Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s ‘Singing in the Rain’ ‘SNL’ Monologue Resurfaces – But You Can’t Find it on Peacock

Musical fans got a treat on Twitter over the weekend when Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s long-lost 2009 Saturday Night Live monologue resurfaced. Gordon-Levitt performed a perfect recreation of Donald O’Connor’s “Make ‘Em Laugh” sequence from Singin’ In The Rain in Studio 8H on Rockefeller Plaza. Unfortunately, this joyous routine has never been properly available online due to music rights. You can’t even find it on Peacock, as the entire monologue is wiped out from the episode, which aired on Nov. 21, 2009.

Rather than a traditional monologue, Gordon-Levitt used his SNL debut to perform “Make ‘Em Laugh” live. Throughout the performance, Gordon-Levitt’s infectious joy is visible as he can’t believe he is being allowed to do this. Bobby Moynihan, who was still a cast member at this point, hilariously punches the host, but even that can’t stop him.

View on X

While Lorne Michaels may have allowed Gordon-Levitt to do this live, it appears NBC and Saturday Night Live never got the music rights to the song or the rights to rebroadcast the song in any way after its initial airing. Gordon-Levitt commented on the situation when the clip surfaced on Tumblr in 2010.

“Ha!Glad this got found, I was so bummed it didn’t get allowed online. Oh, the law,” he wrote. “Anyway, holy s— this feels like a long time ago.And since we’re on the subject, please indulge me to thank my friend Michael Rooney who worked tirelessly getting me ready to do this thing. He’s also the choreographer behind the (500) Days of Summer dance sequence, so yeah clearly he’s pretty f—in’ great.”

Gordon-Levitt, who can be seen in the penultimate episode of Poker Face Season 1 on Peacock, is a known musical fan. He even came close to starring in a Guys and Dolls remake with Channing Tatum back in 2013. The idea floated around Hollywood for years when 20th Century Fox had the rights to the property. Tatum specifically said the remake was Gordon-Levitt’s idea. Unfortunately, that exciting project never came to fruition. In 2019, Variety reported that Sony’s TriStar Pictures picked up the remake rights, but that hasn’t happened yet either.

Gordon-Levitt’s SNL episode is hardly the only one edited on Peacock. The streaming service has at least portions of every episode that has aired since 1975, but many are missing at least one or even multiple sketches, as well as performances from musical guests. Some run far less than the original 90-minute blocks they aired during. The version of the Nov. 21, 2009 episode published on Peacock runs only 50 minutes. Dave Matthews Band was the musical guest that night, and their performances are not included. (You do get a hilarious “What’s Up With That?” sketch featuring Al Gore and Mindy Kaling, though.)

SNL is now in its 48th season. The next new episode will air on April 1 and features Abbott Elementary star Quinta Brunson as host and Lil Yachty as musical guest. New episodes air Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.