Pedro Pascal hosts SNL with musical guest Coldplay

Entertainment

The “Game of Thrones” actor made his hosting debut, while Coldplay made its seventh appearance on the show.

Actor Pedro Pascal made his hosting debut on “Saturday Night Live” last night, promoting his buzzy new show “The Last of Us” and his return to the new season of the Star Wars series “The Mandalorian.” He’s also known for his role as Oberyn Martell in HBO’s “Game of Thrones.” 

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin recently told Toronto’s City News that they’re finishing up their 10th studio album — the band made their seventh appearance at Studio 8H to play a few old hits.

Cold Open

Katy Tur (Chloe Fineman) is reporting on the recently shot down Chinese balloon, joined by a Pentagon general (Keenan Thompson) who walks her through the mission of shooting down the balloon after it somehow gained access to American airspace, getting past the West Coast Anti Balloon Defense System, or the Seattle Space Needle. 

Katy Tur then goes to the balloon floating in the ocean (Bowen Yang). He was just flying over Montana because he loves the show “Yellowstone,” and Tur points out that the balloon is the size of three buses. “Everyone’s being surveilled constantly,” complains Yang, “but it’s always ‘shoot the balloon’ and never ‘unplug Alexa.’”

Monologue

Pedro Pascal gives a short but sweet monologue, touching on filming “The Mandalorian” behind a mask and “The Last of Us” in the freezing cold Canadian Rockies, and shouting out some of his old “Law & Order” characters from early in his career. He choked up when he references his parents fleeing Chile to the States when he was an infant, and he shouts out his 34 first cousins who live in Chile and won’t stop giving out his phone number.

The Big Hollywood Quiz

It’s a game show about Hollywood’s history, hosted by Bowen Yang. The contestants (Pascal, Ego Nwodim, Fineman) answer questions about old shows and movies like “Mash” and “All About Eve,” but no one seems to know anything about current entertainment trends. No one can name the current most-watched show on the most-watched streaming platform (“Ginny and Georgia”) or the Apple TV dramas that Nicole Kidman or Samuel L. Jackson have starred in this past year.

HBO Mario Kart Trailer

HBO’s new hit, “The Last of Us,” was based on a video game, so HBO is turning another popular video game into an apocalyptic drama — “Mario Kart.” Pascal is Mario, transporting Princess Peach (Fineman) with the help of characters like Luigi (Mikey Day) and Yoshi (Bowen Yang). It’s impressively complex for a pre-taped bit, and plays on not only HBO dramas but also the upcoming “Super Mario” movie starring Chris Pratt.

Waking Up

Pedro Pascal wakes up from a months-long coma and doesn’t remember his wife or sister. And he’s also speaking with this “LA mush mouth thing,” says Keenan Thompson. Pascal keeps wanting to “put a pin” in things, and he breaks multiple times — the audience loves it. 

Wing Pit

What starts as a chicken wing Super Bowl commercial quickly escalates — Wing Pit can deliver two dozen wings and two sauces to your door for $24.99, or they can send in 3,000 wings in a contractor bag thrown straight through your window, plus a kiddie pool of ranch sauce.

Coldplay

The British rock band played a couple of their hits: “The Astronaut” and a mashup of “Human Heart” and “Fix You.”

Weekend Update 

Advertisement

During Weekend Update, Colin Jost and Michael Che make more jokes about the Chinese spy balloon, along with George Santos, the Super Bowl, and a bear that took selfies on a wildlife camera. Punxsutawney Phil (Michael Longfellow) came on to discuss seeing his shadow.

Protective Mom

Pascal plays the protective mom, and Marcello Hernandez has brought his new girlfriend, Brittany (Chloe Fineman), home to meet her. Pascal and Hernandez talk about Brittany in Spanish, letting English phrases slip like “nice white girl,” and “unisex apparel,” and “hit it and quit it.”