Paul Rudd Becomes A Member Of SNL’s 5-Timers Club In Scaled-Back Holiday Episode

The show must go on…

As you may have heard, Saturday Night Live looked a little bit different this week after multiple cast members reportedly got hit with COVID-19 right before the show. The execs ultimately decided to cut the live audience, musical guest Charli XCX, and most of its cast (except for two people) since the Omicron variant has been wreaking havoc across the country – especially in NY.

Rather than scrap the episode entirely, though, they ended up airing some pre-taped content and filled the rest of the time with some favorite holiday sketches from the past.

And while host Paul Rudd may be “extremely disappointed” with last night’s turn of events, this still was a significant moment for the actor as he just earned a spot in the five-timers club! No clue what that means? It is basically something Tom Hanks started back in 1990 to honor those who have hosted five times or more. Now, Rudd is a part of it!

The 52-year-old got to celebrate the accomplishment with some special guests! Kicking off the episode, Hanks stepped out onto the stage in his iconic “5” robe and explained the unusual situation:

“Tonight, everyone on Saturday Night Live planned to do our big Christmas show and induct a new member into the five-timers club, but COVID came early this year. So, in the interest of safety, we do not have an audience, and we sent home our cast and most of our crew. But I came here from California and if they think I was going to fly 3,000 miles and not be on TV, they got another thing coming.”

The Forrest Gump star then brought out fellow club member Tina Fey, saying:

“Thank you for joining me, Tina. As you know, I started the five-timers club.”

To which the Mean Girls alum joked:

“Oh, like you started COVID!”

FYI, she is referencing when Hanks was the first huge celebrity to go public with contracting COVID at the beginning of the pandemic.

Moving on to the man of the hour, Rudd finally joined the group with a bright smile on his face even as he expressed how bummed out he was over the situation. In an effort to cheer him up, Hanks noted that the Marvel lead was just crowned the “most sexist man of the year” by People. Paul then corrected:

“Oh, no, I think it was sexiest.”

Eventually, Kenan Thompson came out to present the host with a five-timers jacket – but it didn’t come without a slight dig:

“Congratulations on hosting the show four and a half times!”

LOLz! You can ch-ch-check out the entire opening monologue (below):

Elsewhere in the episode, Rudd teamed up with Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon for a hilarious holiday sketch. Portraying a director for a HomeGoods commercial, he interviews them on what moms really want for Christmas – but they just want grandchildren. That’s it! While Rudd attempts to get them to mention other presents, such as something from HomeGoods, it doesn’t exactly go well. Watch the skit (below):

Too funny!

Even though this wasn’t the most traditional episode of SNL, we still gotta give them a hand for pulling something together at the last minute. If you missed last night’s episode, you can watch all of the pre-recorded clips AND some of the old sketches that were aired (below):