Saturday Night Live legends Tina Fey, John Mulaney, Tom Hanks, Paul Rudd, Alec Baldwin and more returned to Studio 8H on Saturday for Martin Short‘s induction into the show’s Five-Timers club.
SNL‘s Five-Timers club commemorates those who have hosted the legendary sketch show five times. The group honors new inductees with a special robe-like jacket, often with large groups of fellow famous hosts there to mark the occasion.
Hanks — who joined the club in 1990 — opened Saturday night’s episode wearing his own jacket. Soon the rest of the group appeared: Rudd, Fey, Baldwin, Kristen Wiig, Scarlett Johansson, Emma Stone, Melissa McCarthy and John Mulaney. Jimmy Fallon also made an appearance, as the ceremonial “jacket boy” — someone who is not a member of the club but there to present the actual clothing.
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Hanks offered a brief history of the Five-Timers, saying it eventually became “an ingeniously lazy way to avoid writing a monologue.”
Fallon told Short “I am so happy to be here for this moment, so I would like to present to you the official Five Timer’s Club jacket in exactly your size — a women’s small.”
Upon her entrance, Short told Fey that “you are one of the rarest things in Hollywood, a writer who’s attractive enough to be on camera.” She quipped back at him that “you’re one of the least rare things in Hollywood, a loud man.”
Fey also conducted a test before the Only Murders in the Building star’s induction. “Name three current castmembers,” she said. “No idea,” Short said. “Correct and that was the whole test,” Fey joked.
Johannson’s entrance was marked by an appearance from her husband, SNL‘s “Weekend Update” host Colin Jost. The couple received especially loud cheers from the audience. Later in the episode, Jost’s “Weekend Update” co-host Michael Che forced his friend to read several obscene jokes about his wife during their beloved “joke swap” segment. “Oh my gosh, she’s so genuinely worried,” Jost said when the camera cut to a feed of Johansson watching from backstage.
In his monologue after the commercial break, Short acknowledged the absence of his Only Murders co-star (and fellow Five-Timer) Steve Martin. “He would have been here tonight,” Short joked. “But he had a conflict — with me not wanting him to be here.” Short also thanked SNL producer Lorne Michaels for having him, and quipped: “We’re kind of like Trump and Elon Musk, without the sexual tension.”
The star-studded night is on theme with SNL‘s current season, which is its 50th since it premiered in 1975 and has seen many fan-favorite hosts and castmembers return. NBC is set to roll out the red carpet for February’s official anniversary, with a three-hour primetime special set for Feb. 16 (a Sunday!), a four-episode docuseries, a music documentary and more celebrations.
