Idris Elba hosted Saturday Night Live last night, and they did throw in an obligatory nod to all the James Bond casting rumors. The Thor star also got a clever Bruce Banner/The Hulk sketch. But -- as gross as it sounds -- the night belonged to R. Kelly. From Kenan Thompson's brilliant Cold Open to Pete Davidson's bold Weekend Update segment, R. Kelly dominated the show.
The 007 talk came at the very end of the "Can I Play That?" talk show. Idris Elba, Cecily Strong, and Beck Bennett played a game -- produced by Twitter, so there's a hint -- answering whether certain actors can play certain roles in this day and age. The final round was "Can You Play James Bond?" and Elba's character said he knew the answer to that one. Host Kenan Thompson gave him a look. "Do you, though?" #Classic
Here's "The Impossible Hulk" sketch, with a modern twist on The Hulk origin story. Cecily Strong is so good at playing unhinged.
LET GO OF MY ARM.
Idris Elba wasn't part of the Cold Open -- the host usually isn't -- and it wasn't a political one this week. Instead, Leslie Jones played Gayle King as Kenan Thompson took on the role of R. Kelly for a spoof on the real interview. This should be on Thompson's Emmy reel:
The other major R. Kelly headline from the show went to Pete Davidson, who called out hypocrisy all over the place from the Weekend Update desk. He compared supporting the Catholic church to being an R. Kelly fan. "I don't really see the difference, only like one's music is significantly better." Better than just boycotting everything, he argued, is to just acknowledge the "bad people" involved by name, and give a dollar to a charity that helps sexual assault survivors every time you listen to songs from someone like R. Kelly or Michael Jackson.
Pete Davidson also perfectly called out the age gap hypocrisy from people obsessed with his relationship with Kate Beckinsale. If anyone has questions about a big age difference in a relationship, he said, they can go ask [very long list of famous men dating much younger women].
Pete Davidson is on a roll lately. Check out more videos from the March 9 show at SNL's YouTube.
Good news: Sandra Oh is hosting next on March 30, which is a week before the premiere of Killing Eve Season 2. She's hot off her co-hosting gig at the 2019 Golden Globe Awards. Since she's a TV star, does this mean SNL is finally easing into letting more TV stars host the show? Usually they try to focus on someone promoting a movie.
So it sounds like SNL will be on repeats for the next couple of weeks until Sandra Oh arrives. Check out what else is still airing out there during midseason 2019.
