In the live East Coast version, the opening credits were not announced until Seth Meyers' name appeared on-screen because Don Pardo's microphone was not turned on, but was re-recorded after the show for the West Coast airing and for the NBC reruns during the WGA strike and the summer reruns.
Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine and actor Jake Gyllenhaal appeared in an SNL Digital Short called 'Iran So Far', a parody of the song "I Ran (So Far Away)" by A Flock of Seagulls.
The NBC rerun of this episode contains a dress rehearsal version of the "Lyle Kane Show" sketch and an extended version of the Great Moments in Guidance Counseling sketch where Kenan Thompson plays a guidance counselor who tells Kanye West (who appears as himself) to drop out of college after a year and get rich writing songs about it. A technical error during the live performance of the latter sketch ruined a visual punchline.
Kanye West performed a medley of "Stronger" and "Good Life" in his first performance. In his second performance, he performed a medley of "Champion" and "Everything I Am."
After rapping part of "Everything I Am" using the original lyrics, Kanye West freestyled, notably saying "I meant to mess up" and expressing surprise that NBC would have him back on the air after his comments directed towards George W. Bush during "A Concert for Hurricane Relief".
Comments