SNL Pays Tribute to Ukraine

SNL “Saturday Night Live” normally starts off the show with some humor, but the comedy series started off the February 27th show with a tribute performance to Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion. 

That weekend SNL faced the question, "Would the show try to find tropical humor in the Russian Invasion of Ukraine?"

Host John Mulaney started the night off by introducing a performance by the Ukrainian Chorus Dumka of New York, who sang the hymn “Prayer for Ukraine”. At the end of the performance, cast members Kate McKinnin and Cecily Strong took to the stage behind an arrangement of candles which were shown to spell Kyiv the capital of Ukraine. Surrounding the table we're bouquets of yellow flowers, half of Ukraines national colors which are yellow and blue.

Then in his opening monologue, Mulaney addressed what he acknowledged has been so far “a very complicated” year for him. It was his fifth time hosting SNL show and his first reappearance since going to rehab, as he addressed in his opening monologue. He said“For many many reasons, I’m grateful to be here tonight after a very complicated year.  It’s always great to be somewhere that’s always emphasized sobriety and mental health," Mulaney quipped. Then he went on to talk about how he was in rehab for two months, his 12-week old son that he had with his current girlfriend Olivia Munn.

Later on in the show, Colin Jost and Micheal Che dedicated most of their segment, “Weekend Update”to discuss the tragedies that are happening in Ukraine and Vladmir Puton and his decisions.