Saturday Night Live got into the Christmas spirit last night, with SNL vet Martin Short hosting and Paul McCartney serving as music guest. The episode had a number of highlights, starting with the cold open, which featured a very moving performance of "Silent Night."
It's not often that SNL moves me to tears, but in the wake of the tragedy in Connecticut on Friday, starting this week's holiday-themed episode with a performance of "Silent Night" from the New York City Children's Chorus seemed fitting and particularly moving. The episode moved on to laughs from there, starting with the cold open, which had Short performing a musical number. SNL's been overusing the musical entrance this season, but Short's performance, and the guest stars featured (Samuel L. Jackson, Kristen Wiig, Tina Fey and Tom Hanks among them), were pretty great regardless.
Unfortunately, that video's not among the highlights NBC released today, but up ahead, you will find the "Charlie Brown Christmas Sketch," the "Holiday Pageant" sketch and Paul McCartney performing "My Valentine." Also ahead is the "What's Up With That" sketch, which if you watched it live, included Samuel L. Jackson dropping an F-bomb (or a partial one) in outrage for having been repeatedly cut off and eventually bumped for time. The video mutes out Jackson's expletive, but it's still funny to see Kenan Thompson's DeAndre Cole's reaction to it.
Finally, there's the "Malibu High" sketch, which was featured during the dress rehearsal, but didn't make it into last night's episode. Catch those videos and a few more ahead!
Silent Night Cold Open
Royal Family Doctor
Paul McCartney: My Valentine
Weekend Update: Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy
What Up With That? Christmas Spectacular
Holiday Pageant
Dress Rehearsal: Malibu High
