Druski hosted Saturday Night Live on November 7, and NBC’s long-running sketch show has never had a host quite like him. The comedian, born Drew Desbordes, is the first star to front the show who built his career as a digital creator, turning skits on Instagram and YouTube into a following of roughly 13 million on Instagram alone. The Strokes were the musical guest.
The night leaned on friends. Emma Stone, who appears alongside Druski in the upcoming baseball comedy The Catch, dropped into his monologue, and his grandmother, a regular presence in his online videos, got one of the biggest laughs of the opening. Walton Goggins sat in on bongos during a Strokes performance, and Texas politician James Talarico turned up in the cold open.
When the cast gathered for goodnights, Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock were standing up front, a quiet co-sign from two of the comics who have defined the job of hosting SNL as a Black stand-up. Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler were spotted behind them.
Critics were mixed on the sketches themselves. The A.V. Club graded the episode a C+, but singled out a proposal sketch that tipped into a musical number as the strongest piece of the night and praised Druski’s musical instincts in a hip-hop segment.
The booking caps a big year. Druski hosted the BET Awards in June, and his Netflix comedy series Collect and Praise, made with Mike Epps, is due in December.
Our take
Whatever you thought of the individual sketches, this was a door opening. For years the industry treated internet comedians as a farm team for ‘real’ TV; Druski got to Studio 8H on the strength of an audience he built himself, and Chappelle and Rock showing up said the old guard sees him as one of their own. The real test is whether he can turn one historic night into a run of work that lasts.
Sources: theGrio, The A.V. Club, Boston.com, Complex
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