When Saturday Night Live announced this last weekend's episode would look a little different from usual, we did not expect it to be Tom Hanks and Tina Fey kind of different. But that's exactly what happened. Here's what went down in Studio 8H.
The beloved series announced earlier on Saturday that their upcoming episode would not be what they planned. Paul Rudd was set to host (and join the five-timers club!!) with Charli XCX as musical guest, but that became impossible due to COVID's Omicron variant spike. "Out of an abundance of caution, there will be no live audience for tonight's taping of 'Saturday Night Live' and the show will have limited cast and crew," SNL tweeted.
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But what they didn't mention was who would be a part of the limited cast. And it was none other than host Paul Rudd, Tom Hanks, Tina Fey, Michael Che, and Kenan Thompson. If you think Hanks and Fey being invited on is random, think again - they are both outstanding members of the 5-Timers Club, which Rudd got initiated into on Saturday. "I came here from California and if you think I was gonna fly 3,000 miles and not be on TV, you've got another thing coming," the Forrest Gump star said as he kicked off the show.
The night's opening monologue also included a hilarious message from another five-timer, Steve Martin. The rest of the night involved brand new sketches the cast was able to tape earlier in the week and some of the actors' favorite sketches from past episodes. "It's gonna be a little bit like a new Beatles' documentary: a lot of old footage, but enough new stuff that you're like, 'Okay, yeah, I'll watch that,'" Paul bluntly revealed.
And while we'll take what we can get from this stellar cast during unprecedented times, some fans were understandably disappointed. "Should have canceled it and had Paul come back for a proper show. This episode is basically a best Christmas skits compilation," wrote one bummed-out viewer. "Super weird vibes from this show," echoed someone else. "Why not have regular cast members but randomly have Tina Fey and Tom Hanks??"
You can catch the full episode here and judge for yourself.
