Molly Shannon Crashes SNL's Sequel to Famously Cut Will Ferrell Sketch

Molly Shannon SNL Finale Cameo — Photo: X screenshot

Saturday Night Live‘s season finales are renowned for delivering surprise cameos, and this year’s was no exception.

Series alum Molly Shannon popped up this Saturday night to reunite with former castmate Will Ferrell in the second incarnation of a famously cut sketch.

When last Ferrell hosted SNL in November 2019, he played Mr. Koenig, a high school drama teacher who taunted the anxious wannabe stars of the school’s upcoming Bye Bye Birdie production—played by Beck Bennett, Heidi Gardner, Aidy Bryant, Mikey Day, Alex Moffat, Cecily Strong, Kyle Mooney, and Bowen Yang—by asking probing questions before locking down the cast list.

“Cast List” wound up being cut for time, but it was posted to SNL‘s YouTube channel and proceeded to acquire a certain cult status in the years since, as being show-worthy and wrongly dismissed.

This weekend’s “Cast List 2” brought Ferrell back as the same Mr. Koenig, while Day’s superstar theater kid has since graduated and now serves as his TA. This time around, Grease! is the high school musical being staged, with the rest of the cast (save for Colin Jost, Michael Che, and Kenan Thompson) playing the impatient students.

Mr. Koenig once again tested the teens’ patience with all manner of questions, including whether ginger Ben Marshall’s Tyler would be willing to dye “allll” of his hair black as Danny; if Ashley Padilla’s “weird Christian” Shannon would even know how to kiss on-stage; and if Chloe Fineman’s Madison was OK wearing a push-up bra “filled with water balloons” to play “chesty” Sandy.

After all, the drama teach “quoted” the Bard, “Sluts with teets put butts in seats!”

Before Mr. Koenig ultimately shared the cast list with the kids, it required official sign-off from the choreographer (Thompson reprising Trinity from the original “Class List”), who then escorted away Sarah Sherman’s wailing, wheelchair-using student.

The cast list also needed to be initialed by choir director Ms. Peebles, played by a gloriously vamping Shannon. Watch Ms. Peebles make her grand entrance and demonstrate her skills in the sketch below.

Shannon was with the SNL cast from 1995 to 2001, and last appeared on the show as host (in April 2023) and as part of last year’s SNL50 anniversary special.