SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE — Episode 1854 — Pictured: Host Dakota Johnson during the Monologue Saturday, January 27, 2024 — (Photo by: Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images)
Dakota Johnson brought out some familiar faces for her “Saturday Night Live” monologue this weekend.
While hosting the Jan. 27 episode, the “Madame Web” star said in her opening remarks that the show was “a bit of a reunion” for her and musical guest Justin Timberlake.
“We were actually in a movie together called ‘The Social Network,’” Johnson said as Timberlake slowly walked onstage to roaring applause.
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The 2010 film, which also starred Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield, centered around the founding of Facebook. In the movie, Timberlake played Napster founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker, while Johnson portrayed, Amelia Ritter, a woman who Timberlake sleeps with after they meet at a bar.
As the singer starts to reminisce about their time together during the movie, Johnson turns to him and asks, “Justin, what are you doing up here? Are you lost?”
After she clarified that his job for the evening was to be the musical guest, Timberlake said, “Oh, well if you want me to be in sketches —" before being cut off by the screaming audience.
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“I have hosted before,” he continued, holding up his hand and mouthing the words “five times.”
“Yeah, well that was 10 years ago,” Johnson responded, holding up both her hands.
The last time the “Sexy Back” singer hosted “SNL” was in 2013, when he joined the 5-Timers Club.
The “Fifty Shades of Grey” actor then changed the subject, saying that she was excited that Timberlake chose her show for his “comeback.”
“Comeback? That’s what we’re calling it? OK,” he said, as Johnson clarified it’s a comeback “in a good way.”
As Timberlake finally backs up to give the spotlight back to Johnson, Jimmy Fallon then rushes on stage in a Bee Gees-inspired costume, asking, “Are we doing this?”
The crowd erupts in applause before Timberlake and Fallon leave and tell Johnson to break a leg.
Elsewhere in her monologue, Johnson reflected on the last time she hosted “SNL” in 2015.
“The last time I hosted was right after the ‘SNL’ 40th (anniversary). I was actually in the audience for that special,” she said, showing an image of her standing in a star-studded crowd.
As she lists some of the notable names that surrounded her in the audience, such as Sarah Palin, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, the camera then zooms in on former President Donald Trump, who is seen sitting behind her.
“It’s just so crazy to be standing so close to someone who would become the most powerful person in America,” she said, as the camera suddenly pans to Taylor Swift.
Later in the episode, Fallon and Timberlake make a return as Barry and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, dressed in cream-colored matching suits and long wigs.
After their opening song, which featured them dancing under a dazzling disco ball, the two artists interview Elie Mystal (Kenan Thompson), Andrew Yang (Bowen Yang) and Joanne Carducci (Dakota Johnson) about the 2024 presidential election.
But as the political characters begin to answer questions, Fallon keeps cutting them off with random outbursts and Bee Gees songs like “Stayin’ Alive,” accompanied by Timberlake.
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