First-Time SNL Host Josh O’Connor Comes Bearing Adorable—If Messy—Cast Gifts

Josh O’Connor wasn’t feeling the (puppy) love when he met the cast of Saturday Night Live this week.

A first promo above posits that the Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery star, who this Saturday make his SNL hosting debut, showed up bearing gifts. After an obligatory shot of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, O’Connor enters the SNL writers room to introduce himself to cast members Jeremy Culhane and Sarah Sherman.

“I actually heard that the host sometimes brings gifts for the cast…,” O’Connor tells them, “which is why everyone’s getting a puppy!”

Sherman and Culhane (or “Jason,” as O’Connor calls him) are less than thrilled to be gifted with the responsibility of dog ownership—especially when Sherman’s question about whether the pups are housebroken is answered with a puddle of urine.

“We have to take care of it?” Culhane asks.

“Just for 11 or 12 years,” O’Connor replies. “And then you have the saddest day of your life.”

Clocking that O’Connor is discouraged by their response to the puppies, Culhane explains that they “just have [their] hands full” with the gifts they received from last week’s host, Melissa McCarthy—cueing a reveal of Kam Patterson standing next to a llama.

“Anybody know what I feed a llama?” the featured player asks.

In fairness, a llama is one animal that SNL cast members should be comfortable with. As a longstanding inside joke at the long-running sketch comedy series, monologues that wind their way backstage usually feature an unexplained combination of Abraham Lincoln, two showgirls, and a llama.

Time will tell if SNL booked this latest llama just for the promo, or a full week. O’Connor hosts Saturday Night Live  with musical guest Lily Allen this Saturday, December 13.