2024-09-29 22:20:03
Between singing a gorgeous and hilarious tribute to New York City, portraying “the chimp lady,” and playing a fajita-dodging Real Housewife, Jean Smart slayed her first time hosting Saturday Night Live. In fact, the show was so packed (and so star-studded in the cold open), Smart’s episode includes two cut-for-time sketches, which you can watch below.
“Honestly, I remember watching the very first episode of SNL and thinking, ‘Someday I’m going to host that show.’ And this was the first Saturday that worked with my schedule,” the six-time Emmy winning Hacks star joked in her monologue, addressing the fact that she’d somehow never hosted.
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Jean Smart sings Cole Porter’s “I Happen to Like New York” on SNL
Smart’s monologue featured her singing a reworked version of Cole Porter’s “I Happen to Like New York,” made famous by artists including Judy Garland.
“I started my career in New York around the same time Saturday Night Live started. I didn’t really believe it was live,” Smart said between bars, with a delivery that would make her Hacks character Deborah Vance proud. “Seriously? I thought SNL stood for Saturday Night Laughs. And then I watched the show and I thought, ‘well, that can’t be right.’
Smart’s SNL episode found her playing a romance novelist-turned-textbook author, a dramatic classic film actress and, in an unaired sketch, a House of the Dragon character. Her range remains undisputed.
Watch all of Jean Smart’s September 28 SNL sketches below.
“$100,000 Pyramid”
The first game show sketch of Season 50 featured Devon Walker as Michael Strahan, Chloe Fineman as current internet celebrity “Hawk Tuah Girl” Haliey Welch, Marcello Hernández as Bad Bunny, Kenan Thompson as disgraced North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, and Jean Smart as disgraced chimp owner Tonia Haddix.
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“Spirit Halloween”
Anyone else surprised there’s never been a Spirit Halloween SNL ad before?
“Textbook Writer”
A romance author makes the transition to writing math textbooks, with accidentally sexy results.
“I Love Lucy”
“Charli XCX Talk Show”
Bowen Yang busts out his impression of the “365” singer.
“Real Housewives of Santa Fe Dinner”
While it wasn’t SNL‘s first Real Housewives parody, it was definitely the first one involving sizzling fajita platters.
Cut-for-time sketches from Jean Smart’s episode
The premiere was so packed, it couldn’t fit two more sketches: “Blonde Dragon People,” a House of the Dragon parody that found viewers struggling to remember plot points after years off the air, and the pretaped “A Father’s Promise.”
“Blonde Dragon People”
Andy Samberg and Musical Guest Jelly Roll popped up as “blonde dragon people” in a sketch that skewered both the show itself and its networks’s ever-shifting name.
“A Father’s Promise”
The heartwarming(ish) pretaped sketch tells the story of a father (Andrew Dismukes) who surprises his wife (Jean Smart) by showing up at a baseball game featuring their son (Marcello Hernández). His surprises only get wilder from there.
