Detroit’s own Keegan-Michael Key mentioned his hometown almost immediately after first appearing as the host of “Saturday Night Live”.
But if you watched, did you hear him say the name of the city?
About a minute after Key made his appearance on Saturday night, he described himself as a “superfan” of the show since he was a kid.
“I grew up one block south of 8 Mile Road in Detroit and snuck downstairs every week to see ‘SNL’. And if you had said so, if you had told this kid that he’d be here on this one day The stage would be … “
Key paused for a moment, then joked, “He would probably have been too busy stealing your wallet to hear what you said. But I’ve come a long way since then and it’s a great honor to be here . “
You might have been distracted at this point if you among them asked yourself, “Did NBC only censor him because he said Detroit?”
A flurry of tweets found that some sort of audio glitch apparently muted or cut out the word “Detroit” during Key’s comments.
“From Second City in Detroit to the @nbcsnl stage and we couldn’t hear Keegan Michael-Key say the name of Motor City? I feel robbed,” wrote Karen Dybis, a freelance writer who has written several books with Detroit links .
“Why did #SNL Detroit blow the monologue?” Tweeted Duane Matthew Becker, executive producer of WLWT-TV, an NBC affiliate in Cincinnati.
Vanity Fair magazine also noted something was wrong, writing in its recap, “In his exuberant monologue, Key called out his roots as an SNL superfan out of Detroit (although the response was oddly subdued, as if the editors mentioned another City wouldn’t allow. “On New York lawn) and then quickly broke into a song. “
It is unclear why the problem occurred or whether it was widespread or only at certain stations or cable outlets. Keys’ monologue video clip, which was posted on YouTube’s “SNL” channel and on the NBC official website, went straight to the point.
Efforts to reach the network during and after the program aired were unsuccessful.
Most of Key’s monologue was reserved for a musical number that compared online to the 1991 track in which “SNL” host Steve Martin sang, “I’m not going to call tonight.”
Key’s lyrics were: “I’ll do anything tonight, every single SNL thing tonight / sketches and voices and songs tonight, like the ones I’m singing now.” He even did a medium number costume change. He revealed another tuxedo under the one he was already wearing.
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During the 90-minute live broadcast, Key played a variety of characters, including a high school correspondent covering a prom live, an aging Broadway legend who did not act as a tribute to George Gershwin and one of the family members remembered his lyrics at a high school graduation who ignored a headmaster’s request to hold his applause until everyone was announced.
In a filmed launch of Netflix’s hit documentaries “The Last Dance,” Key portrayed a relentless Michael Jordan who persuaded a security guard (Heidi Gardner) to place increasingly expensive bets on a quarterly match.
The climax of the episode was a sketch with Key and Kenan Thompson as security guards for “The Muppet Show”, who turn violent when Statler and Waldorf refuse to stop their usual heckling.
Key, who tweeted “Dreams Come True” when announcing his hosting appearance, said at the end of the show: “That was better than the dream!”
Contact pop culture critic Julie Hinds of Detroit Free Press at [email protected].
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