Who is Hosting Saturday Night Live Tonight: January 16, 2021

Saturday Night Live is still airing winter reruns, so “act accordingly” for an SNL repeat tonight hosted by “Ozark” star Jason Bateman!

With a pandemic raging and our nation’s Capitol thwarting an attack by domestic terrorists, how could things possibly get any worse!? Easy. Add to that, Saturday Night Live continuing its winter vacation and running another SNL rerun this evening.

Tonight’s repeat Saturday Night Live stars Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy Award winner Jason Bateman (“Arrested Development“, “Ozark“) as host. However, this SNL encore might cheer you up because it originally aired on December 5, 2020, which means it includes plenty of Christmas material from the SNL writers’ room for you to enjoy some after-Christmas holiday spirit. Of course, it also includes sketches inspired by the political news from early December.

The SNL Cold Open for this evening’s repeat was yanked right out of the headlines and involved President Donald “Hissy-Fit” Trump trying to sue his way into remaining President by going door-to-door to every courtroom he could find to challenge the election results which gave President-Elect Joe Biden the keys to the Oval Office. Even though the SNL Cold Open involves both Trump and Biden, neither Alec Baldwin (Trump) nor Jim Carrey (Biden) were on hand to do their well-known political impressions.

Saturday Night Live kicks off tonight with C-SPAN coverage of the Michigan State Senate hearings on allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election. This opening sketch revolves around SNL cast member Kate McKinnon as Trump’s personal lawyer, the defiant yet flatulent Rudy Giuliani. She’s backed up by castmate Cecily Strong as self-described whistleblowing Republican Mellissa Carone.

Going by first glance at Mellissa Carone’s name, you may not remember who she is because she certainly fell into a ocean of obscurity after this one brief appearance on behalf of President Trump. Once you see Cecily Strong’s pitch perfect impersonation of her, you’ll recognize Mellissa Carone immediately. Her allegedly drunken performance went viral at the speed of gossip.

If the impression sounds familiar tonight, it’s probably because it sounds so much like one of Cecily Strong’s characters from Weekend Update. You may know Mellissa Carone better as Cecily Strong’s “The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At A Party.” You’ll see other SNL cast members as witnesses in this evening’s cold open including Heidi Gardner, Alex Moffat, Kyle Mooney, Pete Davidson, Chloe Fineman (doing an amazing Nicole Kidman impression) and Beck Bennett as Michael Lindell, the inventor and infomercial spokesmodel for “My Pillow.”

Jason Bateman’s SNL monologue tonight is more of a reflection, looking back at the last time he hosted Saturday Night Live, which was 15 years ago back in 2005 during SNL – Season 30. This evening’s host talked about how back in ’05, he performed in an SNL sketch called “Monkeys Throwing Poop at Celebrities.”

While some SNL fans might remember that sketch, many probably won’t remember what happened later that night during the SNL curtain call and good nights. Jason Bateman will fill you in on all the deets in his monologue tonight, but let’s just say he had a falling out with one of his co-stars from the “Monkeys Throwing Poop at Celebrities” sketch and it almost cost him his nose.

Once we’re past the monologue tonight, this evening’s SNL rerun starts off with a sketch featuring a premise from last season on Saturday Night Live. Last season, SNL ran a sketch called “Sleepover” starring host Adam Driver as a dad who’s trying to solve the mystery of which girl at his daughter’s sleepover caused thousands of dollars worth of damage to his home by trying to cover up her menstrual problem.

Tonight in “Sleepover 2“, host Jason Bateman plays the dad in the same situation. He’s trying to figure out which of the middle school girls at his daughter’s slumber party ruined his couch, his washer and dryer and pretty much his entire house by trying to conceal a feminine faux pas.

You might say, “I’ve seen this before.” And yes, while that’s true, it’s also the return of one of cast member Kate McKinnon’s best characters, Megan the 8th grade girl whose menstrual mayhem is to blame for the massive destruction in the “Sleepover” sketches and who crushes on the dads of all of her friends.

In another sketch tonight, Jason Bateman plays a piano player at the legendary (and real life) NYC gay cabaret piano bar in the West Village, “The Duplex.” Bateman’s sassy piano player named Devin is joined by cabaret singers Charlie Vig and Billie Moon. Featured cast member Bowen Yang plays Charlie Vig while looking a lot like Walter Mercado and Cecily Strong takes on the part of Billie Moon while sounding a lot like Liza Minnelli.

Jason Bateman also gets to play Santa alongside cast member Cecily Strong who plays Mrs. Claus in a very slapstick style sketch called “Santa’s Village.” This sketch takes place at a shopping center where the mall Santa and his wife are disastrously placed inside giant snow-globes to comply with Covid-19 regulations and social distancing restrictions.

One of the most fun sketches of the night is called “Morgan Wallen Party.” This is where tonight’s musical guest (Morgan Wallen, of course) pokes fun at himself for a monumentally boneheaded mistake he made.

Backstory! Country star Morgan Wallen was suppose to be the musical guest on SNL on the 2nd show of the season when Bill Burr hosted Saturday Night Live on October 10th, 2020. However that same week, videos appeared on TikTok showing Morgan partying in a bar with no Covid-19 protection while celebrating a University of Alabama Crimson Tide football win. Since he broke NBC protocols, SNL contacted Morgan Wallen and cancelled his appearance on SNL that Saturday. He was replaced by Jack White.

On tonight’s show, Morgan Wallen plays himself in a sketch which takes place about two months in the past. His future-self (Jason Bateman) comes back to the past to warn him about screwing up and missing his chance to be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. Watch to see who else gets to play a time-traveling Morgan Wallen in this sketch and listen for Pete Davidson doing possibly the worst southern accent in the history of southern accents.

The first SNL Short we get on tonight’s repeat Saturday Night Live kicks off the holidays with a music video featuring cast member Pete Davidson who once again shows why he’d prefer a full-time career in hip-hop. Pete and the cast do a parody version of Eminem’s “Stan” called “Stu” who is asking Santa for a Sony PlayStation 5 for Christmas. Watch for featured player Bowen Yang as Elton John. He’s filling in until resident Elton John impersonator, cast member Aidy Bryant returns to SNL. Also, there’s a cameo at the end of this short that you don’t want to miss.

Our next SNL Short on tonight’s show is called “The Christmas Conversation.” Now, in that time before the great pandemic, the “Christmas Conversation” is what you would call going home for the holidays and letting your family know you’re gay. But ever since Covid-19, that’s changed. SNL‘s short titled “The Christmas Conversation” is a collection of Facetime calls where young people break it gently to their mothers that due to the pandemic, they won’t be home for December 25th. It goes about as well as you’d think.

The final short of the night is one of those SNL sketches that everyone will recognize from their own lives. It’s a music video for a song called “Kills the Bit“. In this short, cast member Kyle Mooney realizes he’s the guy in his friend group (and every friend group has one) who tries to be funny, but instead, just destroys the vibe in the room. Don’t start looking around at your friends now because if you don’t know who “the guy who kills the bit” is in your social circle, then it just might be you.

On tonight’s repeat edition of Weekend Update with Colin Jost and Michael Che, the comedy duo’s lead story is President Trump and his many, many, many failed legal attempts to overthrow the results of the 2020 Presidential Election in court.

Colin Jost reports on President Trump saying the election was rigged at the highest level. To which Jost comments, “Dude. YOU’RE the highest level.” Jost then agrees to believe any of Trump’s conspiracy theories just as long as he leaves office on January 20th. Meanwhile, co-anchor Michael Che pivots to a story about the Covid-19 vaccine becoming available. Che reveals his own cynicism when he says, “I’m black, so naturally, I don’t trust it.”

Other stories covered on Weekend Update include America’s former Presidents offering to take the Coronavirus vaccine on television, possible pre-emptive pardons for Jared Kushner and Rudy Giuliani, the White House Christmas decorations, this month’s full moon, plans to reopen “Hamilton” on Broadway, Drake’s scented candles, a horse rescued from a septic tank, a 102 year old woman surviving the Coronavirus, and the world’s deepest swimming pool opening in Poland.

Staten Island resident Pete Davidson appears on Weekend Update to discuss the protest in his home-borough, hosted by Mac’s Public House bar to rally against forced restaurant and bar restrictions in New York by Governor Andrew Cuomo. Pete barely discusses the shutdown controversy and mainly talks about people not liking him. It’s always hard to tell if these Pete Davidson Weekend Update appearances are actually a cry for help.

Weekend Update also welcomes back “Teen Movie Critic Bailey Gismert” played by cast member Heidi Gardner. Since movie theaters have been closed, Bailey talks about some of the older films she watched at home including “Forrest Gump” which she found politically incorrect. She also watched “American Beauty” and didn’t care for its environmental message. And we learn that Bailey really dug Buffalo Bill in “The Silence of the Lambs.”

The SNL promos for this evening’s repeat show are available just below for you check out. You’ll see host Jason Bateman joined by musical guest Morgan Wallen and cast member Heidi Gardner as they go over their very superficial Christmas wish lists. After that, we witness the host’s secret identity being revealed to the entire world.

Tonight, Jason Bateman hosts an encore presentation of Saturday Night Live with musical guest Morgan Wallen. It all happens same Bateman time (11:30pm et), same Bateman channel (NBC)!

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