Comedians Pete Davidson and Kate McKinnon bow out of Saturday Night Live
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Pete Davidson (left) joined the cast in 2014 while Kate McKinnon joined in 2012.
PHOTOS: SCREENGRABS FROM SNL/INSTAGRAM
NEW YORK (NYTIMES) - American sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live (SNL), broadcast its final episode of the season on Saturday (May 21) - but for some performers, it was also their final episode ever.
Comedians saying goodbye included Kate McKinnon, who joined the cast in 2012, and Pete Davidson, who joined in 2014.
In a break with recent tradition that perhaps reflects how much 38-year-old McKinnon - who has also acted in films such as Ghostbusters (2016) - has meant to the show over the years, SNL did not start with a topical cold-open sketch.
Instead, it began with an entry in its long-running Close Encounter series, in which McKinnon has played Ms Rafferty, an alleged alien abductee with a knack for double entendres who seems a little too delighted to have been kidnapped to outer space.
At the end of the sketch, McKinnon volunteered to leave with the extraterrestrials. "I always felt like an alien on this planet anyway," she said. As she stepped onto their spacecraft, she addressed the audience and said, "Well, Earth, I love you. Thanks for letting me stay a while."
Meanwhile, Pete Davidson, 28, headed to the Weekend Update desk to look back on his time at SNL. The Weekend Update segment - where performers mock current events - is the show's longest running segment.
"I never imagined this would be my life," Davidson mused. Although no one seemed to know what race he was then, he said, "now everyone knows I'm white, because I became hugely successful while barely showing up to work."
Davidson - who has made headlines for dating celebrities such as Ariana Grande and Kim Kardashian - also hoped that his time on the show would "inspire hope that literally anyone could be on Saturday Night Live."
He also pre-recorded a rap performance called Forgot About Lorne, similar to his previous rap parodies of Eminem songs. It referenced legendary SNL creator and producer, Lorne Michaels.
And in honour of Davidson's departure from SNL, Eminem himself showed up during the clip.
"I would just stop. (Your rap parodies) all suck … Just please, stop … It's really bad," the popular American rapper told Davidson, who shamefacedly agreed, bringing the sketch to a close.
