‘Saturday Night Live’ Crowns Maya Rudolph as “Mother” in Mother’s Day-Centric Opening

It was all about mothers at the top of this week’s pre-Mother’s Day Saturday Night Live .

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The variety show dispensed with its typical topical cold open for one that featured SNL castmembers sharing moments with their moms.

Kenan Thompson kicked off the show, appearing on the Studio 8H stage with his mom because, he said, “it’s “Mother’s Day in about 29 minutes,” which, she declared, meant there was still “plenty of time to buy a gift.”

“With so many upsetting stories in the world right now, we thought we’d take a break from a regular cold open and hear some heartwarming stories from our moms instead.”

Still Thompson’s mom said she wanted to see who would play Stormy Daniels in a cold open focused on the porn star’s testimony in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial. That wasn’t the only reference to news from the past week as other moms touched on Netflix’s headline-making live roast of Tom Brady and the report about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. having a worm in his brain . Both the Trump trial and RFK Jr.’s “brain worm” were covered in “Weekend Update.”

Other castmembers who were joined by the mothers included Andrew Dismukes, Chloe Fineman, Punkie Johnson, Mikey Day, Ego Nwodim, James Austin Johnson, Bowen Yang, Colin Jost, Marcello Hernandez and Michael Longfellow.

Day’s mom proudly referred to herself as “Butt-Head’s mom,” referencing his viral sketch from April.

For her monologue, host Maya Rudolph took the stage and explained that she was well-suited to host the pre-Mother’s Day episode since, as she said, “I am a four-time mom. I have four beautiful kids that I know of.”

Then she was joined by Yang and Sarah Sherman where they indicated the actress was more than just the mom of her own kids.

“You’re not just a mom,” Yang said. “You’re mother!”

Sherman added of the former SNL castmember , “You’re a 30 Rock legend. You’ve had your foot on our necks since Y2K.”

After questioning their praise, Rudolph got serious and deadpanned, “You’re right.”

Then, introduced by Thompson’s announcer, Mr. Infinity Decor, and accompanied by dancers, Rudolph struck a pose as the “mother of the house of Rockefeller.”

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After a few moments onstage, Rudolph took an iconic walk around the set, where she earned two “10”s from judges and one “I’m gagged” from another judge as she rapped about her iconic mother status.

During the song she interspersed moments from her SNL career and her memorable role in Bridesmaids with traditional motherly duties.

“Remember in that movie when I pooped my pants,” she rapped. “When you were a baby you pooped your pants and I changed your diaper. I’m your mother.”

At the IF movie premiere the following Monday, Rudolph told The Hollywood Reporter she and the team barely rehearsed the musical number. “That’s the hardest part about SNL , you do it so close to airtime that it never really feels finished, so we just did as much as we’d got done and I can’t believe we pulled it off,” she said.

Later Rudolph’s Beyoncé returned to Hot Ones in a Cowboy Carter -inspired update of the memorable segment , wearing Western attire and the platinum blond hair she debuted at the Grammys.

When asked by Mikey Day’s Sean Evans why she returned, Rudolph’s Beyoncé said, “This is the only thing I have attempted that I did not slay. That bothered me and my husband … Jay-Z.”

Though she started off confidently and wasn’t bothered by the first wing, after the second wing, Rudolph’s Beyoncé quickly zoned out and declared, “This wing is stomping my ass.”

“My bones are hot. This wing was a real one,” she said. “You’re about to make me sing, ‘This ain’t Texas’.”

As the wings got spicier, she continued to struggle, interrupting Evans before he can finish his question, asking the host to blur her face before she burps, throwing milk in Evans’ face and bringing out her assistant, first to ask if it’s possible “to take someone’s bones out of their body and replace them with bones that are on fire,” something he later tells her can’t be done, and then to have him squirt cocoa butter lotion into her mouth.

Rudolph, currently starring in Apple TV+’s Loot , hosted SNL with musical guest Vampire Weekend.

During her time on SNL, from 1999-2008, Rudolph was known for impressions of Oprah Winfrey , Beyoncé , Whitney Houston , Diana Ross , Condoleezza Rice and Donatella Versace and she played memorable characters like “Bronx Beat” host Jodi Deitz and art dealer Nuni Schoener .

May 13, 6:06 p.m. Updated with Rudolph’s quotes on rehearsal time.

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