Saturday Night Live closed the books on Season 47 on May 21, with host and native New Yorker Natasha Lyonne with musical guest Japanese Breakfast. The season finale of SNL also brought out a handful of cast departures, including Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Kyle Mooney and Pete Davidson.
The cold open featured Kate McKinnon as recurring character Colleen Rafferty, recounting an alien abduction alongside Cecily Strong and Lyonne to Pentagon officials. McKinnon took this sketch as her swan song, bidding farewell as she boarded a spaceship, saying “Thanks for letting me stay awhile.”
During Lyonne’s monologue, she mentioned her New York born and bred roots – raised in Great Neck, grew up on the Upper East Side – and mentioning how she has been working with SNL cast and alums for years, including Amy Poehler on Russian Doll. She was joined on stage briefly by SNL alums and friends Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph who did their impressions of Lyonne, who herself has a Rodney Dangerfield style of delivery.
For Japanese Breakfast’s first song, Michelle Zauner went with the rhythmic single “Be Sweet” off her 2021 album Jubilee, as neon bulbs hung down from the ceiling.
Weekend Update featured a pair of farewells, with Aidy Bryant saying goodbye next to her frequent sketch and song partner, Bowen Yang, and Pete Davidson, who reflected on his career at SNL and thanked Lorne for giving him a chance. Unfortunately left out of the sendoff mix was Kyle Mooney, who created numerous digital shorts and memorable characters over his 9-year SNL career.
Davidson was also featured in the cut for time sketch “Forgot About Lorne,” a parody of Dr. Dre’s “Forgot about Dre” with Eminem cutting the pre-recorded sketch short to tell Pete to stop these parodies and not do them again.
“Paprika” was the second song from Japanese Breakfast, with Zauner wearing a multi-layered white dress while she struck a gong encircles with flowers. as yellow lightbulbs hung down from the ceiling.
Zauner also appeared in the final sketch of the night, joining McKinnon and Bryant for a singalong of Joni Mitchell’s “The Circle Game” in “Women’s Commercial”
The season finale of SNL was a night of send offs and put a bow on an average season of the NBC franchise. Look back on all our coverage of Saturday Night Live this season here and share your favorite musical guest and sketches in the comments below.
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