James Franco’s new film The Disaster Artist chronicles the making of Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 cult film The Room. While we’d rather be watching The Deuce, and not necessarily for Franco’s contributions, the actor hosted SNL last night to promote the movie and spread some Christmas cheer.
While some of us are still weirded out over Franco’s text exchange with a 17-year-old girl a few years back, the audience was thrilled with his appearance, including a sketch where Franco plays a disgraced CFO who loses his job for sexual harassment. A second employee in the sketch, played by Kenan Thompson, gets away with sexual harassment because he’s charming, which pretty much sums up a lot of feelings about Franco’s behavior whether his teen text flirtation was a gross prank to promote his movie Palo Alto or not. But, hey, at least The Deuce is still pretty interesting despite starring one too many James Francos for your editor’s liking.
See how the rest of last night’s SNL episode went down, below.
The Best
“Visit with Santa Cold Open
Kate McKinnon’s #wokeelf is just over it.
“Scrudge”
Scrudge (Beck Bennett) spreads his misery at your friend’s Christmas party.
“Christmas Charity”
A woman gets into the holiday spirit by helping a homeless man, otherwise known as James Franco.
“Za”
So glad I learned a slang word for pizza that I will never use.
“Spelling Bee”
Spelling Bee . . . therapy session . . . it’s all the same.
“Sexual Harassment Charlie”
Further proof that old people get away with everything.
“Gift Wrap”
I’m dreaming of a red Christmas.
“Weekend Update”
Michael Che shares his experiences as a white woman named Gretchen.
The Worst
“James Franco Audience Questions Monologue”
I guess I learned how to properly pronounce SZA’s name? (Hi, Steve Martin!)
“Reunion”
Cousin Mandy is really worried about James’ career — and I’m really worried about this episode overall.
Musical Guest: SZA