Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: February 22, 2020

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Saturday Night Live is off for one more week, so we’re getting a repeat SNL hosted by Academy Award nominee Adam Driver!

We’re really looking forward to SNL returning with live shows starting next week with host John Mulaney, but tonight’s Saturday Night Live rerun features one of the variety show’s more popular hosts, Adam Driver. This repeat is from earlier this year. January 25th to be exact. It’s an encore presentation of the mid-season premiere for the second half of SNL – Season 45.

For the first new show of a new decade, SNL EP Lorne Michaels brought in one of his go-to hosts in recent seasons. Adam Driver has hosted SNL three times now since 2016. And twice in the past two seasons. It’s not every actor who’s hosted Saturday Night Live two seasons in a row while earning an Oscar nomination in the same two years. Actually, Adam Driver is most likely, the only actor to have ever pulled off this entertainment feat.

One thing about Saturday Night Live is that it’s topical and a representation of its current time. And that current time when this particular episode of SNL originally aired was Donald Trump’s impeachment. His trial in the Senate was just getting underway and that was the subject matter that kicked off this Adam Driver led show.

Tonight’s Saturday Night Live – Cold Open sketch gives us two of the best political impressions on Saturday Night Live today with cast member Beck Bennett as Senate Majority Turtle Leader Mitch McConnell and cast member Cecily Strong as the Senior Senator from Maine and Junior Field Mouse, Susan Collins.

The opener also introduces a new player into Saturday Night Live’s Trumpian Universe. Former SNL cast member Jon Lovitz returns as the President’s Impeachment trial defense attorney Alan Dershowitz.

In the beginning sketch tonight, you’ll see Alan Dershowitz (Lovitz) descend into hell as he rehearses the President’s sham defense. There he meets Satan played by cast member Kate McKinnon. In a possibly incorrect way of using the word, ironically, back when Jon Lovitz was an SNL cast member, it was him who would play the Devil, most famously in a Dana Carvey “Church Lady” sketch.

Lovitz’s Dershowitz also meets several residents and visitors in the fiery pits of Hades including the recently deceased Mr. Peanut from the Planters Peanuts Super Bowl ad, the composer of the hit kids song “Baby Shark” (featured cast member Bowen Yang), Flo from Progressive (cast member Heidi Gardner), Mark Zuckerberg (cast member Alex Moffat) and in a rare SNL – Cold Open appearance by a host, Adam Driver as murdered (?) financier and convicted sex offender disgustingly specializing in young girls, Jeffrey Epstein. If you love dark humor, and we figure you do, tune in again tonight for this repeat SNL to hear some Jeffrey Epstein jokes that have the live audience audibly moaning throughout the opener.

After the opening credits and being announced by SNL announcer Darrell Hammond, host Adam Driver takes the stage. And unlike most dramatic actors that host Saturday Night Live, Adam Driver is trusted with an actual bit of comedy in the monologue as opposed to just making some opening remarks.

While Adam Driver was thrilled to be hosting the first SNL of 2020, he was a little sad to say goodbye to 2019. He talked about his acting career and how people tend to get him confused with his characters like Adam from”Girls” and Kylo Ren from “the space one.”

Adam explained he’s actually a quite chill person and not as intense as the parts he’s plays. Then sets out to prove just how chill he is in real life by sitting on the edge of the stage. We also get some fun facts about our host and he rewards a “Star Wars” fan in the live audience.

He wraps up the SNL monologue by pitching his dramatic film “Marriage Story” which this year, earned him his second Academy Award nomination. And while plugging his movie available on Netflix (Hey, we plugged it too), Adam also takes the opportunity to make a joke at the expense of his “Marriage Story” co-star and fellow Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson and her real-life boyfriend and Weekend Update co-anchor Colin Jost. Totes worth watching again.

The first time Adam Driver hosted Saturday Night Live, one bit stood out as the most-talked-about sketch of the evening.That was an SNL – Digital Short that had social media giving the then-first-time host raves for his comedic chops.

Tonight, there’s a follow-up to that short Adam Driver starred in when he hosted Saturday Night Live the first time back in 2016, during SNL – Season 41, when he was promoting “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens“. The 2016 short was a mash-up between “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” where Adam Driver began his run as the evil dark side master Kylo Ren and the CBS reality show “Undercover Boss” where CEOs visit their employees in disguise to see how they feel about working for the company.

In the short, Kylo Ren disguised himself as an everyday custodian working for the First Order at Star Killer Base, the planet-size weapon that made the original “Star Wars” Death Star look like a Nerf Gun. There he found stormtroopers and other members of the First Order bad mouthing him and unleashed the power of the Dark Side on them.

In the new SNL – Digital Short, The “Undercover Boss” producers are catching up with Kylo Ren and his crew in a special edition called “Undercover Boss: Where Are They Now? Kylo Ren“. This time, the master of the Knights of Ren is posing as a First Order intern and he’s soon recognized as the Dark Side leader after using his force powers to kill. The short is fun, but like the “Star Wars” films themselves, it’s just not as good as the original.

Another SNL – Digital Short on tonight’s repeat is a music video starring this evening’s musical guest Halsey. Cast members Kenan Thompson and Chris Redd along with host Adam Driver sing along with her about taking it “Slow” in a romance. Maybe too, too slow for their ladies.

In the first post-monologue sketch of the night, Driver plays a dad attempting to have the hugely awkward conversation with the girls at his daughter’s sleepover about who broke the upstairs toilet by trying to flush a sanitary pad and then poorly attempting to cover their tracks which caused flooding and electrical damage.

This sketch is the perfect way to use a host that’s not from the world of comedy. Driver is the straight man in this while the sketch is a spotlight for how damn funny Kate McKinnon is who walks in on the discussion about who did the dirty toilet deed as one of the sleepover girls, in soaking wet pajamas and her hair frazzled from being shocked. Kate’s performance alone in this makes this sketch worth the price of admission, which shouldn’t be much because NBC is included with your basic cable, unless of course, you’re watching SNL on Hulu.

How do you follow a sketch about clogged toilets and sanitary napkins!? With a sketch that takes us behind-the-scenes at a shoot for a Del Taco commercial and their “Buck and Under Menu”.

Cast members Kyle Mooney and Chloe Fineman play the young actors performing in the commercial while Beck Bennett plays the director and host Adam Driver is the Del Taco VP of Branding who all go to ridiculous lengths to try to get Kyle’s character to get his line exactly the way they want it. Dig super silly SNL sketches? Yes? Then, this is for you.

As we mentioned, this is Adam Driver’s third time hosting Saturday Night Live and this time-around Adam Driver not only brought back the “Undercover Boss” sketch, but also another one of his SNL characters as well. It’s the return of the PBS Kids’ show sketch “The Science Room” with Professor Zachary Adams played by Driver.

In this latest edition of “The Science Room” sketch, Professor Adams is still the very impatient host of a hands-on children’s television science show and has two nervous young people as his assistants who don’t know shit about science and it really gets under Professor Adams’ epidermis. That’s a science-y word for skin. It’s the return of the premise of what happens when a guy who hates kids hosts a children’s show. “Look you stupid, stupid kids! What do balloons do!?” If you enjoy revisited premises, and who doesn’t? Stay up for this SNL repeat.

The rest of the night includes a “Medieval Times” sketch featuring Adam Driver as a community college theater student who takes his role as a knight too seriously. Kenan Thompson kills it in this sketch as an audience member really enjoying the Medieval Times show. Featured cast member Bowen Yang has a couple of lines in this sketch, but really shines.

One of the silliest sketches of the night is a sketch parody of the Netflix cheerleading docu-series, “Cheer“. Look for another cameo from musical guest Halsey in this sketch and be prepared to endure hearing the phrase “on mat” several hundred times.

The final sketch of the night really goes into bizarro territory. It stars host Adam Driver and cast member Cecily Strong as two bottles of ketchup who are marrying each other. It’s filled with condiment puns and takes on the age old battle of ketchup versus catsup. For the people who love ketchup, but hate catsup, this sketch really pours it on.

The opening news stories on Weekend Update tonight had a common theme. Back when this edition of Weekend Update originally aired on January 25th of this year, it was just beginning of the trial in the U.S. Senate of President Donald Trump whose new studio album, “Eat an Impeachment“, dropped this week.

Anchorman Colin Jost commented on how the senators who served as jurors in the impeachment trial were so bored they were falling asleep, doing puzzles and actually playing with fidget spinners. Jost added, “I assume this symbolized how the Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves.”

Anchor Michael Che talked about how Trump was bold enough to use Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer Alan Dershowitz in the trial while throwing in, “Talk about credibility. Who’s his character witness? R. Kelly??”

Other Trump news on tonight’s SNL repeat includes the President being bored during his own trial, more rambling footage from a Trump news interview, Joe Biden saying he wanted no part of testifying at the trial, a secret recording of Trump saying he wanted the Ambassador to the Ukraine removed from office with all the subtlety of a scene from “The Irishman,” Rudy Giuliani’s new podcast, and Michael Che has a unique theory on how the Democrats might actually want Trump to remain in office.

Jost and Che covered a variety of other topics on tonight’s Weekend Update such as the New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter missing out on entering the Hall of Fame unanimously by just one vote, the Navy naming an aircraft carrier after an African-American sailor for the first time, a massive data breach at a porn site, equal pay issues, Planters Peanuts killing off Mr. Peanut, Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty being accused of punching a child, and a goat being born with a human face.

Cast member Aidy Bryant makes a return trip to Weekend Update as the hilarious character, 7th Grade Travel Expert, Carrie Krum. The giggly middle-schooler had some travel tips for people hoping to escape the cold weather blues. Her suggestions include her mom’s Aunt Agnes’ house in the Florida Panhandle where her aunt has a bed in the living room with its own remote control. “What? Am I dreaming?”

And cast member Melissa Villaseñor gets to show off her impressive musical talents by stopping by Weekend Update to talk about the upcoming Oscars ceremony while performing original songs she wrote for all the Best Picture nominees. Not only will you notice that all of Melissa’s songs seem to have the same theme, but they all have the same melody as well. If that tune sounds a little familiar, it’s slightly similar to “I Wish It Was Christmas Today“, the original holiday song from Saturday Night Live cast members Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan and Tracy Morgan from back in SNL – Season 26 in 2000.

On a sad note, there’s a silent SNL tribute to Buck Henry who had passed away the week this episode aired. Buck Henry hosted Saturday Night Live a remarkable 10 times during the show’s first 5 years on the air. It became a tradition for Buck to host the Saturday Night Live season finale each year in the late 70’s.

Not only did he hold the SNL hosting record for quite some time, but Buck Henry was also a two-time Academy Award nominee for his screenplays for “The Graduate” (1967) and “Heaven Can Wait” (1978). He also wrote for “The Gary Moore Show” and co-created the hit television sitcom “Get Smart” with Mel Brooks which won him a Prime Time Emmy Award.

We have the promos below for you to watch for this previous episode of Saturday Night Live. The first promo released for this show highlighted Adam Driver’s comedy work from the first two times he hosted SNL. You’ll see some clips from the original “Undercover Boss” sketch he did on the show.

In the second promo, Adam Driver finds out he has more to do than just host the first SNL of the new year. He’s got some janitorial duties he’s been roped into as well. Studio 8-H has been left in complete disarray from the Saturday Night Live cast and crew holiday party and that Christmas tree isn’t going to throw itself out.

The third promo for this evening’s repeat finds host Adam Driver joined by musical guest Halsey and cast member Kenan Thompson. We learn there’s some wild things planned for this show. We also learn this at the same time that Adam is learning it too. Then the trio gives a lesson in the Rule of Threes. After all, it is a magic number.

Adam Driver is back for the third time to host a repeat episode of SNL, tonight at 11:30pm et on NBC.

SNL is back live next week with a new episode hosted by the Emmy Award winning former Saturday Night Live writer, and nationally touring comedian, John Mulaney!

Read more comedy news.

Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper