‘Saturday Night Live’ opens with Cecily Strong, touching tribute to Paris attacks

There is at times great sorrow in comedy, and at the same time there can also be great hope. That is why so many of us tend to turn to it during difficult times.

We cannot say that we are surprised that “Saturday Night Live” began the show with a brief but touching tribute to those who have lost their lives in France over this weekend, as they have done many touching tributes after tragic events. Take, for example, opening with the choir following with the attack on Sandy Hook.

The opening for this weekend’s show hosted by Elizabeth Banks featured cast member Cecily Strong standing center stage as she said that the thoughts of both her and many other cast and crew members are with those who have suffered and lost loved ones over the past 36 hours. In addition to speaking the message in English, she also expressed her sentiments in French. (We do not speak French fluently, so we cannot provide, sadly, an accurate translation.) We are not sure if Strong was the only cast member who spoke French, but with her status as one of the faces of the franchise, it made sense for her to deliver this message.

While it may have been a brief way to introduce the show, we feel like “SNL” wanted to pay their respects in a way that was direct and serious. Also, in doing it in this way they were able to address the story of the past two days and then move forward to what they consider to be their job: Making people laugh during hard times. They’ve been this way now for several decades and following many tragedies.

As we’ve noted before, our hearts and thoughts go out to everyone in France as they continue to recover from the terrible events.

We’re going to have more updates on “Saturday Night Live” over the course of the night over at the link here. That’s also where we are going to review the rest of the episode, given that it really does not make sense for us to review comedy in a silly way in this spot. (Photo: NBC.)

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