'Saturday Night Live' Recap: Anna Kendrick Hosts; Pharrell Williams Performs

by uInterviewApril 6, 2014, 12:00 amNews >

Saturday Night Live featured Anna Kendrick as host this weekend, and Pharrell Williams as the musical guest.

Saturday Night Live Recap

For the cold open on Saturday Night Live, the writers tackled the General Motors recall hearings with Kate McKinnon playing GM CEO Mary Bara. After pledging honesty and transparency, she answers "we're looking into that," to all questions fired at her.

Anna Kendrick’s Opening Monologue

Anna Kendrick’s opening monologue was more of an opening song in which the talented actress sang as Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Although it was short on jokes, the song number, which featured a majority of SNL's major players, definitely amused.

Weekend Update

George R. R. Martin (Bobby Moynihan) stopped by on Weekend Update with Cecily Strong. The show, which commences its fourth season Sunday night, is notoriously speeding along as Martin struggles to complete his seven-book series. The next one, Martin told Strong, would take place in Denver and feature three friends named Ross, Rachel and Chandler. Colin Jost, on the other had, had the chance to interview Angela Merkel (McKinnon) about Putin.

Under the Sea

Under the Sea, like Kendrick’s cold open, showed off her singing skills, as she played Ariel to Aidy Bryant’s Ursula. Channeling Britney Spears – and her nasally vocals – she annoyed an impatient Ursula. She had Ursula, Flounder and the lobster Sebastian (Jay Pharoah) moving when she started rapping. Closing out the skit was Jay Pharoah’s Sebastian singing Sean Paul’s “Temperature.”

Flirty

Kyle Mooney and Vanessa Bayer starred in a pre-taped sketch that provided some social commentary on dating. The level of awkwardness broke the scale, but the comedic timing and overall commitment of the actors made the strange bit one of the night’s best.

Dongs All Over The World

All-women musical number “Dongs All Over The World” featured the female cast of Saturday Night Live performing a parody number to the many songs out there about men’s sexual conquests. “196 countries/ And that’s a lot of dongs/ All I packed is travel shampoo/ And 1,500 thongs,” went one of the songs more memorable lines.

Les Jeunes de Paris

The recurring sketch about French teen drama Les Jeunes de Paris returned this weekend, aided all around by the presence of Anna Kendrick. In the sketch, her notorious cup song routine from Pitch Perfect was referenced to the pleasure of the audience.