zENpMo), a project I wouldn’t know how to explain to a young person without being even more embarrassed of my generation than usual.) In the years since, however, Plaza has been doing the difficult work of torching her former typecasting without the telegraphed intentionality of a Disney star now working blue. She slowly built up a stable of varied performances in dark, hip indies she produced herself, such as [ Ingrid Goes West](https://www.vulture.com/2017/08/ingrid-goes-west-is-a-barbed-satire-of-dumb-instagram-girls.html) and [ Black Bear](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_gCDYMGnng), along with the occasional [ fratty comedy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33MtR-g4Jcg) and the lesser of two recent Child’s Play reboots (the movie, not the show.) Plaza has worked so steadily and accrued so much goodwill that her hosting SNL for the first time in 2023 feels bizarrely belated.

The episode was hosted by Aubrey Plaza, a former NBC page, who strolled down memory lane with the help of President Biden and Amy Poehler.

[The screen beside him showed a joke birth certificate for Barack Hussein Obama from the Republic of Kenya.] It was hidden in a copy of Black Tail magazine. There’s also a cameo from the “M3gan” star Allison Williams as herself, who is hailed as a gay ally for reasons we can’t exactly describe in detail here. As Nwodim says: “Is the ocean the hotel? But she said another drag queen in Congress is absolutely slaying as the character Marjorie Taylor Greene. George Santos — seen here with two people he listed as professional references — was described by a fashion expert as being able to get away with his lies for so long because he was well dressed. (“We always believed in you, Avery,” the production designer And I’m proud to be the first African American quarterback to ever dunk a football.” (He also said he had attended and played sports at “the University of College.”) Reminded of his claims that he was the first player to lead the league in rushing and passing, Yang answered: “That’s correct. “We’re just grateful you made it out of ‘White Lotus’ alive.” In that segment, Yang said that he was not Jewish but “Jew-ish, which was honestly icon-ic.” Nonetheless, he continued to assert that his grandparents were in the Holocaust. “My ancestors were the ones that told her, ‘You should be writing this down.’” She had been a page at NBC years before, and she took the audience on a halfhearted tour around the studio, including the set design department where Plaza once worked.

Saturday Night Live” targeted Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) in its opening sketch this weekend, roasting the embattled lawmaker over his embellished résumé ...

He has admitted to embellishing his résumé but has refused to step down from his position in Congress. The hosts joked that they had to hire Santos when they saw his résumé mentioned winning a Heisman Trophy and having more championships than pro football legend Tom Brady. Santos has faced calls to resign after a wave of stories surfaced about the lawmaker’s claims regarding his past. Sue me for having a life,” Santos [drag queen](https://thehill.com/tag/drag-queen/) [George Santos](https://thehill.com/tag/george-santos/) [George Santos](https://thehill.com/people/george-santos/) [santos drag queen](https://thehill.com/tag/santos-drag-queen/) [Saturday Night Live](https://thehill.com/tag/saturday-night-live/) [SNL](https://thehill.com/tag/snl/) [Tom Brady](https://thehill.com/people/tom-brady/) [House](https://thehill.com/homenews/house/) [House](https://thehill.com/homenews/house/) [House](https://thehill.com/homenews/house/) [House](https://thehill.com/homenews/house/) [See All](https://thehill.com/homenews/house/) [See all Hill.TV](https://thehill.com/hilltv) [See all Video](https://thehill.com/video) [Equilibrium & Sustainability](https://thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/) [Campaign](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/) [Administration](https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/) [Senate](https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/) [See All](https://thehill.com)

The panel was represented by actors playing Howie Long, Jimmy Johnson, Michael Strahan, Curt Menefee, and Terry Bradshaw. On the West Coast, the show started ...

The Rest: Perhaps the finest showcase for what an Aubrey Plaza can bring to your sketch comedy show came in the game night sketch, where she and Mikey Day, as ...

(In an aside, how incompetent was the New York Democratic Party to lose to this clown, and the New York press—with one Toss in a return from Sharon Stone as Plaza’s mother with a thing for guys with big noses (“Of course a knockout like you walks in the night before my rhinoplasty,” drawls Johnson’s private dick), and some more oddball lines seemingly inspired by having Aubrey Plaza in the building, and this one worked for me on every, weirdo level. I’ll leave the Avatar-specific analysis to fans (look, I just don’t have that sort of time, and Dances With Wolves already bummed me out back in the day), but just allow for the fact that Kenan can make me laugh just by vamping on the name “Jake Sully” for what felt like a beat too long. [truly some feat](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/george-santos-list-of-lies_n_63caccb5e4b0c8e3fc76e71a).) More about performance, Yang’s Santos is a precise, slimy bit of characterization, Santos’ mulish unwillingness to accept defeat even in the face of irrefutable proof giving Yang ample chance to do his thing. Jost and Che were sharp and energized, whacking around easy targets with a deft enough spin to score some points on the likes of series GOP liar George Santos (if that is his real name), Donald Trump’s ongoing latest sexual assault trial, and a reemerging Kevin Spacey. Chloe Fineman and Plaza make a couple of genuinely creepy dollies, here going all-in on the demographics by setting the sequel in a raucous gay club. [it is](https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/tiktok-france-beauty-queen-eva-colas/).] Regardless, it’s Plaza again, as her Miss France plasters on a glassy-eyed stare and smile, and shrieks out what could be either “France!” or “Frog!” at every opportunity, and eventually wanders into Kenan’s shot, her frozen mask of Stepford pageant blankness, again, genuinely unnerving in her commitment. The Rest: Perhaps the finest showcase for what an Aubrey Plaza can bring to your sketch comedy show came in the game night sketch, where she and Mikey Day, as the new neighbors in town, quickly revealed the yawning horror that is their relationship and home life. The commercial for an HIV drug hinged on the same joke, repeated (Devon Walker’s actor keeps ad-libbing that he’s not gay), but there was Plaza as the commercial director, noting in an aside that she wants to get the shot done before her salad gets cold. The Best: “The Black Lotus” might have been a predictable switcheroo, what with Aubrey Plaza in the house and the acclaimed HBO series’ second season having just come to its shocking end. “Danny, how are you—are you still a little bitch?,” Plaza coos to one stagehand, before reminiscing that the SNL set design team are a bunch of perverts. [week-of commercial promos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP04LSMbiPY) a few days ago, alternately menacing and enticing an increasingly rattled Chloe Fineman with her intense impersonations and even more intense proclamation of her simmering insanity.

Devoted Pawnee public servant Leslie Knope (Poehler) crashed apathetic coworker April Ludgate's (Plaza) Weekend Update segment centered on the ins and outs of ...

Read [EW's recap of the episode](https://ew.com/tv/recaps/saturday-night-live-season-48-episode-10/), and watch Plaza's reunion with Poehler and her monologue above. One of her duties involved studio tours, so she put on the blazer and made her way around the building, where she bumped into Poehler. Along with Biden, Poehler made a cameo in Plaza's monologue when the latter looked back on her days as part of NBC's Page Program, a year-long fellowship at the network. "I used to watch this when Seth Meyers did it by himself with no one else, and he made it look really easy," she quipped. "Work for the water department, you can drain the reservoir and find all the bodies and murder clues." In her return to Weekend Update, Poehler picked

Let's revisit some of the best moments from the January 21 episode of Saturday Night Live. Live from New York, it's Aubrey Plaza!

Weekend Update got nostalgic when Plaza slid over to Colin Jost and donned her hoodie and bad attitude of her fan-favorite Parks and Recreation character April to tell him what it’s like to work for the local government. If you exist, then you are aware of the movie M3GAN, the latest (and probably now the most iconic) horror movie out of Blumhouse Productions. Just wait until you hear about the fight they just had and what was going on the first time they met. The campy sci-fi horror film tells the story of roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams) who brings home an artificially intelligent, life-size doll named M3GAN (Amie Donald) to comfort and play with her recently-orphaned niece, Cady (Violet McGraw). Kenan Thompson plays the reluctant host of the Miss Universe pageant and is doing his best to learn about some of the contestants. the World, Dirty Grandpa, and The To Do List, Plaza is also one of the most versatile actresses working. Except these neighbors do things a bit differently than the rest of the bunch, and actually invoke more terror than they do joy. And the real Property Brothers? But have you heard of The Black Lotus? As she explains in her monologue, she's just glad she was allowed back in the building. [Austin Butler hosted the last episode of 2022](https://collider.com/snl-austin-butler-best-sketches-ranked/), and we said [a tearful goodbye to veteran cast member Cecily Strong](https://collider.com/cecily-strong-leaving-snl/). While studying at NYU, she actually worked as an NBC Page in the Saturday Night Live design department during Parks and Recreation co-star Amy Poehler's time on the show.

Concierge hosts Ego Nwodim and Kenan Thompson immediately stop Chloe Fineman's Tanya McQuoid-Hunt, a.k.a. Jennifer Coolidge, from checking in without a credit ...

Jennifer Coolidge, from checking in without a credit card. Basically, preventing them from being They deal with similar antics to The White Lotus’s Italian season, including Portia running off with a guy she just met, Harper and Cameron sleeping together, and Lucia and Mia running up Dominic’s credit card.

Sam Smith helped usher "Saturday Night Live" into 2023 with a pair of dramatic performances from their upcoming album, "Gloria."

Donning an extravagant fluffy pink dress, Smith belted out the opening lines of the song before sneaking in [Kim Petras](https://www.billboard.com/artist/kim-petras/), who is featured on the track, to assist with her verse. Petras wasn’t the only unexpected guest during Smith’s SNL appearance. For their third appearance as musical guest on the iconic NBC sketch comedy show, the U.K. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100](https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/sam-smith-kim-petras-unholy-number-one-hot-100-1235160237/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CUnholy%E2%80%9D%20debuted%20at%20No.,becomes%20the%201%2C143rd%20No.) in October 2022. singer-songwriter unleashed unforgettable live performances of chart-topper “Unholy” and the title track from their soon-to-be-released fourth album, Gloria, which is scheduled to arrive on Jan. [Sam Smith](https://www.billboard.com/artist/sam-smith/) helped usher [Saturday Night Live](https://www.billboard.com/t/saturday-night-live/) into 2023 with a pair of dramatic performances from their upcoming album.

Aubrey Plaza made sure to pay homage to her Pawnee roots while hosting "Saturday Night Live" this weekend, and she had a little help from her former ...

Poehler, who acted as Weekend Update anchor along with Tina Fey during her “SNL” tenure in the early 2000’s, momentarily ousted current anchor Colin Jost to crack a news-related joke. The “White Lotus” star was joined by her “Parks and Recreation” costar Amy Poehler during the live broadcast, who appeared during Plaza’s opening monologue and again for a spot during the Aubrey Plaza made sure to pay homage to her Pawnee roots while hosting “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, and she had a little help from her former onscreen boss.

Fox Sports hosts (played by Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day, James Austin Johnson, Devon Walker, and Molly Kearney) are surprised to find Rep. George Santos (Bowen ...

Santos' lies is the trending topic of conversation around the internet, so it isn't surprising that Saturday Night Live jumped on the bandwagon. [Saturday Night Live](https://collider.com/tag/saturday-night-live/) is going to be a good one based on the Cold Open alone; and that was the case when Aubrey Plaza took over hosting duties with musical guest Sam Smith. Santos, who became infamous for just lying non-stop since becoming a representative, was mocked relentlessly in the sketch.

The single is off of the singer's fourth studio album, 'Gloria,' which is set to be released Jan. 27.

[Sam Smith](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/sam-smith/)’s third stint as [Saturday Night Live](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/saturday-night-live/)’s musical guest saw the singer perform “Unholy” off of Gloria, their upcoming fourth studio album which is [set to be released Jan. [Loyal Lobos Is In the Driver's Seat on Dreamy Track ‘Sleeper’](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-latin/loyal-lobos-song-sleeper-1234665424/) 27](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sam-smith-announces-album-gloria-1234612540/). [Kim Petras](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/kim-petras/), garnered a nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the upcoming [Grammy Awards](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/grammy-awards/). [27-date North American tour](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sam-smith-gloria-north-american-tour-1234656243/) this summer, when they will return to New York with shows Aug. [music video for which](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/smith-smith-kim-petras-unholy-1234597969/) came out last September, followed the release of “Love Me More” from the same album and preceded the title track, which [Smith unveiled Friday](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/sam-smith-new-song-gloria-1234664233/) and also performed on [SNL](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/snl/).