Saturday Night Live is back!
After a summer hiatus, NBC's late-night comedy juggernaut returned with a few new cast members and Seth MacFarlane as host.
"It is so great to be here hosting Saturday Night Live," the Family Guy creator said in his opening monologue. "I have loved this show since I was a kid, and I promised myself there was one thing I would do if I ever got to host…please go out with me Farrah Fawcett...I guess I made that promise a while ago."
MacFarlane then proceeded to do a variety of voices from Family Guy (among others) and showed off some singing skills while he was at it.
So, how did the multifaceted actor and the SNL newbies (Aidy Bryant, Tim Robinson and Cecily Strong) fare?
While we didn't see too much of the new cast members during the show, only a few short appearances in a couple of skits, MacFarlane rocked as a first-time host, seamlessly transitioning from the likes of a self-conscious, stuttering drill sergeant to an uber ditzy Ryan Lochte.
And that wasn't all.
In the skit "Sex After 50," MacFarlane appeared on Rodger Brush (Fred Armisen)'s talk show to seek help for his, um, issues in the bedroom, and in "Puppet Class" he played an "Intro to Puppetry" teacher who tried to get one of his students to step outside of his comfort zone, among other things.
There were a few surprises on the show as well.
While the impersonation of President Barack Obama was once a staple in Armisen's comedy repertoire, Jay Pharoah took on the president this time, totally nailing his voice and cadence. Meanwhile, Jason Sudeikis took on Mitt Romney, saying to a faux crowd, "one of my horses failed to medal at the Olympics, so I know hardship" and "let's be honest…no one here wants gay marriage."
Then, in "Lids," Bobby Moynihan did a killer impersonation of "Gangnam Style" artist Psy, sashaying into a Lids store in a blaze of smoke and entertaining some of the employees with a performance of the song and dance. But, while it looked like Moynihan would be imitating Psy the whole time, the real Psy appeared towards the end of the sketch and performed the song and danced as well.
In addition to the surprises and MacFarlane's memorable performances in various skits, one of the other standout skits of the evening was "Eastwood and Chair."
Bill Hader brought back his spot-on impersonation of Clint Eastwood for the skit, in which Eastwood took his infamous chair (and the Invisible Obama) on the road for a comedy tour.
In the skit, Eastwood (Hader) danced, sang and juggled with the chair, did other imitations with the chair, and even performed with an invisible Jon Voight.
Frank Ocean was on hand to perform "Thinking About You" and "Pyramids" with arcade games on the stage in the background, and John Mayer popped up during "Pyramids" to play a guitar solo during the performance.
So tell us, what did you think of MacFarlane's hosting stint? Are you excited to see more from the new cast members?
Sound off in the comments!
(Saturday Night Live and E! are a part of the NBCUniversal family.)