‘SNL’ opening monologue pokes fun at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, World Cup

“Saturday Night Live” kicked off the holiday on Dec. 10 with a Christmas-themed episode, hosted by cast members Steve Martin and Martin Short with musical guest Brandi Carlile.

The episode opened with a musical performance by cast members Bowen Yang, Cecily Strong and Kenan Thompson encouraging viewers to get into the Christmas spirit by ignoring sanity, drinking too much and blocking out the bad stuff. , like Elon Musk owning Twitter.

“Elon, why does he own everything? Why does he have to lead Tesla and Twitter? Wasn’t the space enough? Strong sang.

Martin and Short’s opening monologue began by poking fun at each other, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and the World Cup.

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“No one is supporting us, but you’ll tune in to watch anyway,” Short said of their joint gig, linking it to the Thursday premiere of the “Harry & Meghan” docuseries on Netflix.

A veteran SNL host, Martin counted his 15 previous appearances on the show while joking about Short’s three, likening working with Short to the World Cup: something he just can’t get into.

The monologue continued with a bit about each host writing the other’s eulogy and what would be said. With Sarah McLachlan’s ‘In the Arms of an Angel’ playing in the background, the men insulted each other with tongue-in-cheek one-liners before heading to the skits.

Martin said Short’s last words would be “Engage Tesla Autopilot”, while Short joked that Martin would look “still, colorless, stiff, but so realistic”.

Their monologue ended with a brief appearance by actress and singer Selena Gomez, who stepped in when the guest hosts asked who better to be on stage than them.

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Hosts Martin Short and Steve Martin during promos at Studio 8H on Tuesday, December 6, 2022.
(Rosalind O’Connor/NBC via Getty Images)

Every segment of the Dec. 10 show was holiday-related from a PBS Kids skit on snow formation to a gory “sneak peek” of the classic “A Christmas Carol” to “This Way to Meet Santa,” where Martin was Santa Claus and Short played Sprinkles the elf.

At one point, a child (Ego Nwodim) asked Santa for tickets to Taylor Swift, to which Sprinkles (Short) excitedly told him not to ask for them anymore and to “get a job”, apparently mocking of the overwhelming response to tickets for Swift’s next film. “The tour of eras.”

On ‘Weekend Update,’ hosted by Colin Jost and Michael Che, the duo joked about a handful of hot political topics, including Brittney Griner’s release from Russian imprisonment, Kyrsten Sinema’s exit from the Democratic Party and victory by Raphael Warnock on Herschel Walker in the Georgia Senate Runoff.

“I don’t think this is the last you’ll hear from Walker unless he’s your biographical father,” Che said of Walker’s loss.

Che then said the Democratic victory in Georgia now means Vice President Kamala Harris can expect a bigger priority like a “worse bike accident”, referring to President Biden’s downfall earlier in the year.

Later, Che suggested that President Trump’s recent request to end the Constitution could be supplemented by asking “Walker to drive him to the clinic.”

A few sports jokes were tossed around in the satirical news segment. Jost mentioned Morocco’s stunning victory over Portugal at the World Cup, saying it was “the best performance by a team of Africans since unpaid workers built the stadium”.

Che added that Nike cutting ties with Kyrie Irving over anti-Semitic messages left the NBA star ‘so depressed he could jump off the edge of the world’, mocking Irving’s belief that the world is flat .

Anchor Colin Jost and anchor Michael Che during SNL’s Weekend Update.
(Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images)

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“Weekend Update” ended with some holiday shopping advice from Mary Anne Louise Fisher (Ego Nwodim) who compared shopping at the Nordstrom department store during the holidays to touring Iraq.

She also gave tips for holiday shopping, including being black.

“If you’re white and you act like that, someone will take a video and you’ll lose your job,” she said of aggressive shoppers over the holiday season.

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“SNL” returns Dec. 17 for the final episode of 2022 with guest host Austin Butler and musical guest Lizzo. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs were originally scheduled, but had to pull out after guitarist Nick Zinner contracted pneumonia.