Seth Meyers Bids ‘SNL’ a Teary Farewell

Amy Poehler, Bill Hader (as Stefon), Andy Samberg and Fred Armisen returned to Saturday Night Live last night to help Seth Meyers say goodbye to the show. The episode marked the head writer and Weekend Update anchor’s final appearance on the show before he heads to Late Night to take over Jimmy Fallon’s spot, and an obviously emotional cast didn’t shy away from breaking the fourth wall to address his departure directly. “We are so proud of you, you have been the heart of this show for over a decade,” former co-anchor Poehler told Meyers. “This is the job I always wanted, and I had the best time and I met the best people,” Meyers said, choking up.

The 50 Funniest People Now: Seth Meyers

It was Melissa McCarthy’s third time hosting the show, and the actress brought her usual goofball charisma to roles including a psychotic congresswoman and a woman’s group member thirsty for revenge. As she put it in her adorably antic monologue, “The real reason I keep coming back is I love being here,” and that was pretty clear.

 There were plenty of Super Bowl jokes, of course, including Kyle Mooney’s excruciatingly inept fan interviews:

But one of the funniest sketches of the night took on a different seasonal topic. New castmember Sasheer Zamata joined Jay Pharoah and Kenan Thompson playing three high school students giving a musical Black History Month presentation to their classmates called “29 Reasons to Hug a Black Guys Today.” (“Number one: We deserve a chance. Two through twenty-eight: Slavery.”)