‘Saturday Night Live’ Offers Touching Tribute to Paris

The show most known for hilarious cold openings took a different turn as “Saturday Night Live” instead featured dimly lit cast member Cecily Strong, clad only in black, speaking directly to the audience.

Strong then delivered the same message in French, before saying, “And now, live from NY, it’s Saturday night”. ‘& right here in NYC, we all know in that light won’t ever go out. Our love & support is with everybody there tonight. “We stand with you”. She also delivered the latter half of her monologue in French, something that was surprising and fitting.

The guest host for SNL was actress and director Elizabeth Banks and at the end of the episode, after thanking various people, she closed with: ‘God bless Paris’. In December 2012 following the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a children’s choir opened the show by singing “Silent Night”.

And in the first airing after 9/11, then-mayor Rudy Giuliani opened the show surrounded by a cadre of city police officers and firefighters. Giuliani’s response? Why start now?