As Will Ferrell bounced down the stairs to take center stage at Studio 8H to kick off his sixth stint hosting Saturday Night Live, it became readily apparent something was … amiss.
Hitting his mark to address the enthusiastic audience was not the Elf star, but rather Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, who was dressed in the same blue suit and styled the same way as the former.
“Everyone shut up,” Ferrell said as he finally made it out in front of the audience, discouraging everyone from cheering for Smith, who he said “pushed me down backstage.”
“And I fell — hard. And Lorne had to give me mouth-to-mouth,” Ferrell quipped.
Smith, trying to stay in the spotlight, claimed he was the musical guest, before Ferrell ushered him off stage. Trying to do a “hard reset,” Ferrell noted the vibe still felt “weird” and “off” and that Chad took wind out of his sails.
“Whatever, OK, fine, I’ll just do whatever the host does when they don’t have any ideas,” he previewed, beginning to take questions from the audience. Paul McCartney, tonight’s actual musical guest, was up first, playing into the doppelganger Ferrell-Smith bit and confusing the two.
Ferrell then listed off a murderer’s row of McCartney’s greatest penned hits. Despite his obvious talent, though, McCartney can’t take credit for “The Alphabet Song,” “Timber (ft. Pitbull)” and “all the Smash Mouth stuff.”
As previously mentioned, with tonight’s hosting appearance, Ferrell is among the rarified class of performers who has surpassed SNL‘s coveted Five-Timers distinction, alongside the likes of previous cast members like Tina Fey (also six) and reigning leader Chevy Chase (eight times).
