CHRIS Rock returned to Saturday Night Live and opened the show with a blistering monologue that took aim at everyone from Jake Paul to Bill Clinton.
The controversial comedian, 60, savaged YouTuber turned boxer Paul after he defeated former heavyweight king Mike Tyson in a huge stadium fight.
4
4
He said: “Who is this Jake Paul? This 27-year-old punching a 60-year-old in the face. Is this what the white man has reduced himself to? Stop it! Who’s he going to fight next, Morgan Freeman? I hate Jake Paul. I got landlord hate for him.”
Rock weighed in on the murder of healthcare boss Brian Thompson and the glorification of his alleged killer Luigi Mangione.
He ranted: “I really feel sorry for the family. Everybody’s fixated on how good-looking this guy looks.
“If he looked like Jonah Hill, no one would care. They’d already given him the chair already — he’d be dead. But he actually killed a man — a man with a family, a man with kids. I have condolences.
“This is a real person, you know? But you also got to go, ‘You know, sometimes drug dealers get shot.’”
And he served former President Bill Clinton a zinger when comparing him to Donald Trump.
In defense of two-time President Trump, he fired: “Come on, man, this is not the most dignified job in the world.
“We’ve had presidents show up to the inauguration with pregnant slaves, okay? And I’m just talking about Bill Clinton.”
The seven-minute opening gambit certainly had some memorable lines but viewers were distracted by the way Rock was reliant on the teleprompter.
One person posted on X: “Chris Rock’s acting is pretty terrible. Like my guy is reading straight from the teleprompter and struggling.”
Another said: “Is Chris Rock reading straight from the teleprompter?”
A third wrote: “Watching snl rn and chris rock didn’t memorize a single line.”
In his defense, one said: “Chris Rock is 60 yrs old. Memorization gets a lot harder at that age. His delivery was good, despite relying on the teleprompter. I laughed during the monologue. Sure, lots of his jokes have an edge, but his take is funny.”
Elsewhere in the show, Rock was joined by his Hollywood pal Adam Sandler for a gory medical sketch.
The pair starred together on SNL in the early 90s and some of that old magic was still there.
Rock, Bowen Yang, Ego Nwodim, Emil Wakim and Sarah Sherman were partnered together for the laugh out loud scene.
Sherman played a hapless nurse called Leslie who made blunder after blunder on a patient lying underneath a blue sheet.
Among her gaffes was the removal of the wrong organ, prompting her to say: “Oh my God. I’m so embarrassed. Okay, I’m just going to own it, that was me.”
4
4
An X-ray then showed an AirPod in the patient’s chest, which Leslie was again responsible for.
The patient, who was played by Sandler, then woke up having not been given enough anesthetic.
Blood sprayed everywhere, before Sandler said: “If Leslie was a guy, would I punch her in the face? Yes. If I were a woman, would I punch her in the face? Without a doubt.
“But every workplace needs a Leslie. Yeah. Everyone needs – everyone needs a Leslie.”
The chaotic sketch ended with Leslie unplugging Sandler’s heart monitor to charge her AirPods.
