Aubrey Plaza hosted the first episode of “SNL” of 2023, and yes, obviously she was a delight. But perhaps the most delightful moment of the episode came during “Weekend Update,” when Plaza resurrected the role that made her a star — April Ludgate from “Parks and Recreation” — and then held a “Parks and Rec” reunion with Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope.
And to be clear, if you’re the kind of person who gets cheered up by “Parks and Rec” rewatching, then prepare to be cheered the hell up, because it was great. And you can watch the whole clip here right now.
The bit started when “Weekend Update” anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che announced that April Ludgate was goin to come out and talk about working for government. Obviously because Ludgate works for the Parks and Recreation department of the city of Pawnee, Indiana.
Plaza, wearing a hoodie and embodying the April Ludgate goth-who-doesn’t-wear-black vibe, came out and said some real funny stuff. And then she was joined by Poehler, in character as Knope. Poehler, of course, use to anchor “Weekend Update,” first alongside Tina Fey and then with Seth Meyers, before leaving “SNL” in 2008 to star in “Parks and Rec,” which launched in 2009.
So of course Poehler launched into a stream, of very meta jokes about weekend update, pretending not to know anything about how “SNL” works — and of course, she made it clear Leslie Knope is still mad horny for Joe Biden, which was especially relevant since Biden recorded a fun message for Plaza earlier in the show (a fun reference to the time 5 years ago when Plaza was declared the most famous person from Delaware; in fairness Biden hadn’t been elected president yet.)
In any case, it was delightful, and you can watch the whole gag at the top of the page.
Also, NBC, if you see this: Please make the “Parks and Rec” COVID fundraiser special available for streaming.