Saturday Night Live ended its 41st season with a great episode on Saturday night, with sketches spoofing everything from Dead Poets Society to the 2016 election (as is the usual) and welcoming back old friends like Maya Rudolph and Jason Sudeikis to join in on the fun. Since the live show was packed to the gills with hilarious moments and great guest stars it is no surprise that a gem of a sketch would be pushed from the live airing to a web exclusive. In it, Paul Simon and host Fred Armisen visit the New York International Auto Show and shamelessly promote Simon’s new album Stranger to Stranger.
The sketch is entertaining in its own right (“If you want to look at a car, or talk to a guy while he’s looking at a car? New York Auto Show baby, this is where it’s at.”) as well as being great meta commentary on why celebrities appear on Saturday Night Live in the first place. Practically no one hosts the show or performs as a musical guest without having something to promote. As Armisen himself says in the clip, “why did you want to do this video if you don’t want to look like you’re selling?”. Simon wasn’t even the musical guest on Saturday night (that would be the great Courtney Barnett) so his shameless pandering is even more blatant and funny than it would be if he was already a part of the show. Watch the sketch yourself and enjoy the laughs, then run out and buy Simon’s album so that he didn’t have to spend an afternoon answering questions at a random auto show for absolutely no reason.
(via Rolling Stone)
