Nearly 28 years after making his first Saturday Night Live appearance—and almost exactly a year since his last go-round as host—Jack Black returns to Studio 8H this weekend, to join the illustrious Five-Timers Club.
Jack White (aka Black’s “brother from another color”) will serve as musical guest.
Ahead of Black’s fifth turn as host, LateNighter’s podcast partner the Saturday Night Network has compiled a detailed look back at his previous appearances on the long-running sketch comedy series. Hosted by LateNighter’s own Jon Schneider and produced and edited by Cameron Bristow and James Stephens, the mini-doc revisits the sketches, characters, and moments the musician/big-screen funny man memorably has been a part of.
Included are details on Black’s SNL debut in May 1998 as neither a host nor musical guest but a “special guest”—performing with Tenacious D band mate Kyle Gass. Come January 2002, Black would get his first turn as SNL host, and he used his monologue to sing about that fulfillment of a lifelong dream. Black returned as host in October 2003 for the Season 29 opener, which marked Kenan Thompson’s SNL debut and famously saw Black flub the pronunciation of the musical guest’s name.
Black’s third turn as host gave us the well-remembered Christmas 2005 episode, which featured not only the “Christmastime for the Jews” TV Funhouse (ft. Darlene Love) but the debut of the SNL Digital Short “Lazy Sunday.”
It would be another 19 years before Black hosted again, in April 2025 with musical guests Elton John and Brandi Carlile; that outing featured the “Flamin’ Hot Preparation H” pre-tape and the “One-Uppers” dinner sketch.
For the full accounting of Black’s storied SNL past, watch the video at the top of this post.
