January 31, 2015 Season 40 episode
| |
|---|---|
| Episode | 779 |
| Season Episode | 13 |
| Host | J.K. Simmons |
| Musical Guest(s) | D'Angelo |
| Song(s) performed by Musical Guest(s) |
"Really Love" "The Charade" |
| Previous Episode January 24, 2015 |
Next Episode February 28, 2015 |
The 13th episode of Season 40 and the 779th episode of Saturday Night Live premiered on January 31, 2015, hosted by actor J.K. Simmons, star of the hit films, the Spider-Man trilogy, Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Whiplash, La La Land and Being the Ricardos, with musical guest D'Angelo, a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. This is J.K. Simmons' first-time hosting, as well as his 2nd appearance. This is also the musical guest debut on SNL for D'Angelo.
Cast[]
Main Players[]
- Vanessa Bayer
- Aidy Bryant
- Taran Killam
- Kate McKinnon
- Bobby Moynihan
- Jay Pharoah
- Cecily Strong
- Kenan Thompson
Featured Players[]
Cameos by former longtime cast members Fred Armisen and Jason Sudeikis, plus a Mike O'Brien picture
Sketches and Music Performances[]
Cold Open Sketch Pre-recorded Weekend Update Music Performance Other
| Title | Image | Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Richard Sherman Talk Show Cold Open | Richard Sherman (Jay Pharoah) hosts a talk show with Marshawn Lynch (Kenan Thompson), with guest Pete Carroll (Taran Killam). | |
| Monologue by J.K. Simmons | Hosting for the first time, actor J.K. Simmons parodies his upcoming movie Whiplash by performing a song with Kyle Mooney on drums and Aidy Bryant on keyboards. Simmons replaces Kyle with Pete Davidson, then Leslie Jones, and later longtime former cast member Fred Armisen. | |
| Totino's Super Bowl Activity Pack.For Women! | A housewife (Vanessa Bayer) plugs a pack of activities designed to keep her busy while she waits for her husband (J.K. Simmons) to yell for her to bring something for his Super Bowl party. With Beck Bennett, Bobby Moynihan, and Jay Pharoah. | |
| Miss Trash 2015 | A Miss-America-esque competition where the trashiest woman wins. With J.K. Simmons as host and Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Vanessa Bayer as contestants. | |
| Cinema Classics: Casablanca | Kenan Thompson returns as Reese De'What. With J.K. Simmons as Rick and Kate McKinnon as Ilsa. In an alternate ending of Casablanca, Issa isn't so conflicted about leaving Rick. | |
| Teacher Snow Day | Teachers "enjoy" a day off. With J.K. Simmons, Kenan Thompson, Aidy Bryant, Sasheer Zamata, Leslie Jones, Bobby Moynihan, Jay Pharoah, Kyle Mooney, Cecily Strong, and Pete Davidson. | |
| D'Angelo performs "Really Love" | ||
| Weekend Update with Colin Jost and Michael Che | Cecily Strong returns as The One-Dimensional Female Character From A Male Driven Comedy, and Taran Killam returns as Jebidiah Atkinson. | |
| Microsoft Assistant Pushie | An old man (J.K. Simmons) asks his wife (Aidy Bryant) for help writing a letter in Microsoft Word, because the animated assistant "Pushie" (Bobby Moynihan) is making a mess. (The sketch calls Pushie a replacement for the much-maligned Microsoft Word Paperclip; in reality, the Paperclip had been dropped altogether several years prior.) | |
| A Mike O'Brien Picture: The Jay-Z Story | A Jay-Z biopic with former short-time cast member and writer Mike O'Brien as Jay-Z. Also features Jay Pharoah, Sasheer Zamata as Beyonce, and a cameo by longtime former cast member Jason Sudeikis as Kanye West. | |
| D'Angelo performs "The Charade" | The backing band dons "Black Lives Matter" shirts, and routinely make "hands up, don't shoot" and black power gestures throughout, references to the recent deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. | |
| Career Day | J.K. Simmons is a parent, explaining his job in the sex industry. With Pete Davidson as Jake Runyon, Sasheer Zamata as Rachel Riley, Aidy Bryant and Kyle Mooney as the students Cecily Strong as the teacher, Leslie Jones as Mrs. Riley, Bobby Moynihan as the parent. | |
| Goodbyes and Closing Credits | J.K. Simmons thanked D'Angelo, Fred Armisen, Lorne, the cast, crew and band and everyone. D'Angelo's singers retain their "Black Lives Matter" shirts. The goodbyes segment goes on for an unusually long time, long beyond the end of the credits. |
The episode ran severely short; an extended shot of the band appeared between commercial breaks after "Career Day", and the goodbyes segment was unusually long. In repeats, "Nestspresso" from the November 22, 2014 episode is inserted after "Career Day", allowing the goodbyes to be shortened.
Trivia[]
- On Microsoft Assistant Pushie there are some fun fonts with the fonts that are related with celebrities.
- Lucida Grande is Ariana Grande
- (I don't know about the second one if anyone finds out the answer then edit the section.)
- Helvetica Bonham Carter is Helena Bonham Carter and looking enough you can see e's have hairs and the o as her face.
- For odd reasons on Microsoft Assistant Plushie the ribbon on the font doesn't change depending with font it changes it could be possible this was taken by a screenshot.
| Preceded by: January 24, 2015 |
Saturday Night Live episode | Followed by: February 28, 2015 |