The episode featured a scathing sketch directed at Scientology.
Michael Keaton marked his third time hosting Saturday Night Live this weekend, where he played an advertising exec with a pierced belly button, a confused grandfather and even his iconic characters from Batman and Beetlejuice.
The cold open mocked the NCAA's focus on athletic over academics, with a Duke student deciding to skip Monday's championship game because he has a test the next day. "College is the most important year of your life," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski (Taran Killam) told his students.
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In his monologue, Keaton acknowledged that a lot has changed since he first hosted the show in 1982. "I had a baby — he's 31. I also have a new girlfriend — she's 28," he joked. Killam and Bobby Moynihan then belted out a song in which they tried to convince the actor to "play Batman" with them. After the two castmembers aired a doctored video in which Keaton appeared to be dressed as the DC hero, he finally delivered a couple lines as his beloved creations.
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A sketch mocking CNN featured the network covering the Germanwings crash without doing any actual reporting. This involved a computer-generated mockup of a hand opening a door, along with footage of Muppets portraying politicians.
In a pre-taped sketch that paid homage to films such as She's All That, Keaton was a high school teacher who goes on date with one of his male students.
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A fake ad, in the style of a phone-sex commercial, referenced Easter by encouraging people to call their grandparents. "Remember the time when I walked in on you two, and you both had your little penises out?" Keaton's character asked his adult grandson about an elementary-school friend.
Keaton played the head of an advertising firm in one sketch. He was bleeding profusely from the abdomen due to a piercing mishap and suggested terrible dialogue for his ads, like, "Houston, we have a boner."
The show slammed Scientology, couching its commentary with an 1990s ad for something called the Church of Neurolotogy. The spot revealed that many of the members have gone missing for speaking out against the religion, an allusion to the recent documentary Going Clear.
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Weekend Update featured a joke comparing the situation in Israel to the plot of Lethal Weapon, with host Colin Jost acknowledging that Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu wouldn't love being Mel Gibson in the analogy. "[But] he definitely wouldnt be as upset as Mel Gibson," Jost quipped. Old \-timey critic Jebidiah Atkinson (Killam) also appeared, and The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus made a cameo.
Later sketches involved Keaton playing an eccentric inventor creating a sentient toaster, along with an Easter enthusiast.
Three best sketches of the night
1. CNN Newsroom
2. Neurotology ad
3. Keaton's monologue
We will post video as soon as it becomes available.
Email: Ryan.Gajewski@THR.com
Twitter: @_RyanGajewski
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