Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: June 5, 2021

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Saturday Night Live’s summer of reruns continues with a repeat hosted by SNL favorite daughter Maya Rudolph!

There’s no doubt that Maya Rudolph is one of Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michael’s favorite protégés. Luckily for us, SNL finds any and every reason to bring Maya Rudolph back for cameo appearances on the show where she was a cast member for 7 seasons starting in SNL – Season 25 in 2000.

She’s made a dozen cameo appearances on SNL since leaving the variety series in 2007. And even though she appeared in several episodes of Saturday Night Live in just this past season alone during the 2020 Presidential Election, the repeat airing tonight is only the second time that Maya Rudolph has hosted Saturday Night Live.

Speaking of Presidential elections, SNL has been looking for different ways to open the show since the loser of last year’s election Donald Trump left office and the writers can’t depend on Oval Office buffoonery anymore. Tonight’s rerun which originally aired on March 27, 2021, gives us a prime example of that with the SNL Cold Open being a game show sketch.

Saturday Night Live opens tonight with a round of “Snatched! Vaxed! or Waxed!” live from Miami Beach, Florida! The game show sketch is emceed by “Cece Vuvuzela” played by tonight’s SNL host Maya Rudolph, doing one of her patented accents that can’t be pinned down as being from any particular geographic location. The game show is billed as being the “Number 1 game show for hot, infectious singles.”

The contestants are played by SNL cast members Chris Redd, Beck Bennett, and Kyle Mooney who must decide on if the “COVID cuties appearing on the show” (cast members Chloe Fineman, Ego Nwodim and Heidi Gardner) are Snatched (hard-bodied), Vaxed (Covid-wise) or Waxed (hopefully no explanation is needed). It’s a weird sketch which sets the tone for the rest of this evening’s show.

It’s been 14 years since Maya Rudolph last worked as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, but she’s still a master of the costume quick-change. She goes quickly from being “Cece Vuvuzela” to being introduced by SNL announcer Darrell Hammond for the monologue segment.

Maya begins her monologue by reminiscing about the horrible 2020 everyone in the world had by describing it as a year that felt like “a real kick in the clams.” She gives a shout-out to her kids who she says are in the audience and will be watching “Mama” wearing different wigs and doing funny voices. She also reflects on her time at Saturday Night Live and how it felt to be a rookie cast member.

Our host is joined on stage by the new featured cast members who were hired by Saturday Night Live this season, Punkie Johnson, Andrew Dismukes and Lauren Holt. Speaking while the SNL Band is playing music “to talk to babies to”, Maya gives some advice to the new cast members whose names she can’t remember, including Lauren Holt who she refers to as “Calista Vagina.” It won’t take long tonight to realize that Maya Rudolph isn’t talking about her own experience at SNL.

The post-monologue sketches start with a parody of a “First We Feast” presentation of “Hot Ones” where celebrities answer hot questions while trying to eat even hotter chicken wings. Host Maya Rudolph plays the Grammy Award winning celebrity in the hot seat, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter who has no idea how she ended up on a wing eating show.

Some of the hot sauces Beyoncé gets to enjoy during her interview include the brand names “Hitler’s Anus” and the “Devil’s Diarrhea Scorpion Sauce.” Maya pulls off this sketch so masterfully with a sweaty wig and tears on her cheeks, that it’s hard to believe that she’s not actually in agony from hot wings.

Later on, Maya Rudolph brings back her most popular impression of 2020 which is Vice-President Kamala Harris as she hosts a holiday special sketch called “A Kamala Harris Unity Seder.” Watch for a very special cameo is this sketch from another former cast member playing the Second Gentleman of the United States, Doug Emhoff. This sketch is also filled with plenty of Saturday Night Live‘s favorite political impressions.

In other sketches you’ll see tonight, Maya Rudolph plays Tania Katank, a Broadway choreographer who goes head-to-head at rehearsal with a rival dance instructor named Richard Perquest played by cast member Kenan Thompson. It’s a pretty bizarre sketch. The strangeness doesn’t end there. Host Maya Rudolph, in the guise of her character “Sally O’Flappy” along with the other SNL cast members, show off their best drunk personas in an awards show sketch presenting “The 2021 Barfly Awards.”

The first of the SNL Shorts on this evening’s replay is called “Boomers Got the Vax.” It’s a music video where nearly the entire SNL cast play senior citizens singing about being the first to get vaccinated in the country and feeling pretty proud of that fact. SNL‘s next short demonstrates one of the problems that SNL ran into during this past season. The writers went too deep into the political world last year. Way too deep.

It’s called “NFTs – SNL.” It’s a rap video about cryptocurrency featuring cast member Kate McKinnon as U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. That’s the problem. Who could possibly know if this is a good impression or not!? Most people haven’t heard of Janet Yellen. Then, add to that cast member Pete Davidson as Eminem, yet again. Something we saw a lot of last season. This one-note SNL Short just shows how self-indulgent Saturday Night Live got this past season.

Tonight’s show ends with SNL Short called “The Maya-ing : A Stanley Kubrick Film.” Long time SNL fans will fall in love with this short as Maya Rudolph walks down a hallway filled with great SNL memories from seasons past. Maya arrives at a bar where she shares a drink with original SNL writer Gloria Zelwig, but wait till you see who’s playing this fictional writer. This SNL Short is filled with cameo surprises that will make it worth sitting through this rerun which fell short of being one of the better shows of last season.

Anchormen Colin Jost and Michael Che lead this rerun edition of Weekend Update with commentary regarding the shootings that happened in Colorado and Atlanta the week that this SNL replay originally aired. Instead of background checks, Colin Jost calls for “current checks” to see what these maniac gunmen are doing right now in this country. Jost also wonders why you need more references to work at Foot Locker than you do to get a gun.

Michael Che talks about President Biden’s one hour press conference he held with members of the media. Something that the press hadn’t see in the previous four years. Che also gives a shout out to Fixadent for holding the President’s teeth in place for the entire hour.

The Weekend Update news duo also discuss President Biden’s cheat sheets, the President falling down the stairs of Air Force One, Virginia abolishing the death penalty, Mark Zuckerberg’s idea of an Instagram for kids, former President Trump lying about the January 6th attack on the government, National Puppy Day, sex dolls with real emotions, “Sesame Street” introducing black muppets, Peeps flavored Pepsi, and Miller Lite bar scented candles.

Cast member Cecily Strong visits the Weekend Update crew tonight as the batshit crazy Trump lawyer Sidney Powell who tried to get the 2020 Presidential Election overturned. Again, this is SNL going way too deep into politics with another impression of someone that no one outside of the Beltway knows.

Featured player Bowen Yang is introduced on Weekend Update as the “Asian Cast Member” and he’s there to talk about hate crimes against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. He discusses resources for people who want to help those affected by hate crimes and tell people to “do more.” This is a rough piece that has some laughs, but a lot more uncomfortable lines that just lay there.

We have the promos for tonight’s repeat SNL just below and they are only a click away. Host Maya Rudolph is joined by musical guest Jack Harlow and SNL cast member Chris Redd. The promos reveal that you don’t want your birthday to land on the same day that Maya Rudolph is hosting SNL. Also, if you have a while, feel free to ask Maya if she’s ready for spring to arrive?

Former SNL cast member and current Vice-President Kamala Harris impersonator Maya Rudolph hosts an encore presentation of Saturday Nigh Live tonight with musical guest Jack Harlow. It’s begins at 11:30pm et or maybe a little later if NHL playoff hockey runs late on NBC.

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Ernie Tripper

Ernie Tripper