Bill Murray Reprises ‘Nick the Lounge Singer' With Maya Rudolph, Cecily Strong and Ana Gasteyer for ‘SNL50'
Murray introduced himself as Nick Valentine before launching into a monologue with Paul Shaffer, ex-SNL pianist and David Letterman's former musical director on piano, as they had it in the original sketch from the 1970s.
More from Variety
Kristen Wiig, Bill Murray to Star in Comedy 'Epiphany' From 'Palm Springs' Director, Rocket Science Selling at EFM
Bill Murray Super Bowl Ad Invites Fans to Email His Yahoo Address - And He'll Respond With a Story
Bill Murray Admits He's Been Lazy About Finding Work, Says He Relates to His Destructive Characters: 'I've Done Some Damage'
'We're here on Valentine's day,' Murray said. 'I promise you, it is just a coincidence — the day is not named after me. February fourteenth has been Valentine's Day for a good many years now, probably before I was even born, I think probably longer.'
The pair were eventually joined by Maya Rudolph, Cecily Strong and Ana Gasteyer as backing vocalists for a performance Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's 'You're All I Need to Get By.'
Murray's Nick the Lounge Singer character appeared during the show's third season, when he delivered a very original take on the 'Star Wars' theme song in the Powder Room on Meatloaf Mountain. With Shaffer on keys, Nick the lounge singer sings some classics before belting through that 'big hit out of '77!'
'Star Wars!/ Nothing but Star Wars/ Give me those Star Wars/ Don't let them end/ Star Wars/ If they should bar wars/ Please let these Star Wars… stay,' he sang while entertaining skiiers.
The star-studded 'Homecoming Concert,' hosted by Jimmy Fallon, will feature performances by Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny, Miley Cyrus, Backstreet Boys and Post Malone. The lineup also includes Mumford & Sons, Jack White, David Byrne, Robyn, Eddie Vedder, DEVO, Brittany Howard, Chris Martin, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Jelly Roll, the B-52s, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Roots will also perform, alongside more recent additions Cher, Dave Grohl, Ms. Lauryn Hill, Snoop Dogg, St. Vincent and Wyclef Jean.
Best of Variety
New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week
Grammy Predictions, From Beyoncé to Kendrick Lamar: Who Will Win? Who Should Win?
What's Coming to Netflix in February 2025
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Geek Tyrant
2 hours ago
- Geek Tyrant
How One Jedi Mind-Tricked Her Way Through The Empire's Deadly Order 66 Purge — GeekTyrant
The fall of the Jedi Order through Order 66 has been told time and time again in Star Wars stories, but Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #7 just introduced a Jedi survivor whose escape tactic might be the most clever we've seen yet. In a galaxy where most Jedi fought and fell with their lightsabers ignited, the character Grandea survived not by clashing with clone troopers, but by using her mind in a way no one saw coming. Written by Charles Soule with art by Luke Ross, this new story flips the script on Jedi survival by focusing on an underappreciated Force ability… the Jedi mind trick. Grandea, now an elderly woman, recalls how she escaped death during the infamous Jedi Purge not through combat, but by weaponizing a skill many Jedi saw as beneath them. As she tells it, when the clones turned on her, she didn't reach for her blade. She simply made them believe she wasn't a Jedi. That's it. No chase, no blaster fire. Just one well-placed suggestion in their minds and she was forgotten. Her fascination with the Jedi mind trick, a technique many in the Order saw as crude or manipulative, became her salvation. "The danger did not end with Order 66 ," she explains. Knowing she'd be hunted forever, she destroyed her lightsaber, burned her robes, and abandoned the identity of a Jedi altogether. Instead of hiding in fear, she embraced the power of the mind. Grandea spent years perfecting her ability, turning a once-dismissed trick into a masterful art. She pushed the limits, testing it against Hutts and Toydarians, beings notoriously resistant to Jedi influence. And she won. She erased herself from memory. As she puts it, 'everywhere I went, I never went.' Her ability was so effective, she even outplayed the Inquisitors. After a brutal encounter with two of them, Grandea used her mind trick to convince them she was dead. They reported back to Darth Vader with total confidence, officially removing her from the Empire's kill list. Decades later, when Kylo Ren confronts her in a tavern, he tries to read her mind only to be stopped cold. Instead, Grandea easily reads his. 'He was screaming it to himself,' she says, casually showing that even someone as powerful as Kylo couldn't break her defenses. Grandea's story adds a really cool and fun new layer to Jedi lore. She didn't rely on her lightsaber and fighting skills, or go into hiding. She mastered a subtle art, one the Order underestimated, and used it to survive. No one sensed her. No one found her. And even when they did, she was already gone. In a universe full of epic battles and Force-fueled duels, Legacy of Vader #7 reminds us that the most powerful weapon a Jedi has might just be their mind.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bob Odenkirk Says Writing Chris Farley's Iconic Matt Foley Sketch Was the 'Most Fun I Ever Had in Showbiz' (Exclusive)
Odenkirk and Farley worked together on 'Saturday Night Live' and as part of the Chicago improv troupe Second City NEED TO KNOW Bob Odenkirk is sharing his role in Chris Farley's iconic motivational speaker sketch on Saturday Night Live Speaking to PEOPLE for My Life in Pictures, Odenkirk recounted how he wrote the sketch, titled "Matt Foley: Van Down by the River," while the two worked together at the Chicago improv troupe Second City Later, the two moved to SNL — Odenkirk as a writer and Farley as a cast member Bob Odenkirk is reflecting on his friendship with Chris Farley — and the role he played in bringing one of the late comedian's characters to life. Speaking to PEOPLE for My Life in Pictures, Odenkirk recounted how he wrote Farley's most iconic sketch while the two worked together at the Chicago improv troupe Second City. "I wrote the motivational speaker for him, the 'Van Down by the River' sketch. At Second City, he had done an improvisation with me and everyone in the cast, and we had done an anti-drug rally, and he played a coach who is essentially Matt Foley," Odenkirk said. "The night after I saw him do that improvisation, I wrote that sketch just exactly as it's done." He continued: "I've written many sketches in my life, and almost none didn't need to be rewritten. This one did not need to be rewritten." "Doing this Second City, every single time I did it, I played the father, it was the most fun I ever had in showbiz," he added. "And the other thing that was amazing about that was this was Second City days, right? This was before any of us were on TV. Nobody knew who Chris was. But by the end of the sketch — four and a half minutes later — everybody knew who Chris was." Both Odenkirk and Farley worked at both Second City and at Saturday Night Live — Farley as a cast member and Odenkirk as a writer for three-and-a-half years. The "Matt Foley: Van Down by the River" sketch came with them to television and became one of Farley's most iconic characters from the show. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Elsewhere in the conversation, Odenkirk said of Farley, "The idea of saying, 'Well, I saw Chris and I thought he was talented,' well, so did everybody who saw Chris. And he was very lovable too. He was very warm. He treated me like I was some sort of genius, which I am not." Farley was 33 when he died in 1997 of a drug overdose. Odenkirk wrote about Farley's downfall in his 2022 memoir, Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama. "It drove me nuts," Odenkirk wrote. "His rise to fame, blazing moments, assured destruction — it played out just as everyone said it would. Said it to his face." He wrote: "Even back at Second City, I'd watch Chris stumble off into the night after killing it onstage and my mind would write 'taken from us too soon!' and all that. Someone would say, 'Chris, you're gonna kill yourself if you keep this up!' and it was the billionth time he'd heard it. It didn't help that, usually, the person predicting his terrible doom was someone Chris knew was envious of his talent and skyrocketing career." "Chris tried. He did fight back. But he also, not so secretly, embraced and even maybe found purpose in fulfilling the hackneyed arc of it all," he added. Read the original article on People
Bloomberg
5 hours ago
- Bloomberg
AI Slurs Are Just the Start of the Backlash
You may not be familiar with the word 'clanker.' Its roots come from the Star Wars franchise 1, but it has recently entered the Gen Z lexicon as a blanket derogatory term for artificial intelligence and robots. In viral TikTok and Instagram videos, people use it to express their frustration with everything from the AI slop that has taken over the internet to chatbot hallucinations to outright dystopian applications of the technology. Google Trends data shows search interest for 'clanker' rocketed this summer, especially in Australia, China and the US. I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up becoming a word of the year for one of the major dictionaries.
