Free Republic

When Norm Macdonald closed out his Dec. 13, 1997, "Weekend Update," the Saturday Night Live star had no idea he’d never sit at the "Update" desk again. Nobody at Saturday Night Live knew that Macdonald would be fired from his job as SNL’s fake newsreader before the show returned from its holiday hiatus or that Colin Quinn would be installed in Macdonald’s place. Saturday Night Live is all about cast turnover. Still, Macdonald’s three-and-a-half year reign as the deadpan anchor of SNL’s venerable midshow centerpiece took viewers, cast members and even Macdonald completely by surprise. That “and-a-half” segment of Macdonald’s...

Elon Musk took the Studio 8H stage over the weekend for his Saturday Night Live hosting debut and, as many expected, there was a lot of cryptocurrency talk. The controversial tech mogul had fans and critics debating the choice to tap him as a host in the lead-up to Saturday’s episode. However, one of the biggest questions was whether or not he’d mention Dogecoin, the satirical cryptocurrency that has skyrocketed in the wake of his repeated online endorsements. As it turns out, Dogecoin — and cryptocurrency in general — actually played a prominent role in the episode. Apart from a...

“Saturday Night Live” cast members won’t be forced to appear alongside controversial billionaire Elon Musk when he hosts the show, Page Six is told. “Speaking historically, if a cast member has been that unhappy, they don’t have to do it,” a source told us. “[‘SNL’ boss Lorne Michaels] won’t ever make them do anything they don’t want to do.” The Tesla founder, 49, is set to helm the NBC institution on May 8 — but some cast members have made it clear that they’re less than enthused by the prospect of having him on stage at Studio 8H. After Musk...

“Saturday Night Live” made light of Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis during the Season 46 premiere’s “Weekend Update” segment. Hosts Colin Jost and Michael Che returned to the “Weekend Update” desk for the first time since the pandemic shut down production on the long-running NBC sketch show. They immediately jumped on the opportunity to mock the president for contracting the potentially deadly virus after downplaying the severity of the pandemic for months. The hosts pulled no punches in their rebuke, mocking Trump just hours after it was announced that he was taken to Walter Reed Medical Center for treatment.

Norm Macdonald, in addition to being the best Weekend Update anchor ever, is also a keen student of human nature. Last year he summed up the results of the 2016 presidential election with this koan-like observation: "People hated Hillary Clinton so much that they voted for someone they hated more than Hillary Clinton in order to rub it in." I really think that sums up our current moment. A lot of people, myself included, underestimated just how tired of Hillary everyone was. After a quarter-century of listening to that awful old criminal's angry, scolding voice, America finally said enough was...