The 50th anniversary special for “Saturday Night Live” began with music generations colliding, with Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter singing “Homeward Bound.”
Simon told the audience it was a song he first sang with former Beatle George Harrison in 1976.
“I was not born then, and neither were my parents,” Carpenter told Simon & Garfunkel alum.
The “Please, Please, Please” singer then sang the song as a duet, before comedy legend Steve Martin took the stage to give a host’s traditional monologue.
“Lorne told me I was doing the monologue … on a friend’s boat down on the Gulf of Steve Martin,” the “Only Murders in the Building” star joked.
Martin also gave a shoutout to the show’s writers “in the crowd,” who were shown outside in the rain.
“By the way, that tribute to the writers was written by AI,” Martin joked.
#SNL50 monologue! pic.twitter.com/1L4xgiZ9r1
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) February 17, 2025
The “Father of the Bride” star was then joined by John Mulaney who joked that the celebrity hosts were the most important part of the show.
“If I look around, I see some of the most difficult people I have ever worked with in my life,” Mulaney joked.
Mulaney, who was a writer on “SNL” from 2008 to 2013, also dropped an amazing stat about the hosts of the show.
“Over the course of 50 years, 894 people have hosted ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and it amazes me that only two of them have committed murder,” the comedian noted, alluding to the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, who hosted the show in 1978, and actor Robert Blake, who hosted the show in 1982 and was convicted of murdering his second wife in civil court in 2005. “Each week, a new celebrity host comes in with their own dynamic, and they throw everything off. But not you, Steve, because you have no dynamic.”
Martin Short then took the stage, and was shortly after taken away by ICE officers for being a Canadian.
“We’ve been working together so long we could actually finish each other’s careers,” Martin joked.
The “SNL 50: The Anniversary Celebration” began airing live on NBC and Peacock at 8 p.m. ET, and is featuring many of the show’s most famous cast members and hosts.
Martin Short chatted with Access Hollywood’s Emily Orozco on the red carpet ahead of “SNL50: The Anniversary Special.”
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