Jack Black‘s return to Saturday Night Live this weekend is reason to cheer. Not just because Black himself is reliably funny, but because he seems to bring out the very best in everyone.
That it’s been nearly 20 years since he last hosted is all the more remarkable when one looks back at his last episode, which plays out much like one of the show’s “best of” specials, except that it all happened on the same night.
Black had already earned his SNL bonafides ahead of the show’s December 17, 2005 episode. He was a successful two-time host, having clearly earned the confidence of a young(er) Lorne Michaels, who entrusted him with helming what’s typically one of the highest rated and most cameo-packed shows of any year.
Watching it again today, there’s no mistaking it as anything but a SNL Christmas episode from top to bottom, starting with the requisite middling political cold open (featuring Darrell Hammond as Dick Cheney’s Santa fielding obviously planted Bush administration talking points from kids) and ending with a lovely goodnights with the entire cast ice skating at the 30 Rock outdoor rink.
The opening monologue sees Black stride out to claim his place as the episode’s comedy frontman, performing a song he claims Peter Jackson refused to incorporate into his then-starring vehicle King Kong, in which the host croons/belts a typically raucous/soulful paean to his time as unlikely third male lead in one of the most expensive remakes of all time.
Flashback to Jack Black's last SNL monologue, on December 17, 2005. He returns this weekend with musical guests Elton John and Brandi Carlisle. pic.twitter.com/l2CYsgckVi
— LateNighter (@latenightercom) April 4, 2025
Alternating heartfelt tributes to the giant ape kidnapped “to a world where he don’t belong” with behind-the-scenes glimpses of his own filming process, it’s classic Jack Black stream of consciousness bombast, as his memories of his noble ape antihero costar include listening to Cheech and Chong and fighting the Viet Cong (no relation).
Music was a running theme this episode—with Black hosting, that’s no wonder, even if the funniest comedy-musical sketches in a Jack Black-hosted Saturday Night Live weren’t fronted by Black. (We’ll get to that.)
But truth be told, there really wasn’t a dead spot all night.
Amy Poehler has gone on record calling “The Wind,” with Black and Rachel Dratch (where Dratch’s granny is eventually hoisted off her feet by the howling New York wind), one of her favorites.
And recurring sketch “Appalachian Emergency Room” brings in musical guest Neil Young and Jackass star Johnny Knoxville to fill out the usual roster of backwoods ER victims (the reveal of just where the lawn dart hit the Santa-hatted Jason Sudeikis is a huge gasp-laugh).
Next is Robert Smigel’s lavishly produced claymation carol, “Christmastime for the Jews,” sung by holiday soul queen Darlene Love .
Penned as a tribute to what he contends the New York City’s non-Christian population does while the goyim are all snug in their Christmas Eve beds, Smigel’s classic short combines Rankin-Bass stop-motion aesthetic with a Phil Spector Wall of Sound to celebrate everything from Jews going out for Chinese food to more eye-opening supposed traditions like circumcising grateful Central Park squirrels, and seeing Fiddler on the Roof “with actual Jews” in the leads.
By the time the short’s Jews have drunk all their “sweet-ass wine” and tuckered themselves out in bar fights that they know “they can’t lose” in time to watch Daily Show reruns in bed (a claymation Jon Stewart exposing “FEMA-gate”), Smigel’s impossibly silly and loving ditty can only express hope that “next year they’ll learn how to hold their booze.”
That the real Darlene Love appears directly after the song belting out a soulful “White Christmas” with the SNL band only makes Smigel’s perennial holiday gift that much more precious.
Slotted in just one sketch after “Christmastime for the Jews” was a groundbreaking digital short that transforms what was an already rollicking fun outing into an all-time must-watch.
Everybody knows “Lazy Sunday” by now–the Lonely Island-penned, Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell-performed hardcore rap about two goofy white dudes’ gangta-level love of boutique cupcakes and The Chronicles of Narnia having essentially broken both the internet and Saturday Night Live’s status quo simultaneously upon broadcast.
Samberg and his Lonely Island pals/partners Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer were new hires, Samberg as featured player in an absurdly stacked cast and the others toiling in the writer’s room. Having taken it upon themselves to create the first of what became known as their Digital Shorts as a way to break through without going through the usual SNL bureaucracy (their first, the loony “Lettuce” was shot “for twenty bucks” according to Schaffer, and premiered a few weeks earlier), the group’s second effort was a monster hit. It’s easy to see why.
In the SNL oral history Live From New York, versatile everyman Parnell explains how he had no clue what he was getting in for when he agreed to team up for this low-budget goof with the new guys. Nobody else did either, as “Lazy Sunday”’s loopy but utterly committed rap about sneaking Red Vines and Mr. Pibb into the theater and which map app is better for directions went viral—before anyone really knew what “viral” meant.
As brashly stupid/hilarious today as it was 20 years ago, “Lazy Sunday” literally transformed Saturday Night Live’s format and the way the show is consumed, the short’s impossibly infectious vibe (spot the unsuspecting ticket-taker being utterly charmed by these two rapping ding-dongs) inspiring countless imitators and The Lonely Island’s still-vibrant musical comedy brand.
On to “Weekend Update” with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler at desk–yay for Fey and Poehler, nay for that the trans bathroom joke the duo surely wish they could take back.
On this night, it’s returning former cast member Tracy Morgan who steals the news segment with a bit where the Skull Island tourism board (Morgan and then-new hire Kenan Thompson) vainly attempt to lure travelers to their monster-infested homeland. (Morgan’s “Lies!” in response to Poehler’s skepticism is greeted with gales of laughter.)
Next is another memorable sketch, one that sees Jack Black as Santa try to keep his jolly when faced with Rachel Dratch’s Debbie Downer.
Black is joined by his Tenacious D bandmate Kyle Gass in the show’s last sketch, interrupting a Will Forte-led spelling bee sketch to reveal that the unfortunate lad who can’t spell the word “business” was actually the young he. And while the D’s duet extolling the young Forte/Black’s courage in the arena of “wit and wordlery” is just the sort of absurd musical escalation to take an already majestically hilarious weirdo sketch over the top into classic status, the bit is really about Will Forte planting his freak flag.
Doing a pinched, youthful version of his Tim Calhoun voice, Forte’s speller responds to peerlessly deadpan moderator Chris Parnell’s proffered word with dead-eyed persistent stalling. “Can you use the word in a sentence?,” eventually gives way to Forte blankly asking, “Can you spell the word please?,” with Parnell’s professionally blunt “No” reminding present-day audiences of the ridiculousness of Parnell getting fired not once, but twice by Lorne Michaels.
But it’s when Forte finally gets down to the spelling that this one truly soars–his monotone, minute-long string of completely incorrect letters (so, so many q’s) emerging to one of those ebbing and flowing audience responses that marked the very best out-there Will Forte bits. Seriously, this remains one of the most overlooked gems from a truly packed episode. And season. By the time JB and KG show up to hijack the bit, their own inspired silliness is merely frosting on the delicious banana-cake.
In short, there’s good reason this episode is considered to be among the show’s very best, one that’s well worth watching on Peacock or at fine classic SNL outlets everywhere.
Jack Black returns to host Saturday Night Live with musical guests Brandi Carlisle and Elton John this Saturday April 5th at 11:30pm ET / 8:30pm PT on NBC and Peacock.
Kenan technically wasn’t a new cast member by then, as this was his third season, and he was promoted to Repertory Status. Additionally, his first episode was at the start of season 29, which was coincidentally hosted by Black, all the way back in 2003.