Heidi Gardner can check another dream host off of her SNL bucket list. The comedian will get to share the stage with a formative favorite of hers when Jack Black hosts next month.
Gardner, a die-hard Kansas City Chiefs fan, used to cite Travis Kelce as her dream host—and that wish came true in 2023. Now, with the announcement that Jack Black will lead the April 5th episode of Saturday Night Live, Gardner is seeing another dream become a reality.
The SNL performer recently gushed about Black’s influence on her comedy in a conversation with castmate Kenan Thompson for the Wall Street Journal, citing the actor as an early favorite.
“The first time that I really felt like, ‘I want to be like them’ is watching Jack Black,” she told Thompson. Gardner recalled she was drawn to Black’s “reckless abandon, just ‘you are you, you are free’” energy.
Thompson concurred with Gardner, calling Black a “hyper talent.” (As the Saturday Night Network’s Mike Murray points out, Black also happened to serve as host for Kenan Thompson’s first-ever SNL episode back in 2003.)
Gardner went on to recount watching Tenacious D perform on SNL during an appearance on the show’s Matthew Broderick-hosted episode in 1998. In a 2020 interview with Under the Radar, she also called Tenacious D’s self-titled 2001 record her all-time favorite album. Listening to the record, she said, “was like one of those moments where you feel seen or something.”
“It’s not even like I could thank them for putting out what was in my head,” said Gardner. “I could never come up with that.”
Jack Black would go on to host SNL three times after that first Tenacious D appearance, and the comedy rock band returned as an officially billed musical guest in 2006. Black’s last time hosting the show was in December 2005. Nearly twenty years later, he’s finally coming back for Round 4.
Black will host SNL on April 5, with musical guests Elton John and Brandi Carlile.
