‘SNL’ Guest Chance the Rapper Is a Pumpkin-Carving Champ in Hilarious Promo

While preparing for this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live, Chance the Rapper and cast member Ego Nwodim took the time to have a pumpkin-carving competition. The four-time SNL guest star proved his skills with a carving knife, although Nwodim gave him a real challenge. Chance is serving as both host and musical performer Saturday night.

At the start of the online skit to promote tonight’s episode, Nwodim asked Chance to show off his work. He first carved the number “3” into his pumpkin. Nwodim called it a little sloppy, which disappointed Chance. However, it inspired them both to compete for the best pumpkin carver in Studio 8H.

Both showed off some incredible carving skills, until Nwodim suggested she would carve Jennifer Aniston. Chance already did that though, carving a Friends-era Aniston portrait into his pumpkin.

Next, Nwodim carved the New York City skyline into another pumpkin. Chance then showed off his pumpkin, but it did not look like he did not have much to show. It turned out he gutted the pumpkin and put Pumpkin soup inside it.

Kyle Mooney then walked in with his own pumpkin, into which he carved “Chance the Rapper Host and Musical Guest This Saturday.”

“It’s kind of basic,” Nwodim said.

“I like it,” Chance added.

“Oh Chance!” Mooney said.

This is Chance the Rapper’s fourth time on SNL. The 26-year-old, born Chancellor Jonathan Bennett, first appeared as a performer in Chris Hemsworth’s 2015 episode. He also peformed “Ultralight Beam” with Kanye West in 2016 and performed in Casey Affleck’s 2016 episode. He pulled double-duty for an episode in 2017.

The 2017 episode featured the Emmy-winning viral sketch “Come Back, Barack,” in which he joined Chris Redd and Kenan Thompson to perform a ’90s R&B-inspired song, pleading for President Barack Obama to come back to work. Chance also starred in a side-splitting sketch as a Knicks reporter forced to cover a Rangers game for MSG Network, even though he was completely unprepared to talk about hockey.

His latest appearance on SNL follows the release of his first studio album The Big Day, released in July. Chance also released the video for “We Go High” earlier this month. The performer will start the tour to support the album on Jan. 15 in San Diego.

The album was inspired by Chance’s marriage to Kirsten Corley and was criticized by his fans. In a now-deleted tweet from August, Chance said he was “getting this crazy feeling that people want me to kill myself” after the backlash.

“That’s not my vibe at all, but i feel the push. And I feel like even more than that, some people want me to feel ashamed. Shame is heavy yo. And feeling shame for something that you were once prideful about is super heavy,” he tweeted. What’s really weird is that music is the number one thing that influences how I feel on the daily. Like can really push me to one side or the other. And thats super raw to me. Cause I’m sure there’s other people that get their fuel from music.”

Chance went on to thank those who reached out to him and his family for their support.

“The number one thing thats been on my heart and has been reaffirmed in the last week that I’m now 100% sure of is.. That I LOVE my wife,” he tweeted.

SNL airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET.

Photo credit: Rosalind O’Connor/NBC