Each week during the TV season, Saturday Night Live introduces fans to the upcoming hosts with fun, amusing and sometimes awkward promotional videos. This week, James Franco is gearing up to host and you can watch him verbally spar with former “Weekend Update” anchor Cecily Strong in what may very well be the weirdest, most awkward SNL promo we’ve ever seen. Check it out.
In the video, James Franco announces he’s set to host this week before he and Cecily Strong take overly dramatic poses, pretending to be lovers, similar to what you’d see in an old romance film. Just look at that acting prowess.
The joke is, Franco thinks Cecily is a beautiful young woman named Cecilia that he is having a torrid love affair with. She eventually corrects him, and they have the world’s strangest “see you later” kind of conversation. As I noted prior, it’s one of the most watchable SNL promos I’ve ever seen, but it’s also super bizarre, which I guess is about what we can expect from a dude who has also published fiction and produced music, not to mention sold 11K worth of “invisible art.”
James Franco actually has a pretty long history with Saturday Night Live. He once spent a week on set, producing a documentary about the late night sketch comedy series that later became available via Hulu.This weekend’s episode will actually mark the third time that James Franco has hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live. The first time the actor hosted was way back in 2008. Franco then went on to host an episode again in 2009 and has popped up on the late night show in cameos a couple of times since. This time around, the actor is promoting his upcoming movie The Interview, also starring Seth Rogen and he’ll pop up onstage opposite musical guest star Nicki Minaj.
Saturday Night Live is in the middle of a huge 40th Anniversary season. So far, we’ve seen big names like Chris Pratt, Chris Rock, Sarah Silverman, Prince and more pop up, but big names aren’t the only thing NBC has for this special anniversary season. In February, the network plans to premiere a 40th anniversary special featuring many of the key Not Ready For Primetime players over the years. In addition, former musical guests and guests hosts will also make appearances. We still have a couple of months before that big shindig happens, but in the meantime you can catch James Franco on SNL this Saturday at 11:30 p.m. ET.
