Saturday night was filled with laughter as actor Jonathan Majors made his debut on Saturday Night Live.
Majors is best known for his role in HBO’s “Lovecraft Country.” He is also starring in Netflix’s newest film, “The Harder They Fall.” In his opening monologue, Majors explained that his journey was hard work and that he’s even surprised he had the opportunity to host SNL.
“I mean, it’s been a crazy journey. When I was 17, I was homeless, living in my car, working at Red Lobster and Olive Garden,” he said. “But you know what? I learned from that experience. You know what I learned? That Red Lobster and Olive Garden are owned by the same parent company, so you can work at both places with no problem.”
Advertisement
He then reminded the audience that Chris Rock and Nicki Minaj also worked at Red Lobster before breaking into the industry.
In the cold open, SNL was not afraid to poke fun at Senator Ted Cruz with a sketch called “Ted Cruz Street,” which is a play on the children’s show “Sesame Street.” (Cruz recently criticized Big Bird, a fictional character from the show, for getting vaccinated.)
SNL Cast member Aidy Bryant played the US Senator from Texas in the sketch, which featured jokes about vaccinations and taking ivermectin.. “Cruz” went on to say “Ted Cruz Street” is “a gated community where kids are safe from the woke government.”
In another sketch, cast member Kenan Thompson and Majors played hosts for a mock show called “Stranger Kid Tales.” The duo sat down with children to learn more about the supernatural observations that they were experiencing.
Aside from the sketches, viewers were entertained by Taylor Swift as the musical guest. The singer recently released a re-recording of her 2012 album “Red,” and fans were in for a treat as Swift sang a 10-minute version of “All Too Well,” a much longer song than SNL typically features.
Advertisement
Next week, Simu Liu will host the show, and Saweetie will perform.
Allana J. Barefield can be reached at allana.barefield@globe.com.