'Saturday Night Live': Bill Hader Brings Back Stefon for St. Patrick's Day Tips

Bill Hader hosted Saturday Night Live this weekend, and just had to bring back his most famous [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Bill Hader hosted Saturday Night Live this weekend, and just had to bring back his most famous character, Stefon. It is the first time he appeared as the City Correspondent for Weekend Update since 2015's SNL 40th Anniversary Special.

Stefon showed up to give everyone helpful hints on what to do on St. Patrick's Day. His first hottest club was "GEERRSSHHH inspired by true events." Stefon also told us that all of New York's hottest clubs also have Roman J. Israel, Esq.

John Mulaney also made a cameo appearance as Stefon's gold-tie-wearing lawyer who told him it was politically correct to refer to people of short stature as "little people."

The sketch also ended with a Late Night with Seth Meyers reference, when Stefon started a "Closer Look" segment.

"Seth and I are versatile. Some nights, he does it and I'm under the desk!"

Stefon has been a big hit with fans since he debuted on Weekend Update in 2010. However, the character began in a 2008 episode hosted by Ben Affleck. In the sketch, "Movie Pitch with Stefon," Affleck co-starred as Stefon's brother, David. When Affleck returned in 2013, he played Sefon's brother again.

Stefon was always prepared to tell Seth Meyers about the "New York's hottest clubs," which were often incredibly inappropriate for tourists visting the Big Apple. He also had a crush on Meyers. At one point, they got "married." In the 40th Anniversary special, Stefon reveals that he has children with Meyers, while Edward Norton joined to impersonate him. Hader almost always breaks character during Stefon's appearances.

Since leaving SNL in 2013, Hader has played Stefon three times on the show. He appeared in Melissa McCarthy's 2014 episode, making a cameo during Meyers' last Weekend Update. When Hader returned to host in October 2014, he stopped by to tell Michael Che he was pregnant.

The character was developed with writer John Melnaey. While on Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2014, Mulaney explained the genesis of the character.

"I knew a guy who was trying to start, not a club, but like do you remember when in New York, sort of pre-Bloomberg, there'd be club spaces," Mulaney told Meyers. "There'd be like a boat, that was haunted on the river near the West Side Highway and people would go 'let's party in there and maybe we'll die too'... And he would list things... 'this is gonna have everything, this is gonna have jacked old men... people dressed as babies... farm animals.' He would just list and stare."

Mulaney said Stefon also has a little bit of a "Barista who would always cover his face" that Hader knew. Combine the two, and you get the Stefon character fans love.

New episodes of Saturday Night Live air on NBC at 11:30 p.m. ET.

Photo credit: YouTube / NBC

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