Issa Rae hosted “Saturday Night Live” for the first time this week, a month after her show “Insecure” earned a wealth of Emmy nominations. During her opening monologue, the multi-hyphenate immediately threw the audience off by quipping that she was the first Black person to host the NBC sketch comedy series, adding, “Y’all believed it for a second.”
Rae explained that she was originally slated to host “SNL” before the pandemic shut everything down back in March, at a time when she had the fourth season of “Insecure” about to premiere in addition to two new films, “The Photograph” and “The Lovebirds.”
Fast-forward to Rae finally hosting “SNL” in October and the actress admitted she has “nothing going on” outside of building puzzles. She went on to note that “Insecure” started airing on HBO right before the 2016 election, and soon felt “really awkward for my life to be going so good.” The star stated that she felt like a freshman in high school.
She has since perfected the Hollywood mode of greeting people at parties, with a very vague, “Oh my god, hey!” When the other person doesn’t quite remember who she is, she would tease, “Excuse me, I’m Mary J. Blige, racist!” Rae now feels like a senior and admitted that hosting “SNL” is “my prom.” She ended the monologue on a high note, extending the prom metaphor by saying she was “ready to go all the way.”
In the summer, Rae earned three Emmy nominations: two for producing and starring in “Insecure” and another for producing “A Black Lady Sketch Show.” Justin Bieber was the night’s musical guest.
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