Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: March 6, 2021

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Saturday Night Live is on spring break, but you can enjoy an SNL rerun tonight hosted by former cast member Kristen Wiig!

Kristen Wiig is having a homecoming tonight. Actually, it’s a rerun of a homecoming featuring her return to Saturday Night Live to host the show where she was a member of the cast for 7 years. Kristen Wiig join the cast in 2005 during SNL – Season 31. She stayed until her last show as a repertory player at the end of SNL – Season 37 in 2012. Tonight’s SNL rerun was Kristen Wiig’s 4th time hosting Saturday Night Live.

Tonight’s SNL repeat originally aired on December 19, 2020. It was the mid-season finale as well as the annual Saturday Night Live Christmas Show. If you see a lot of snow, poinsettias and Christmas trees on this evening’s episode, don’t panic. You didn’t miss Christmas, so don’t start overnighting things on Amazon. It’s just an SNL rerun.

The former Saturday Night Live cast member and Academy Award nominee (Best Original Screenplay for 2011’s “Bridesmaids“), Kristen Wiig, was returning to host SNL to promote her new movie, “Wonder Woman 1984.” In the comic book action thriller, Kristen Wiig plays Barbara Minerva aka The Cheetah, the arch-nemesis of Wonder Woman. The release of the DC Comics sequel to “Wonder Woman” had been delayed due to the worldwide pandemic. And it was finally reaching theaters which were opening again as well as on demand on HBO Max.

The pandemic was still inspiring the SNL writers’ room. It was the topic of the SNL Cold Open in tonight’s repeat episode. SNL cast member Beck Bennett reprises his role as then-sitting VP Mikey Pence in the cold opener. This takes place during the lame duck portion of Donald Trump’s one term as President. Featured cast member Lauren Holt plays Karen Pence who is lovingly and creepily referred to as “Mother” by Vice-President Pence in the sketch and unfortunately in real life too. Lauren Holt doesn’t get too much time to play the VP’s wife with the Trump Administration heading out of the door of the White House at this point in time.

In the opener, VP Pence is getting the Covid19 vaccine on national television to show everyone that they should get vaccinated when it’s available. Cast member Mikey Day is the doctor who has to convince the VP to take the injection in his arm and not the Vice-President’s preferred injection area. The fabulous former SNL cast member Maya Rudolph who will be back to host the show live in a couple of weeks, returns in tonight’s repeat episode as the equally fabulous new Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Saturday Night Live also crowns a new President-Elect (this episode aired before the inauguration) Joe Biden in this episode. Cast member Alex Moffat takes over the role of our new Commander-in-Chief from SNL guest star Jim Carrey who played Joe Biden during the last month of the Presidential campaign. We also get an appearance by a very leaky Rudy Giuliani played by cast member Kate McKinnon along with cast member Kenan Thompson as Secretary Ben Carson who still hasn’t figure out what his job was while running the department of Housing and Urban Development during the past 4 years.

Like the previous times that she’s hosted, Kristen Wiig is joined on stage by guest stars and cast members during her SNL monologue. In tonight’s repeat, she’s joined by Maya Rudolph and Kate McKinnon. Together, they sing “My Favorite Things” by Rodgers and Hammerstein from their smash hit musical “The Sound of Music“. However, their “Favorite Things” doesn’t seem to match the original “My Favorite Things” lyrics. The SNL version may be an improvement. That is if some of your favorite things are “long beards on babies.” Side note: Next time Kristen Wiig hosts SNL, have a damn stool ready, Glen!

One of the best things about Kristen Wiig coming back to SNL to host is that she will bring back some of her best characters from the show that made her such a hit with audiences. In a game show sketch tonight, which we’re told originally aired in 1963, Kristen Wiig returns with her character Mindy Elise Grayson, the aging Broadway starlet who must now settle for game show gigs to earn a living. Any time Mindy Elise Grayson has appeared on SNL, it’s in the sketch featuring the fictional TV game show “Secret Word.” As you’ll see again tonight, Mindy Elise is horrible at the game and breaks every rule on “Secret Word.”

Kristen Wiig also brings back her character….no, wait. We should keep it as a surprise. Never mind! We can’t hold it in! it’s Sue! She’s the Kristen Wiig recurring SNL character who cannot keep a secret and ruins every single surprise party she’s ever been too. You’ll recognize her from her trademark multi-colored sweater. Tonight, her job is to keep it a secret that one of Grandpa’s granddaughters is surprising him with a visit from out of town for Christmas. Can Sue keep it a secret!? Tune in tonight to find out. “Oh my Gawd!” She couldn’t and neither could we.

With this being the SNL Christmas Show and the final episode of the year, Saturday Night Live used the holiday as their inspiration for many of the sketches tonight. The first of the Christmas sketches in this SNL repeat features host Kristen Wiig as a performer styled after the Andrews Sisters for a World War II U.S.O Christmas show in Europe. She’s entertaining the troops including doing a duet with a soldier (featured cast member Bowen Yang) for the troops in 1944, with a gender-bending song that sounds more like the 21st century than the days of fighting the Nazis. Watch for musical guest Dua Lipa to join this sketch entertaining the soldiers.

Another holiday sketch on tonight’s SNL rerun is a deleted scene from the Christmas classic “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” featuring cast member Melissa Villaseñor as Macaulay Culkin’s character Kevin and host Kristen Wiig as the Pigeon Lady who’s a little more bad-ass in this version of the film. Kudos to the SNL crew for wrangling the fake pigeons so well.

The backlash against Dr. Seuss hadn’t hit the country yet back when this SNL episode originally aired. So, there was no problem adding a sketch telling us about what happened the next day in Whoville in the book “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” In this sketch, we find out that the Grinch didn’t head back home to his cave immediately after having roast beast and celebrating with the Who family. Turns out that the Grinch stayed over and after having too much holiday Who punch, enjoyed a throuple experience with Cindy Lou Who’s mom and dad.

The first of the two SNL Shorts on this evening’s repeat is a music video entitled “Christmas Morning.” It became a social media sensation when it first aired. The song is sung by a family opening gifts on Christmas morning. And while the kids and dad got everything they wanted with plenty of great gifts, all mom got is a bathrobe. Kristen Wiig plays the mother in the video trying her best to look excited about her new robe. This led to moms everywhere posting Christmas Day photos of themselves with their new bathrobes on social media, which makes us ask, does comedy imitate life or does life imitate comedy!?

Our next SNL Short is a trailer for the new season of “A Teacher” on Hulu. This gives a more realistic look at the relationships between a teacher and a gangly, awkward high school boy. Looks like season 2 of “A Teacher” is not going to be nearly as steamy as the one you see on Hulu starring Nick Robinson and Kate Mara. One thing to watch for in this short is new featured cast member Andrew Dismukes. It’s his first starring role in an SNL Short. He does a great job, especially when it comes to looking a lot like Nick Robinson.

In tonight’s repeat edition of Weekend Update with Colin Jost & Michael Che, the anchors are pretty excited because with their upcoming, long holiday break, this is the last Weekend Update while Donald Trump is still in office as President of the United States. SNL was off during Trump’s attempted coup against the Republic. Jost and Che take a moment to look back at some of Trump’s greatest moments as President. It’s not as sentimental as you might think.

The other news items covered by anchormen Jost and Che include Mike Pence and Senator Mitch McConnell being vaccinated, also how the states were handling vaccinations, a pro-Trump rally that turned ugly (or uglier), an anti-Jill Biden op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, the Cleveland Indians changing their team name, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment allegations, a man trapped in his car in a blizzard, Tom Cruise’s recorded rant, a mall Santa giving kids Covid19, and a new system on the ISS that allows urine to be turned into drinking water.

Visiting the Weekend Update desk on this show is Motown legend Smokey Robinson played by cast member Chris Redd, who drops by to talk about the different ways to spend the holidays including how the real-life Smokey Robinson really messed up trying to pronounce the word “Hanukkah.” Smokey learned about the Festival of Lights and for the first time in his life, Smokey learned about Jewish people. Also stopping by is Michael Che’s optimistic neighbor Willie played by cast member Kenan Thompson. He planned on cheering up Che about how positive he is that the vaccine will work. Willie received the vaccine and he’s fine. Oh wait. That might have been organ thieves.

Cast member Heidi Gardner rounds out the Weekend Update guest list on this weekend’s repeat appearing as Instagram Influencer Landis Trotter. She has a holiday gift guide for the audience including her half-a-million followers. Landis claims that none of her gift ideas are from her many sponsors. However, it sounds like she may be sneaking in a few sponsored plugs during her Weekend Update appearance.

Colin Jost and Michael Che close out Weekend Update for 2020 with the annual tradition of giving each other jokes to read that the other person had not seen prior to that moment. It’s a sweet tradition and probably one of the best things on Weekend Update all year. In this repeat, the end of the year joke gifts include punchlines about black people taking the Covid19 vaccine, the “Hocus Pocus” sequel, the anniversary of Rosa Parks’ protest, Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion and Creed frontman Scott Stapp playing Frank Sinatra.

At no extra charge to you, we have the promos for tonight’s repeat Saturday Night Live below for you to watch. Just keep scrolling. You can’t miss them. In the first promo, SNL has put together 15 seconds of the Best of Kristen Wiig. It’s all her characters and some of her best Christmas show moments. It’s like your life flashing in front of your eyes, but only if you spent your life as Kristen Wiig.

In the next promo set, host Kristen Wiig is joined by musical guest Dua Lipa and cast member Kate McKinnon who was Kristen’s co-star in Paul Feig’s “Ghostbusters.” They don’t mention that, so we do. The three of them do mention that they have a direct line to Santa, so they expect everyone to behave and watch tonight’s SNL. They also get caught up on everything Kristen has missed since leaving Saturday Night Live. It’s mostly the pandemic.

Kristen Wiig hosts an encore presentation of the Saturday Night Live Christmas Mid-Season Finale with musical guest Dua Lipa. It broadcasts tonight at 11:30pm et on NBC!

Mark your 2021 calendars! Saturday Night Live returns with brand new shows on Saturday, March 27th, beginning with host Maya Rudolph and musical guest Jack Harlow!

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Ernie Tripper

Ernie Tripper