Trump may be upending world order and leaving a path of death and destruction as part of his weekend plans, but the show goes on at SNL. I actually chuckled pretty hard during the cold open, when James Austin Johnson as Trump went meta and noted one of the benefits of an early Saturday morning surprise military attack was that it forced the SNL writers to scramble to rewrite the open in only a few hours. (Sidenote: Johnson is way too good at the Trump voice, to the point where it’s hard to listen to.) Don’t worry writers, you pulled it off! As did host Connor Storrie, who has nothing to promote right now but himself, and he did that with aplomb. Many were wondering if hockey and/or his Heated Rivalry costar Hudson Williams would make an appearance in the episode. Well, we got the answer to the hockey question in the monologue itself, when Connor brought out members of the Olympic gold medal winning men’s and women’s hockey team:
US women’s hockey team gold medalists Megan Keller and Hilary Knight skated by some ongoing drama related to the US men’s hockey team when they appeared on the latest episode of “Saturday Night Live.”
The episode, hosted by “Heated Rivalry” star Connor Storrie, took place days after the US men’s hockey team won gold at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games, going on to draw ire for partying with FBI director Kash Patel and subsequently facing backlash for laughing during a call with President Trump after he joked he would be “impeached” for not inviting the US women’s hockey team, who also won gold, to the White House.
The women’s team later declined Trump’s invitation to attend the State of the Union, citing scheduling conflicts, while the men’s team did show up.
Storrie welcomed brothers Jack and Quinn Hughes on the stage first during his opening monologue on Saturday, with the pair donning their gold medals and some missing teeth.
“We’ve been so busy playing, we haven’t had time to see your show yet,” Jack Hughes said, before his brother chimed in to joke, “It’s about hockey, right?”
Keller and Knight, also donning their gold medals, then walked out on stage after Storrie said he hoped “some hockey players” watched “Rivalry,” winking at the fact that much of the show’s audience has been women drawn to the gay romance aspect.
“Don’t worry,” said Keller. “We saw your show.”
Keller and Knight went on to poke fun at the Hughes about how the women were originally supposed to appear on “SNL” alone, but “we thought we’d invite the guys too,” and reminded the audience that the women’s hockey team won gold just “two whole Olympics ago,” after the men mentioned their team last won gold over 40 years ago.
The appearance by the athletes all appeared to be in good fun, with no mention of the controversy surrounding the men’s team’s reaction to Trump’s remarks.
“My show speaks to people who are not always represented in hockey,” Storrie said at the end of his monologue. “So this is really great to have actual hockey legends here tonight.”
We’re dealing with four athletes and an actor, so the whole thing flows better in action as opposed to the transcript. I thought the bit was elegantly done; first and foremost it was funny, but it also made its points about all the misogynist f–kery that’s gone down. And the humor here wasn’t mean, it was merely the women hockey champions stating the facts of their accomplishments. #Winning. And speaking of winning, my gosh, Connor Storrie is SO READY for this moment! In his monologue, he made a passing comment about only being a professional actor for six months now, but that is not how he carried himself at all. He walked out like a seasoned pro! And that was just the monologue, but the skits? Full theater kid energy! He was prepared, he was committed, and he was sure of himself enough that there were no nerves for us watching as audience members. It was just relaxed fun! I knew the clown would deliver! And as for the other question — yes, Hudson Williams did make a cameo, in another perfectly-executed bit where he and Connor were “ice skating” in the background of a couple fighting. It was a smooth way to bring Hudson in without taking the moment away from Connor.
Connor Storrie: he came, he saw, and he comedied the sh-t out of that episode. And then he flew right back to LA to hand out the first trophy of the night at the SAG Awards Actor Awards! Connor recently gushed to VMAN about expensive fashion really truly feeling better. Clearly he must have also meant luxury jewelry feels better too, based on the smoking hot necklaces he wore for his SNL monologue and for presenting at the Actor Awards. Our boy’s got good taste!
