‘SNL’ Snags Adam Sandler to Host, Shawn Mendes to Perform for May 4 Episode

SNL has announced that it snagged Adam Sandler to host and Shawn Mendes to perform for their May 4 episode.

The news of Sandler hosting is a pretty big deal, as he has never hosted Saturday Night Live before.

Notably, the late-night sketch-comedy show gave him his biggest start in the industry, as he starred on it from 1990 until 1995.

Many of Sandler’s fans have since commented on the big announcement, with one tweeting, “Only took 25 years for Adam to come back home. It’s about time.”

“I want all of his comedian friends to cameo! I want opera man! I want Canteen Boy! This was long overdue!” another fan exclaimed.

Following his time in Saturday Night Live, Sandler went on to become one of the biggest comedy actors in the world. Classic movies like Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison proved his skill, and then he solidified his position with The Waterboy, Big Daddy, and Mr. Deeds.

His Grown Ups films have also been big box office draws, having grossed more than $500 million collectively on a combined budget of about $160 million.

More recently, Sandler and his Happy Madison production company partnered with Netflix to produce a series of films, including The Ridiculous 6, The Do-Over, and Sandy Wexler.

While audiences flock to his films — the three movies from his animated family film series Hotel Transylvania have collectively made over $1 billion at the global box office — critics are frequently not very receptive to his projects.

Sandler addressed this in a past interview with the Independent, saying, “I know what they’re writing about me. I could almost write the piece for them by now. But then remember that I didn’t get into movies to please the critics. I got into it to make people laugh and have fun with my friends.”

“Here’s how I think of my scripts. I sit in my room, and think up an idea. Then I call up all my friends and they say: ‘That’s awesome! You are the best,’ ” he went on to joke. “No, what really happens is that a group of us come up with an idea and work on it . We just riff around, make jokes, try and make each other laugh. Apart from with Grown Ups 2 of course. We just turned up without a script on the first day.”

Fans can tune into SNL on Saturday, May 4 to see Sandler return to his old stomping grounds and delivering some laughs.