Saturday Night Livebrought in football starPeyton Manningto talk about a weekend full of legendary football games but all he wanted to talk about wasEmily In Paris? DuringWillem Dafoe’s chaotically fun and weird turn as host, it seemed as ifWeekend Updatewanted to follow that same theme by having actual Super Bowl champion Manning talk about the games. The problem is that Manning didn’t want to talk about football.
For the most part,Weekend Updatecan be hit or miss. SometimesColin JostandMichael Chework really well on the Update desk and other times, the segment seems to drag on. Last night was one of the better cases where every joke seemed to land and if they weren’t sure of it, both Jost and Che made a show of how they were questioning the joke prior to delivering it. It helped to have an entire segment with Manning ranting about the second season ofEmily In Parisas well asAidy BryantandBowen Yangsharing “trends” and banishing shiny shoesto hell.
What worked so well with Manning’s segment is that it oddly felt genuine. When you have someone like Manning come on to the Update desk, if it isn’t something they actually care about or know, it can feel fake and disjointed. Instead, it seemed like Manning really wanted to talk about the second season ofEmily In Pariseven if he didn’t know the first season existed. Was this something Manning picked? I hope so. If not, he did anincrediblejob selling his love for the show to us.
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The Netflix series has gotten a lot of valid criticism for how it sells its main character Emily (Lily Collins) and how she’s somehow good at her job but we rarely see that on screen. The second season is, admittedly, better than the first, and watching as Manning explained the love triangle of the show through football plays was funnier than it should be. But that comes from Manning just genuinely having fun with the bit.
This should, honestly, be a recurring bit. It worked in a way that these celebrity appearances rarely do onWeekend Updateand gave us a new and refreshing look into Manning. Even if he maybe didn’t really spend his weekend watchingEmily In Paris, we can at least all believe that there is a world where he’s really invested in the love life of Emily Cooper.
