Daniel Kaluuya Hosts ‘SNL:’ Our Favorite Moments

To celebrate Golden Globe winner Daniel Kaluuya’s first time hosting Saturday Night Live, we have a recap of his best moments.

Judas and the Black Messiah’s Daniel Kaluuya took his acting chops to the SNL stage on Saturday. Here is a rundown of the first-time host’s best moments.

Daniel Kaluuya’s Monologue

Kaluuya took to the stage to deliver a monologue about his large family and his starring role in Judas and the Black Messiah. With nods to his muted Golden Globe acceptance speech and political connections to Meghan Markle’s remarks about her time with the Royal Family, Kaluuya took these moments of satire with ease. In a heartfelt moment, he also gave gratitude to Kenan Thompson, who inspired him on his path to acting.

Vaccine Game Show

In this game show-inspired sketch, Kaluuya plays Dr. Tevin Jones, who tries to convince his family members (Kenan Thompson, Chris Redd, Ego Nwodim, Punkie Johnson) to get the COVID vaccine. As he keeps asking questions to see whether his family will take the vaccine, he tries to persuade them with money. While they answer questions on what they would do if they won the money, they continue to say no when asked whether they would decide to get the vaccine. Even when the family members could ask questions with honest answers from the doctor, they still wouldn’t budge. The sketch was a humorous way to show the scary reality of so many people against the vaccine.

Viral Apology

This pre-recorded skit parodied all the recent apology videos that have surfaced on Youtube in the past couple of years. Viral Youtubers (Kaluuya, Kyle Mooney) document a prank gone wrong on camera. In light of his extreme and painful pranks, Mooney uploads a video to apologize for the nature of his pranks but can never fully say the word sorry. As the skit continues, he keeps doing harmful prank after prank and uploading new apology videos. This skit successfully satirically captures the lack of genuine nature in youtube apology videos without mentioning who those YouTubers are.

Proud Parents

At a small dinner party, Nigerian parents (Kaluuya, Nwodim) brag about their son David (Redd) who is supposedly studying to be a medical doctor. When David admits to his parents that he changed his major to creative writing, the parents erupt in shock and disappointment. When David reads about his poem that won him an award called “My Sorrow,” it’s only one line that is pretty lacking in writing potential. Many kids can relate to this fear of disappointing their family based on their chosen college major and profession. Hopefully, their work is better than just one line.

Frat Trip

Kaluuya, Beck Bennett, Mooney, Alex Moffat, Redd, Mikey Day, and Bowen Yang play frat brothers planning a trip in this sketch. Kaluuya offers up the idea of bringing their moms on the trip since they’ll be going during Mother’s Day weekend. Everyone starts to agree with inviting their moms as they write down their shopping list, and Kaluuya adds Actvia for the mothers. Day keeps fighting with the idea of asking the mothers even when everyone else is on board. Eventually, they get the mothers (Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, Johnson, Cecily Strong) on facetime which embarrasses the boys, especially Day. This skit shows you that even if you move away to college, you can’t get that far away from your mother.

About the Author

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Natalie Daniels

Natalie Daniels is a Journalism major at Emerson College in Boston and an intern at AfterBuzz TV. With her love of entertainment news and positive storytelling, she is passionate about all things music, TV/ movies, and pop culture.