Saturday Night Live is back.
The long-running sketch show returned to the airwaves this week for its first episode of 2023. This week’s broadcast featured first-time guest host, Aubrey Plaza, who kicked off the milestone gig with a customary monologue. The 38-year-old actress began her monologue saying she was voted the most famous person in Delaware, beating President Joe Biden. It then cut to a clip of the president himself admitting Plaza was more famous than him. “Aubrey, you’re the most famous person out of Delaware and there’s no question about it,” he said.
Later in her monologue, Plaza decided to take it back to her days as an NBC Page by giving a tour of the SNL studio. She was met with cameos by Kenan Thompson and Amy Poehler. You can watch it below.
Though this week’s episode marked somewhat of a homecoming for Plaza, as she had interned for SNL nearly two decades ago. She recalled her time at Studio 8H during a 2020 interview with TooFab, saying she had very little interaction with the series’ stars.
“When you’re an intern, you’re not really supposed to like make your presence known,” she told the outlet.” No one says that, but it’s kind of an unspoken thing and I definitely was lurking in the shadows.”
She continued: “Amy Poehler was on the season that I interned on in 2005, she was there too and I never met her either. I was an intern in the design department, so I was kinda like the creepy girl taking photographs of the set and running away. I was too shy to talk to any of the cast members but I definitely absorbed as much as I could. I was so excited to be there, it was one of the best experiences of my life.”
2022 marked a banner year for Plaza, thanks in large part to her involvement in White Lotus Season 2. The actress’ portrayal of Harper Spiller garnered critical acclaim, and earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series.
This week’s episode also featured guest musical artist Sam Smith.
