I Predicted The Premise Of A 'Saturday Night Live' Promo That Took It Further
Maya Maya Maya Maya and Apollo’s gift of prophecy
On Thursday, May 2, Maya Rudolph and Jake Gyllenhaal were respectively announced to host the final two episodes, airing May 11 and 18, of the 49th season of Saturday Night Live. They’re both third-timers and some called them boring choices. I personally snarked that the seven-season alum had “been in storage since Christmas and is now getting freed like Kristen was”, as Rudolph and Kristen Wiig had cameoed several (a few? A couple each?) times in Kate McKinnon’s debut hosting gig in December (with musical guest Billie Eilish), and Wiig hosted the April 6 episode with Raye as her musical guest. Come Wednesday, things got uncanny.
Wednesday saw the show’s socials post the scripted narrative promo for Maya’s episode. Cast members Andrew Dismukes and Chloe Troast are roaming the halls, about to converse about their anticipation for summer. They spot a light out of an unfamiliar door, and open it to find Maya in a closet wearing a colonial era outfit making soup. She wasn’t expecting visitors. Chloe asks how long she’s been in there. She answers not with “since Christmas”, but far far beyond: 2007, claiming she never left. Her last episode as a cast member was the November 3 episode that year with former NBC News anchor Brian Williams as host and Feist as musical guest. It was the last episode before this century's first Writers Guild of America strike began. Of course, jokes go for funny more than factual, as not only has she hosted two previous times, she’s made numerous cameos, with nine non-hosting appearances to play eventual Vice President Kamala Harris alone (her tenth time was during her March 2021 hosting gig), and plenty that fall under neither. But hey, why would she leave? She has books! And porridge! And her friend Kenny! Upon hearing she’s hosting, she has Andrew and Chloe close the door, jumpscaring them in a quick change and walking away, acknowledging none of it.
This was more screentime than Troast got in the most recent episode with host and musical guest Dua Lipa, where she was not in any of its sketches. It’s considered a shut out. Vampire Weekend is this weekend’s musical guest, while Gyllenhaal hosts next week’s season finale with Sabrina Carpenter as his musical guest. Watch the promo below
