Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: April 17, 2021

Saturday Night Live is off tonight, but SNL is sending us a Valentine’s Day repeat hosted by Oscar winner Regina King!

Where you live it’s mid-April, 2021, but tonight on Saturday Night Live, it’s Valentine’s Day all over again. This evening’s SNL repeat hosted by Oscar winner Regina King originally aired on Saturday, February 13, 2021. So guys, when you see some Valentine’s sketches tonight on Saturday Night Live, don’t panic! You didn’t forget it. It’s just that Saturday Night Live is in repeats for a few weeks.

Regina King hosted this Saturday Night Live episode in order to promote her new movie, “One Night in Miami.” This is one time when Regina has a new movie out, but you won’t see her in it. That’s because “One Night in Miami” which has been nominated for 3 Academy Awards, is Regina King’s film directorial debut. The alternate history drama earned Regina a Golden Globe nomination for directing. Not bad for your first time in a movie director’s chair.

This evening’s SNL opens up tonight by getting political with a parody of the crown jewel series of Fox News, “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Even though Donald Trump had already been smoked out of the White House and was living in Mar-a-Lago exile for nearly a month, SNL couldn’t resist taking one last jab at him. This SNL show aired right after Trump had beaten his second impeachment trial and was found not guilty of insurrection charges by a GOP majority Senate.

Alex Moffat is the cast member who gets the honor of making Tucker Carlson look like a buffoon in tonight’s SNL Cold Open. Alex does an admirable job with his Tucker impression especially when it comes to his combination of a “resting bitch face” added to an already confused, yet constipated stare. Tonight’s SNL opener is not big on laughs. That’s not an opinion. You can hear the silence from the studio audience for yourself tonight.

SNL has cast members Mikey Day and Pete Davidson playing Trump’s legal team. No one has heard of these guys that they’re playing and certainly no one paid close enough attention to Trump’s impeachment sequel to know these lawyers’ names. So, there’s nothing to judge Day and Davidson’s impersonations by.

One of the highlights of this sketch was the inner-SNL comedy team of cast members Kate McKinnon & Aidy Bryant appearing in U.S. Senator drag as Senate members Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz respectively. Add in cast member Beck Bennett as the jowly Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and you’ve got a full set of Saturday Night Live political impressions to start the show.

Regina King opens her SNL monologue by sharing some memories of watching Eddie Murphy on SNL when she was a kid. She also shares some advice about the monologue that she got from the boss, Saturday Night Live EP Lorne Michaels. It’s not advice that we would suggest anyone actually use in their own lives.

The Oscar winning host does confess to having some nerves being on a live television stage and senior cast member Kenan Thompson arrives to save the day dressed like he’s in a Run DMC tribute group. Kenan helps Regina plug her Academy Award nominated movie, “One Night in Miami“. Regina King, of course, is already an Oscar winner. Kenan will remind you of that, loudly. She picked up her own Oscar for her performance in 2018’s “If Beale Street Could Talk.” And it’s always nice to have Kenan Thompson as a hype-man.

The first post-monologue sketch is a dating show sketch called “What’s Your Type?” Cast member Cecily Strong is the host, “Tampa Bay Janae” and cast member Ego Nwodim is the game show deejay. Regina plays the contestant looking for love. She wants a specific type; a cringy white dude in his “early 40s, corny, awkward or douchey.” And the suitors played by cast members Kyle Mooney, Alex Moffat and Mikey Day don’t disappoint when it comes to bringing the cringe.

Cast member Aidy Bryant shines as the birthday girl in a party sketch called “Birthday Gifts” where all her presents are those not-so-clever, supposed-to-be-funny wooden signs that middle-aged women hang around the house. At first, Aidy’s character is pleased her friends know her so well, but when the sign gifts start to become more bold, insulting and on-point about her drinking problem, then she’s had enough, of the gifts, not the wine.

In other sketches, your host Regina King plays “Fliona! The Queen of Disco” who demands everything be absolutely perfect and she’s got some particular and specific needs. Her manager Maurice (featured player Bowen Yang) doesn’t come through on many of her demands,  so he receives plenty of her stage slaps. Don’t worry that many of the slaps miss by a mile, that’s the gag. Although, they really should have given Carol Burnett a writing credit for that part of the sketch.

In a later sketch titled “Women’s Theater“, Regina is part of an experimental feminist theater ensemble called “Fem-Box” who are performing at a high school as a last minute substitute for a magician. Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant complete the trio with Regina King. Side Bar: It really is time for McKinnon and Bryant to star in a buddy comedy movie produced by Lorne. Back to the sketch, in order to do an age appropriate show for the high schoolers, the female performers have to find a suitable word to substitute in their act, so they go with “elbow”. As in a` “hairy and magical” elbow.

Perhaps the best sketch of the night, or at least one that got audible laughs from the audience, is called “Gorilla Glue.” It was based on a news story that went viral the week that this show was live, about a Louisiana woman who was out of her regular hair product and substituted it with the ultra-strong adhesive Gorilla Glue. It then required plastic surgery to remove it from her scalp.

This sketch features host Regina King and cast member Kenan Thompson as two lawyers from a law firm that specializes in representing people dumb enough to put Gorilla Glue in their hair, in their civil suits against the glue manufacturers. The sketch is a TV ad for attorneys “Denzel & Latrice Commode” and which features testimonials from their clients who all have had horrible experiences from their improper use of Gorilla Glue.

We get a couple of SNL Shorts with this Saturday Night Live repeat. The first one is a parody spot for the alternative to the popular Peloton exercise bike. It’s the Pelo-Taunt exercise bike from the makers of Peloton. This taunting and insulting bike features the meanest instructors who use negative reinforcement and insults to motivate you to lose weight and exercise. It’s like working out with your mom.

The next short is called “The Negotiator“. Regina King plays a police officer in charge of talking a gunman down and more importantly, making sure his hostage is released safely. Unfortunately for the hostage, the Negotiator enjoyed some weed gummies from a bag marked “evidence”. Now she’s got to deal with a gunman and at the same time, hallucinations of life-size gummy bears, a talking sun and a Marge Simpson cartoon come-to-life, expertly played by cast member Melissa Villaseñor.

Anchorman Colin Jost opens tonight’s repeat Weekend Update complaining about the pure ridiculousness of Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial and acquittal in the Senate. He suggests President Joe Biden send rioters back into the Capitol since the U.S. Senate is obviously okay with it considering they just found Donald Trump not guilty of doing the same thing. Michael Che picks up where Jost left off talking about video evidence of Capitol rioters attacking police. He adds, “here’s a little Black history lesson for you. Just because there’s video evidence, doesn’t mean you’re going to get a conviction.”

Other topics turned into comedy tonight on this repeat edition of Weekend Update include Ted Cruz’s haircut, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan for vaccines and reopening the state, the Pope giving 2 women historical promotions, a Marine base missing explosives, country star Morgan Wallen seeing record sales after getting caught dropping n-bombs, Popeye’s new fish sandwich, “The Mandalorian” actor controversy, a 117 year old nun surviving Covid, Larry Flynt passing away, “Aunt Jemima” changing its name, and McDonald’s bringing back its orange drink.

Kate McKinnon is the first of three character visits to the Weekend Update desk. Kate appears as Stephanie Green, a Q’Anon member and storybook witch who explains what exactly is going on with Q. She’s giving fierce “Hansel & Gretel” vibes, plus she’s very interested in the rumors that a secret cabal is eating children. She really wants to know where they’re serving children and “are there dipping sauces” available?

Featured cast member Lauren Holt gets her first trip to the Weekend Update tonight. She plays relationship expert Mackenzie Taylor-Joy who has some tips for the single folks for Valentine’s Day. Remember this SNL rerun originally aired on St. Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, Mackenzie Taylor-Joy gets a bad news text from her “lover” that throws a wrench into her own holiday plans.

Beck Bennett is the third cast member to hit the Weekend Update desk in this repeat. He plays the Super Bowl 55 winning quarterback from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, “Drunk Tom Brady” who is still partying from the Bucs’ boat parade celebration from a week earlier, and he’s still dragging the Lombardi Trophy around with him. He’s a depressed drunk even though he’s a winner, and he’s starting to realize no one really likes him.

Just below is your chance to go back in time to February, 2021 and watch the promos for tonight’s repeat episode of SNL. Just pretend it’s not an SNL rerun and that you’re watching this show and its promos for the first time. In the promo set, Regina King is joined by musical guest Nathaniel Rateliff and Saturday Night Live cast member Beck Bennett. You’ll get to hear them list all the great things about New York in the cold, unforgiving month of February. Also, Valentine’s Day is going to be more than a little confusing at the Bennett house. That’s why you never make personal calls during the promos.

Tonight, Saturday Night Live is a repeat. It’s hosted by the director of “One Night in Miami“, Regina King with musical guest Nathaniel Rateliff. The repeat fun begins this evening at 11:30pm et on NBC.

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