“Saturday Night Live” returned after the holiday break with host Keke Palmer making a big announcement: She is having a baby!
“People have been in my comments, saying, ‘Keke’s having a baby,’ ‘Keke’s pregnant,’ and I want to set the record straight,” Palmer said in her opening monologue. “I am!”
Palmer revealed the huge news by unveiling her baby bump during her animated and hysterical monologue talking about her big year starring in “Nope” and being nominated for an Academy Award –which she joked didn’t actually happen.
“I was trying so hard to keep it on the down-low ’cause I got a lot of stuff going on,” she said. “You know, people kept coming up to me, ‘Congratulations,’ and I’m like, ‘Shh, can y’all stop? I got a liquor sponsorship on the line.”
All joking aside, Palmer couldn’t contain her excitement.
“But honestly this is the biggest blessing, and I am so excited,” she said. “Guys, I am going to be a mom.”
She wrapped up on a reflective note.
“When I first got into comedy, and I dreamed of standing on this stage, I asked myself, ‘Keke, who will you be?,” she said. “Will you be like Maya Rudolph? Eddie Murphy? A Kristen Wiig-Type?’ And now I can tell you exactly who I am: Baby, I’m Keke Palmer.”
Also in the monologue, Palmer flashed backed to her time starring in “Akeelah and the Bee” back in 2006.
“It was such a great experience. I had so much fun, except for when I got yelled at by Laurence Fishburne,” she said.
Palmer was very game in an opening sketch spoofing the soap opera network, getting hurled into wrestling positions and thrown into furniture by Cecily Strong. It was revealed at the end of the sketch stunt doubles were utilized. She also poked fun at Drake in a sketch focusing on women –“United Tingz of Aubrey” –who previously dated singer. She later spoofed her pregnancy in an ultrasound sketch with her babies tipping a door dash driver from the womb. She also appeared in a sketch exploring the origins of “Hello, Kitty” (with a surprise cameo from “Russian Doll” star Natasha Lyonne) and showed off her musical chops in a video with SZA extolling the virtues of “Big Boys” and rocked “O, Holy Night” in a choir sketch.
Palmer, 29, is expecting with her boyfriend Darius Daulton, the brother of “Insecure” star Sarunas Jackson.
The show opened with a sketch taking aim at Herschel Walker and the run-off election.
“My ex-wife says all I do is run off,” quipped Kenan Thompson as Walker.
When asked about any scandals in his past, the clock runs for an hour with even more Walker gaffes.
“I feel very confident in this erection,” he said.
“Saturday Night Live” stars Kenan Thompson, Cecily Strong, Mikey Day, Heidi Gardner, Ego Nwodim, Bowen Yang, Chloe Fineman, Punkie Johnson, Andrew Dismukes and Michael Che and Colin Jost as the hosts of Weekend Update. The cast also includes James Austin Johnson, Sarah Sherman, Marcello Hernandez, Molly Kearney, Michael Longfellow and Devon Walker as featured players. Kent Sublette, Alison Gates and Streeter Seidell serve as the head writers for the show, while Liz Patrick directs.