Saturday Night Live (TV Program)

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    An ‘S.N.L.’ Secret Weapon Retires After 50 Years

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    Stephen DeMaria has overseen the building of “Saturday Night Live” scenery since the show began. At 87, he finally hung up his hammer.The Stiegelbauer workshop, where Stephen DeMaria coordinated the construction of sets for “Saturday Night Live,” is in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, miles from 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Geographically, and in the minds of “S.N.L.” fans, DeMaria’s name was always far removed from the prestige and glamour of the show that has defined American comedy since 1975. But while most viewers have never heard of him, he has spent 50 years setting the scenes for the show’s most memorable moments.And now he is done. DeMaria, known as “Demo” in the shop, retired after the 50th season finale, May 17. The day before, the white-haired, 87-year-old carpenter was leaning over his drafting table, inspecting blueprints and fiddling with the No. 2 pencil usually found behind his ear. For DeMaria and his crew, the show had already begun.Stiegelbauer Associates Inc. is a cross between a shop class and a late-night museum: A Rainbow Room marquee hangs above a workbench; a leftover airplane set sits plastic-wrapped; photos of past sets installed in the show’s Studio 8H are framed on every wall.During show weeks, sets are assembled all over the shop by an eclectic crew of craftspeople, many of whom have worked on “S.N.L.” for decades. As the foreman, DeMaria coordinates the teams assigned to build the sets designed at 30 Rock. Then he oversees the construction, moseying through the shop and kicking up sawdust with his cane as he checks in at the workstations.The cane was the result of an injury he suffered at an end-of-season celebration last year: After a night of tearing up the dance floor, he fell off a curb and broke his hip.“The best time of my life is the ‘S.N.L.’ parties,” he said. “I’ll be on the dance floor when I get there, and I won’t leave until 5 in the morning.” His favorite, he said, was the 2012 end-of-season party, after an episode hosted by Mick Jagger. “He was dancing all over the studio, so I got involved,” DeMaria recalled. “I was dancing with Mick Jagger!”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Best of ‘S.N.L.’ Season 50: Trump, Biden and Domingo

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      The just-completed 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” was dominated by anniversary hype, but the new episodes managed to create some memorable moments, too.In a season so heavily focused on celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live,” it was easy to forget that there were also 21 regular episodes of the show this year.While not every sketch from this run will go down in history, this year “S.N.L.” did cover a contentious presidential election and reckon with the re-election of Donald Trump; create an unexpected online trend by ruining a couple’s impending marriage; and allow Timothée Chalamet to appear as both a host and a musical guest.Will we someday talk about these segments with the same reverence we reserve for the Coneheads or “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood”? That will be the job of some future recapper to decide. (Hopefully.) For now, join us as we look back at the most memorable moments of the past season of “S.NL.”Political impressions of the seasonAfter abundant speculation about who would play the Democratic presidential and vice-presidential nominees, the results — with Maya Rudolph as former Vice President Harris and Jim Gaffigan as Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota — were mostly lackluster. The performances were too amiable and not particularly satirical (much like the real-life Harris’s own appearance on the show).James Austin Johnson has remained a dependable President Trump. But we’ll give the edge this season to the “S.N.L.” alums Dana Carvey, who finally found a funny way to play President Biden, and Mike Myers, who seemed to be having the time of his life skewering Elon Musk. Two ’90s-era “S.N.L.” stalwarts remaining relevant? No way! Way.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      On ‘S.N.L.’, Bad Bunny and Scarlett Johansson Have a Couples’ Feud

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      This weekend’s broadcast, hosted by Scarlett Johansson and featuring the musical guest Bad Bunny, began with a sendup of President Trump’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.There was only one way for the final episode of the milestone 50th season of “Saturday Night Live” to begin: with Lorne Michaels announcing that his chosen successor will be — nah, come on, it was another sketch with James Austin Johnson playing President Trump.This weekend’s broadcast, hosted by Scarlett Johansson and featuring the musical guest Bad Bunny, began with a sendup of President Trump’s recent visit to the Middle East.Sharing the stage with Emil Wakim (who was playing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia), Johnson said that he’d been enjoying their meals together, “sitting on the floor, dipping our fingers straight into various goops and spreads that I politely scrape under the rug and go eat at a mobile McDonald’s that you built for me.”He added that he was a “big fan of everything that Saudi Arabia has to offer, from the oil to the money to end of list.”Johnson vowed that he didn’t make this trip for his own benefit. “I want to make that clear,” he said. “I did this for the American people and, in many ways, myself. My personal enrichment. I did that too.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘S.N.L.’: Toasting Moms and Toasted Trump Appointees

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      Cecily Strong returns as Jeanine Pirro, Walt Goggins shows off his clogging, and a dope new pope appears in the 50th season’s penultimate episode.If you’re going to celebrate the election of a new pope, you might as well have some sacramental wine, too.Cecily Strong returned to “Saturday Night Live” in a guest appearance to reprise her role as the Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro — and to douse Colin Jost, her former Weekend Update desk mate, in alcohol. Alcohol that emanated directly from her own mouth.How the opening sketch of this weekend’s “S.N.L.” broadcast (which was hosted by Walton Goggins and featured the musical guest Arcade Fire) arrived at this place will take a moment to explain.The sketch began with what looked like a traditional Mother’s Day tribute, with the cast members Kenan Thompson, Bowen Yang and Marcello Hernández singing an affectionate serenade to their real-life moms, who joined them onstage.But no: This was just a setup for James Austin Johnson to enter the scene as President Trump, holding forth in free-association style on the past week’s news.“There’s a new pope from Chicago,” Johnson said, noting the Roman Catholic Church’s selection of Robert Francis Prevost, who took the name Pope Leo XIV.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘S.N.L.’: Trump Celebrates 100 Years (Oops! Days) in Office

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      The Sharpie that never runs dry takes aim at interracial couples in commercials and a declaration normalizing May-December romances.In the first 100 days of his second term, President Trump has already signed more executive orders than any other modern president, and this weekend, “Saturday Night Live” offered its suggestions for even more.This broadcast, hosted by Quinta Brunson and featuring the musical guest Benson Boone, started with a rousing voice-over proclaiming that Trump’s first 100 days “have been the most dynamic since F.D.R.”During that same interval in the 1930s, the voice-over said, President Franklin D. Roosevelt “created vital government departments, forged new alliances and established our nation’s social safety net.”President Trump, the voice-over added, “did the same thing, only in reverse.”Enter James Austin Johnson, in his recurring role as Trump, congratulating himself for these accomplishments.“It’s me, your favorite president and perhaps your next pope,” he said. “Conclave! Well, it’s been 100 years since I became president. Excuse me, days. Wow, feels longer.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Interview’: Nate Bargatze Doesn’t Mind if You Think He’s an Idiot

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      It’s often the case that when stand-up comedians seize the public’s attention, it’s because they exude a sense of danger. They say what others don’t have the nerve to say, about topics others won’t raise, in language others never use. There’s an aura of transgressive truth-telling around this type of comedy star, best exemplified by the likes of Richard Pryor, Chris Rock and Hannah Gadsby — people who met the moment fearlessly.In this moment, though, one so sorely in need of fearless truth-telling, Nate Bargatze has rocketed to stardom by doing pretty much the opposite. Low-key and G-rated, his comedy traffics in comfortably relatable stories about the foibles of family life, his confusion with modern living and being a bit of a dim bulb. He is hardly the first clean stand-up to achieve tremendous success (though stylistic antecedents like Jerry Seinfeld and Ray Romano were able to ride a bygone wave of smash network sitcoms), but he has done it with no hits to his comedic credibility. It’s instructive, I think, that both my mother-in-law, hardly an aficionado of stand-up, and my best friend, a snob when it comes to the form, were excited to learn I was interviewing Bargatze.The gentle and inclusive approach of Bargatze, a 46-year-old Tennessee native, helped make his tour last year the highest-grossing one by a comedian. Two widely praised turns hosting “Saturday Night Live” (you may have seen his viral sketch “Washington’s Dream”) raised his profile outside the world of stand-up. Just this week, CBS announced that he has been tapped to host the Emmy Awards in September. And he is also branching out with a book, the self-deprecatingly titled “Big Dumb Eyes: Stories From a Simpler Mind,” which will be published on May 6. Such self-deprecation is a Bargatze trademark, but, as I learned, it also conceals some bold ambitions.The stand-up comic discusses having a magician for a father, the challenge of mainstream comedy and his aspirations to build the next Disneyland.Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon | iHeart | NYT Audio AppIt’s interesting to read articles about you since your career has really taken off. The writers always try to explain why you’ve gotten so big. What’s your hunch about that? Talking about relatable things and authenticity. Not that I’m going out for authenticity. But you’re in a world where you have the “Wicked”s and these “Avengers” movies — and that’s great, but there’s not a regular person on a screen anymore. Movies used to be like “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” and “Home Alone”: That’s a regular guy in this movie that you enjoy watching. It’s easier to take in. And you don’t always want to be thought-provoked. That’s something I’ve tried to stay clear of because I’m trying to sell you something. I need you to be able to come and trust that you’re going to get the entertainment that I am showing you that I am selling you.You said you’re selling something, which is an interesting thing to hear. That’s true for just about everyone in the entertainment business, but usually people aren’t explicit in saying it. Why do you think there’s hesitation on the part of some entertainers to say, “I’m selling something”? It’s got this weird self-importance: “I have a platform, so I need to say something.” I’m anti-platform. If I want to give you my opinion and tell you what I think, that’s about me. When I go onstage, I try to remind myself this night’s not about me. If it becomes about me, it’s too much. I can’t handle it. But if I can make it for other people, now I’m an employee and I’m working. It’s not about my self-importance. More

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      ‘White Lotus’ Star Aimee Lou Wood Criticizes SNL for ‘Mean’ Sketch

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      The actress in HBO’s “The White Lotus,” said she had received thousands of messages of support after “Saturday Night Live” mocked her smile.Aimee Lou Wood, a star of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” has criticized “Saturday Night Live” for a sketch that mocked her smile, calling it “mean and unfunny.”Ms. Wood, a British actress, posted on Instagram on Sunday objecting to the sketch, in which the S.N.L. cast member Sarah Sherman impersonates Ms. Wood’s character while wearing large prosthetic teeth.“I am not thin skinned,” Ms. Wood, 31, wrote in one of a series of posts on her Instagram stories, adding that she loves being joked about when “it’s clever and in good spirits.” But “the joke was about fluoride. I have big gap teeth not bad teeth,” she wrote.In a subsequent post, Ms. Wood said she had received “apologies” from S.N.L. but did not elaborate. Representatives for Ms. Wood and NBC, which broadcasts S.N.L., did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The sketch, titled “The White POTUS,” imagined the show’s characters replaced by President Trump and members of his cabinet. Ms. Wood, who is from Manchester, England, also criticized Ms. Sherman’s impersonation of her Mancunian accent.After her initial posts, Ms. Wood said that she had since received thousands of messages of support. She shared what appeared to be one such message, which said: “It was a sharp and funny skit until it suddenly took a screeching turn into 1970’s misogyny.”The third season of “The White Lotus,” which concluded this month and was the series’s most popular yet, follows wealthy guests and staff members at a wellness resort in Thailand. Among the guests is Chelsea, played by Ms. Wood, a young romantic British woman who is dating an enigmatic older American.Ms. Wood has been celebrated for her natural smile, especially at a time when many celebrities are opting for veneers to achieve “perfect” teeth. But in a recent interview with GQ magazine, she said that the news media’s focus on her appearance in coverage of the most recent season of “The White Lotus” had made her feel uncomfortable, even if the attention was intended to be positive.“It makes me really happy that it’s symbolizing rebellion and freedom, but there’s a limit,” she told the magazine. “The whole conversation is just about my teeth, and it makes me a bit sad because I’m not getting to talk about my work.”“I don’t know if it was a man would we be talking about it this much?” she added. More

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      ‘SNL’ Pokes Fun at Trump’s Tariffs and Economy Chaos in Easter Cold Open

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      Among the sources of all the fun is ‘The White POTUS,” a parody that casts members of the administration in their own twisted playground for the privileged.With Easter approaching, it seemed appropriate for “Saturday Night Live” to resurrect a favorite bit: a scene from the Bible that is interrupted by a comic monologue from James Austin Johnson playing President Trump.This weekend’s broadcast, hosted by Jon Hamm and featuring the musical guest Lizzo, began with what looked like a straightforward re-enactment of the Cleansing of the Temple, with the role of Jesus played by Mikey Day. “This will not stand,” Day said, overturning a money changer’s table. “I will rid this place of all its money.”The action paused so that Johnson could enter as Trump. “Remind you of anyone?” he asked. “Wow. I also got rid of money last week. But instead of one temple, I did whole country. Maybe even the globe. The money’s gone.”Johnson continued: “Hi, it’s me, your favorite president, Donald Jesus Trump, comparing myself to the son of God once again. You know, many people are even calling me the messiah, because of the mess-I-ah made out of the economy.”The financial turmoil, he said, was “all because of my beautiful tariffs — they’re so beautiful. They were working so well that I had to stop them.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      UK Version of ‘Saturday Night Live’ Will Start in 2026

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      A British version of the television sketch comedy program “Saturday Night Live” is set to debut in 2026.“Saturday Night Live” is coming to Britain.A British version of NBC’s late-night comedy sketch show is set to premiere next year on Sky, the broadcaster announced on Thursday. The new edition of the program will have Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator, as executive producer and will feature “a star-studded lineup of hosts.”The familiar catchphrase used to kick off the weekly show will be slightly modified: “Live from London, it’s Saturday night!”Sky said the show would follow a similar format to the American version, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary. It will star a yet-to-be-announced cast of British comedians who will perform sketches, alongside rotating hosts and featured musical acts.“For over 50 years, Saturday Night Live has held a unique position in TV and in our collective culture,” Cécile Frot-Coutaz, the chief executive of Sky Studios, said in the announcement.“The show has discovered and nurtured countless comedy and musical talents over the years, and we are thrilled to be partnering with Lorne and the ‘S.N.L.’ team to bring an all-British version of the show to U.K. audiences.”The remake comes after years of speculation that a British version of the comedy show was in the works. Versions of the program have already been produced around the world, including in Germany, Spain, Italy, China, Japan, South Korea and Egypt. More