November 14th, the day after the Paris terrorist attacks, was somber. The tragedy touched the lives of an entire world, including America's funny people. This led to Saturday Night Live cast member, Cecily Strong, delivering a heartfelt message of hope to the people of Paris after the devastating ISIS terrorist attack. The message was straightforward, but poignant.
Despite the serious opening note of the show, SNL's guest host, Elizabeth Banks, did not fail to deliver a humdinger of a performance. After all, the show must go on.
In place of the usually jocular cold open, Strong took the stage in an elegantly simple black dress. As she spoke the words, "Paris is the city of light. And here in New York City, we know that light will never go out, our love and support is with everything there tonight. We stand with you," you could hear the sincerity in her voice as she choked up a bit. Strong followed this with the same elocution in French and then started the show with the classic SNL catch phrase, "Live from New York, it's Saturday night."
MTV News reminds us of a similar cold open scene: "The opening was reminiscent of SNL's response to the attacks of 9/11, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani and New York firefighters and police officers joined Paul Simon for a rendition of "The Boxer," leading to a now-legendary exchange where Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels asked the Mayor, "Can we be funny?" To which Giuliani responded, "Why start now?"" Even in light of the recent tragic events of 9/11, that was one of SNL's funnier moments. Watch the SNL skit.
"After that, the show continued with host Elizabeth Banks' charming monologue, in which she directs her own performance (the Pitch Perfect 2 director has gotten the 'directing bug,' she says) and yells for things like 'star wipes,' 'more diverse dancers' and 'green screen.'" Elizabeth also sang a song called, "First got Horny 2 U." with the all girl SNL line up dubbed Infinity + 5. At the end of the show, Banks, along with several other members of the SNL crew stood together as the actress closed with one final message of solidarity, "God bless Paris."
