For the second episode of Saturday Night Live in 2023, Michael B. Jordan, star of the Creed franchise, hosted for the first time with musical guest Lil Baby.
The cold open featured Mikey Day as Attorney General Merrick Garland, who made light of classified documents found in former presidents homes, but made Garland out to seem more serious and tough than his demeanor implies. Day (as Garland) said, “I may look like I was born in a library, but there is something you should know: Merrick Garland don’t play.” The opening ended with a reference to Tyre Nichols and the recent release of videos confirming police brutality, this time in Memphis.
For his monologue, Michael B. Jordan wore a plum colored suit, offering that “Tonight, Michael B. Hosting. Michael B. Nervous. Michael B. Vulnerable. Michael will be aight.” Reaffirming that he was indeed single, Jordan had a playful monologue, with female cast members coming to the stage hitting on him, including Ego Nwodim in a full wedding dress.
The first sketch of the night was one of the strongest, with a ‘Good Morning Today’ TV show with a premise of a cooking segment being conducted by a reporter (Sarah Sherman) and weatherman (Jordan) both of whom were stuck on a roller coaster for 19 hours at full speed. Sherman ran with this out-there concept that has been present this season more than in recent memory, using her eccentric talent and joining the ranks of past female physical comedy cast members, among them Kristin Wiig, Cheri Oteri, Molly Shannon and Gilda Radner.
The first song from GRAMMY winning trap rapper Lil Baby performed “California Breeze” from his October 2022 album It’s Only Me. With a live four-piece band, Lil Baby wore a green basket weave coat
while performing on a red-lit stage that look like you were staring into wreckage, with a giant crack through middle of the set.
Lil Baby appeared on Saturday Night Live back in 2019 during DJ Khaled’s set, joining Lil Wayne, John Legend, Meek Mill, SZA and others as a tribute to Nipsey Hussle, who was fatally shot in Los Angeles months before.
Weekend Update felt a little short this week, but did welcome back Angel (Heidi Gardner) as ‘every boxer’s girlfriend from every movie about boxing ever.’ This led to Jordan appearing as Adonis Creed from the Creed films, of which the third installment is out in March.
The second performance from Lil Baby on this week’s Saturday Night Live was the song “Forever” on the same blue hued same stage but with only a pianist and rapper Fridayy projected onto the wall behind Lil Baby and singing the chorus. Fridayy appears on the studio version, and also produced the track alongside Bizness Boi & Fortune.
Of note, earlier this week, a unionized group of post production workers at Saturday Night Live authorized a strike so as to expedite negotiations on their first contract, which they report as having stalled. The group is unionized with the IATSE-affiliated Motion Picture Editors Guild last year and handles post-production on pretaped sketches, including music videos and commercial parodies. There were still three pre-taped sketches this week, and two last week, so it may be possible that SNL will be even more live in coming weeks if the strike does take place.
SNL is back on February 4 with host Pedro Pascal and musical guest Coldplay.
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