Entertainment

Watertown’s Noah Kahan made his SNL debut with host Emma Stone

The “La La Land” actress joined the five-timer’s club last night, alongside Tina Fey and Justin Timberlake.

By Natalie Gale

December 3, 2023

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Oscar-winning actress Emma Stone took to the Studio 8H stage last night to host “Saturday Night Live” for the fifth time — putting her among the ranks of folks like Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, John Mulaney, and Scarlett Johansson. She’s promoting her upcoming Oscar-contending film “Poor Things,” out Dec. 8.

“Stick Season” singer Noah Kahan made his SNL musical guest debut last night. The Grammy Award-nominated Watertown resident will headline two shows at Fenway Park this summer.

Cold Open

Sarah Sherman is CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who cuts to a George Santos press conference. Bowen Yang once again reprises his Santos character — this time to say goodbye, as Santos holds court in front of reporters following the news of his expulsion from the House this week. “This whole country has been bullying me just because I’m a proud, gay, thief,” he laments. He breaks into Elton John’s “Candle in the Wind” towards the end, changing the lyrics, of course.

Monologue

Tina Fey and Candice Bergen join Emma Stone on stage to welcome her into the hallowed SNL five-timers club — at 35, she’s the youngest person ever inducted. They shoot the breeze about the new women’s section of the club and “30 Rock,” and they present Stone with her official five-timer’s club jacket. Which might or might not actually belong to Woody Harrelson. 

Question Quest

Emma Stone, Punky Johnson, and Heidi Gardner are all guests on the game show “Question Quest,” hosted by Michael Longfellow. Stone wins “Speedy,” a tortoise given to Longfellow in his youth, “locking a minor into a 190-year contract.” Stone tries to get rid of her new acquisition but to no avail — she just wins food for the tortoise, too, and Longfellow is free to start his new life. This sketch left us with some new knowledge — Charles Darwin and Steve Irwin both owned the same tortoise, Harriet, who lived to 175.

Fully Naked in New York

Next up is a pre-recorded musical sketch, following New Yorkers as they do the only thing that cheers them up when feeling down — performing manual labor while naked in the middle of the city. Emma Stone and Bowen Yang are garbage truck workers, Marcello Hernadez and Chloe Trost work at a construction site, Chloe Fineman directs traffic, Punkie Johnson removes graffiti, and Sarah Sherman catches rats. The professionally produced song actually sounds pretty good.

Noah Kahan

Noah Kahan, a 26-year-old singer-songwriter who recently shot to fame when his breakup song “Stick Season” blew up, took the SNL stage for the first time last night. He performed both “Stick Season” and “Dial Drunk,” from the reloaded version of his 2022 album.

Weekend Update

Weekend Update saw Colin Jost and Michael Che talk about Lifetime movies, AI, George Santos, Elon Musk, and “Orange Jesus.” Michael Longfellow came on as an old-fashioned cigarette to discuss vape bans.

Make Your Own Kind of Music

It’s live footage from the recording of Mama Cass’s “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” and Emma Stone shines. The Mamas and the Papas singer’s manager (Stone) assures her that this song will be huge, with major airplay. Then, everyone will forget about it for 40 or 50 years until it comes back as the perfect song for movie montages where the main character goes on a violent rampage. Cue Stone’s reenactments.

Posters

Marcello Hernandez is a teenager doing his physics homework — when his posters come alive. Emma Stone (a ditzy pinup girl) and Mikey Day (David Beckham) try to teach Hernandez all about the real-life value of learning physics.