Best buddies Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake had the honor of performing the cold opening for SNL 40 last night, Feb. 16, and they did not disappoint. The pair combined forces to run through a four-minute rap that spanned all 40 years of Saturday Night Live, name-dropping former cast members and unleashing some of the reunion show's most iconic catchphrases. At the end, Timberlake and Fallon introduced the special with a "Live from New York, it's Saturday night!"
Fallon is set up to start the show before Timberlake interrupts him. The two start talking about how great it is to see all the famous faces in the audience. They reminisce about famous sketches like "The Coneheads," "Gumby," "Buckwheat" and "Stefon" before breaking into song. The opening rap consists of notable phrases like "schwing" from Wayne's World and "da bears" from the Super Fan skits. They then yell into the camera "the Chronic-what-cles of SNL," drawing from Andy Samberg's popular "Lazy Sunday" short.
That goes right into another famous short from recent years, "D**k in a Box," before they dance to the theme music from The Ambiguously Gay Duo. Fallon drops Chris Farley's "I live in a van down by the river" just before Rachel Dratch comes out as Debbie Downer to explain that shows with cold opening music numbers do not perform well ratings-wise. The highlight of the opening comes when the two put on black hats and sunglasses to do their best Blues Brothers dance moves as "Soul Man" plays in the background.
Check out the entire clip below.
The special, which ran just over three hours, featured new takes on classic sketches and characters like "Celebrity Jeopardy!" and "Wayne's World." Musical guests Paul Simon, Paul McCartney and Miley Cyrus joined in on the fun while Kanye West debuted his new tune "Wolves" with Sia during an interesting performance. Simon performed "Still Crazy After All These Years" to close out the special before all the talented actors and comedians took the stage.
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