'Saturday Night Live's' 50th-season finale honors Billy Joel with 'Piano Man' parody
Scarlett Johansson and the cast of "Saturday Night Live" offered a tribute to Billy Joel's "Piano Man" on the show's final episode of its 50th season. Credit: Getty Images for Time / Dimitrios Kambouris
Host Scarlett Johansson and the cast of "Saturday Night Live" paid tribute to Billy Joel's anthem "Piano Man" on the show's final episode of its 50th season.
In her opening monologue, Johansson led the cast in a song with lyrics about the show set to the tune of Joel's iconic hit.
Johansson led off with “It’s 11:30 on a Saturday / finale of Season 50 / it’s chaotic and crazy, the whole week is hazy / but there’s no place that I’d rather be.” She was joined by Bowen Yang, who added: “Sometimes we play likable characters / other times we play JD Vance / it’s not always funny, we don’t do it for money / or else Sarah [Sherman] would buy better pants.”
It even looked like Joel himself might show up when Johansson announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, Billy Joel … " A long pause followed, by "... wrote this song!”
The parody continued with several more verses, including a Q&A set to the tune with Kenan Thompson playing an audience member.
The cast concluded the song with “The 50th season is through / it lasted forever / we did it together / and we got to spend it with you.”
Andy Edelstein, Newsday's entertainment editor, supervises coverage of TV, celebrities, movies and pop music. He has written three books on popular culture, including "The Brady Bunch Book."
More Entertainment
Most Popular
Top Stories
