I have no idea if Amy Poehler is more fondly remembered for her eight season run on Saturday Night Live or her seven season run on the endlessly rewatchable Parks And Recreation, but her two beloved projects came crashing together last night when she made a surprise appearance. Aubrey Plaza was hosting SNL last night and stopped by Weekend Update as her Parks & Rec character April Ludgate, and luckily for fans, she also brought along her old boss: Poehler’s Leslie Knope.
The point of the sketch originally was for April to explain to young people how they can get involved with local government. Given her personality, she didn’t exactly do it in the most enthusiastic fashion; so, it was up to Leslie Knope to jump in. You can check out the really fun moment below…
This is a great example of, to me, why Amy Poehler is one of my absolute favorite Weekend Update hosts ever. She just has the perfect cadence to how she speaks, which allows it to feel both like a real news broadcast and a comedic performance. She could jump in full-time tomorrow and be just as brilliant as she always was.
Poehler, of course, hosted Weekend Update during portions of her tenure on Saturday Night Live. She first grabbed the job in 2004 and co-hosted alongside Tina Fey. The two women were extremely successful and later partnered on projects outside of SNL like Sisters and the criminally underrated Baby Mama. After Fey left the show, she briefly hosted with Horatio Sanz before establishing another longer term partnership with Seth Meyers. As such, it should come as a surprise to absolutely no one that she delivered her final dog joke to perfection.
As for the rest of the episode, Aubrey Plaza obviously crushed it. The comedian delivered a great parody of The White Lotus called The Black Lotus, as well as a spoof of Avatar and the more traditional sketch comedy you’d expect like a take on couples game nights. Plaza forecasted to be a really good host, given her comedic timing and willingness to get weird, and she lived up to the lofty hopes.
Saturday Night Live has been off for a bit with the holidays, but it’ll be back next week with upcoming host Micahel B Jordan and musical guest Lil Baby. It should be a great episode, though it’ll be the second the cast does without longtime SNL mainstay Cecily Strong. She left the show at the end of the year and of course, received a send-off that was very fitting for someone who had such a terrific impact on the long-running series.
SNL headman Lorne Michaels called this year a transition one at the beginning of the season, and it’s easy to see why. Thankfully, many of the new cast members are continuing to find their footing. It’ll be fun to see the cast continue to come together and gel as we move closer to SNL’s landmark 50th season, which should be filled with tons of fun and I’m sure, tons of returning players from the show’s glorious history.
