by NBC devotes two hours of its prime-time programming tonight (9-11 p.m. Eastern/Pacific, 8-10 p.m. Central/Mountain) to a look back at Saturday Night Live in the 2000s, and if you think it's all about 2008, well, you're only partially right. There's plenty to mine here, and even from the preview clips NBC has made available, you can see how SNL slowly but surely found its way back into the zeitgeist in the latter half of the past decade.
For instance, here are Jason Sudeikis, Amy Poehler and Bobby Moynihan talking about the "Palin Rap" that happened live on Weekend Update in front of a bouncy then-VP candidate Sarah Palin. Weird but true. We learn how much Palin loved Sudeikis pretending to be her husband, Todd, and also realize that was Moynihan in the moose costume.
SNL really got our attention in recent years thanks to rap, and "Lazy Sunday" kicked it off the SNL connection with the online generation. Here are writers Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer talking about what went down behind the scenes with Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell.
Speaking of Parnell, here's a segment devoted solely to his raps.
Even within this, Parnell — who'll co-star in a new Comedy Central sitcom later this year — gives props to the writing team of Eric Slovin & Leo Allen for helping him find the right words to rap about guest host Ashton Kutcher.
Maya Rudolph and Poehler, meanwhile, talk about the inspiration for their recurring "Bronx Beat" sketch and a particularly fun moment with guest host Hugh Laurie.
And Jimmy Fallon has talked about the Barry Gibb Talk Show, which he co-starred multiple times with Justin Timberlake upon, but if you'd like to hear more, here it goes, with a shout-out to Higgins!
