‘I’M BACK!’: After 20 years, Jack Black is unleashed on ‘SNL’
The ‘Minecraft Movie’ star hosted what was possibly the best episode in show history back in 2005. Would he live up to that high bar?
There was no question who the star of this week’s episode was. After Mikey Madison repeatedly faded into background status when she hosted last weekend, Jack Black came roaring onto the SNL stage. Hosting for the first time in two decades, Black was the focus of every sketch he was in.
A game show contestant dressed as Indiana Jones? The spokesperson for Flamin’ Hot Preparation H? A guy who drew excessively racist cartoons during World War II? Yeah, this episode was all Black. Not even partway through the first sketch after his monologue, Black had already done more than SNL let Madison do the preceding week.
The bar this week was high. Black arguably anchored the greatest episode in SNL history when he last hosted in 2005. The folks over at The SNL Network highlighted that episode this past week, running through the iconic sketches from the last time he hosted the show: “Lazy Sunday,” “Chistmastime for the Jews,” “Spelling Bee,” the first “Two A-Holes” sketch and more.
That’s an impossibly high standard for any returning host, but Black poured himself into this episode of
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