Tom Hanks Hosts Special Remote Episode of ‘Saturday Night Live at Home’

NBC’s Saturday Night Live aired its experimental Saturday Night Live at Home special on April 11, swapping the usual live format for a series of prerecorded, remotely performed sketches in the wake of COVID-19 safety measures.

“It’s beautiful to see all my castmates,” Kenan Thompson said at the top of the show as the cast appeared in the format of a Zoom video call. “It’s sometime between March and August,” Kate McKinnon joked. The usual intro played, featuring clips of the bandmembers playing remotely as well as footage of the cast in their own homes doing things like juggling canned foods, microwaving and having a tea party with dolls.

The episode was hosted by Tom Hanks, who was diagnosed with coronavirus in March. “It is a strange time to try to be funny,” the actor said in his opening monologue, filmed in his home.

He added that he and his wife Rita Wilson, who was also diagnosed, are doing fine now. “There’s no such thing as Saturdays anymore,” Hanks said, alluding to the coronavirus putting everyone’s schedules in flux. 

He explained that the whole show had been filmed by the castmates in quarantine. The Oscar winner then mimicked the “question and answer” format of a typical host monologue and fielded questions from himself in costumes.

“Stay safe,” Hanks said at the end of his monologue, thanking health care workers, delivery workers, grocery workers and the folks who have been on the front lines of the COVID-19 response.