SNL: Amy Poehler and Aubrey Plaza Reprise Parks and Rec Characters on Weekend Update — Watch Video
If you like your comedy nostalgic, this week’s Saturday Night Live has a twofer for you. Former cast member Amy Poehler made two appearances to support her Parks and Recreation co-star Aubrey Plaza, who hosted for the first time. And, on Weekend Update, they both reprised their roles from that beloved show.
In the years since her career-defining role as the sarcastic and laconic April Ludgate, Plaza has been playing a variety of roles intended to show off her acting chops. Indeed, all throughout this episode, she plays a death-dropping robot, an insane pageant contestant, a screaming Puerto Rican hotelier, a sexed-up housewife, a lapsed Catholic nun and a bro-ey blue alien. Her range puts her in the upper echelon of SNL hosts as far as sketch performance goes. But clearly, she hasn’t lost her knack for playing deadpan and outwardly cynical public servants.
After reeling off a list of government jobs requiring little to no effort (“Be a dog catcher and just say you couldn’t find any”), she brings on Poehler as Leslie Knope. As you would expect, Leslie is awed by Studio 8H. She grills Colin Jost about hosting Weekend Update and it turns out she’s a fan of one era in particular: “I used to watch this when Seth Myers did it by himself with no one else,” a reference to the years in which she used to co-host Update.
What comes next is a delightful throwback to the Seth and Amy years as she passes over two jokes deemed “too mean” and instead chooses a joke involving puppies, civil rights, and an adorable dog wearing glasses and a hat. April and Leslie do the sign-off instead of the regular hosts, which makes the sweet and perfect end to an exceptionally feel-good Update.
Elsewhere in the episode, Bowen Yang tackled the truth-challenged George Santos, while Plaza gave us a surprise backstage tour during her opening monologue.
Did you love the Parks and Rec reunion? Grade the episode below, then let us know in the comments.
One of the most boring episodes on SNL.
This episide was outstanding
I was so disappointed in this episode of SNL. They way overplayed the George Santos guy. It seems like their skits are becoming one joke repeated over and over and … I hope they get their groove back.
She did a fantastic job. She’s absolutely hilarious, and I loved the P&R reunion!
Was disappointed with the episode. You have someone as fearless as Aubrey Plaza is and you give her mostly tame sketches. The only sketch that seemed like it was written with Plaza in mind was the New Neighbor Board Game one. The rest felt like generic scripts written for anyone. I wanted to see more sketches tailored to Plaza the way Don Pauly seemed made for Bill Burr or Potato Hole was made for Dave Chappelle.
Why did I think that would be funny? Shame on me.
I was hoping for a “surprise” walk-on by Pratt and/or Offerman, too. Oh, well. Good episode.