Oscar-winner Emma Stone added another career achievement to her resume on Saturday as she became a member of an illustrious group of people who have hosted Saturday Night Live five times or more.
With two projects to promote — the film Poor Things and the Showtime series The Curse — Stone brought her A-game to the show with committed performances and memorable sketches that left many viewers feeling satisfied with the episode as a whole.
The show also bid farewell to former New York Congressman George Santos, introduced the masses to a talented singer/songwriter and more. Here’s a look at some of this week’s SNL highlights.
It was pretty much a given that SNL would address the recent removal of George Santos from Congress during the show, especially given that cast member Bowen Yang’s portrayal of Santos has been quite popular this season with viewers.
And they wasted no time, tackling the subject in the show’s cold open. Before breaking into a musical number, the sketch began with a press conference with Yang as Santos where he was pretty accepting of his situation.
“You want me to say that I lost, that I’m humiliated? Fine. So I’m no longer Congressman Santos, I’m just regular old professor, major, general, reverend, astronaut Santos, protector of the realm, princess of Genovia,” he said.
Hosting for a fifth time is a big deal in the world of SNL, and while some legendary hosts have certainly surpassed that number, there is a handful of stars still sitting at five, like Ben Affleck, Melissa McCarthy, Dwayne Johnson, Candice Bergen, Bill Murray, Justin Timberlake, Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Paul Rudd and Jonah Hill.
And now that Stone’s name is officially a part of that list as the youngest to get to five, she was welcomed to the club by Bergen — the first-ever woman to host the show — along with Tina Fey who has solo-hosted five times and co-hosted once alongside Amy Poehler.
In a sketch called “Make Your Kind of Music,” Stone plays a record producer in the 1960s named Mitch Lester, who is working with musician Mama Cass as she records her song, “Make Your Kind of Music.”
Lester is convinced that the song will someday find its way into countless movies and trailers playing over slow-mo meltdown montages — which has been the case lately with films like The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and Free Guy.
Stone was very committed to the part as her character took it upon himself to act out the potential montages while Cass sang the song. Between Stone’s performance and just hearing the song itself on repeat, it was a sketch that made a lasting impression with viewers reacting on social media, with one viewer on Threads even comparing it to the classic “More Cowbell” sketch with Christopher Walken.
