Saturday Night Live leaned into the fact that Gen Z queen Billie Eilish is decades younger than many members of the cast — and host Woody Harrelson — with a promo that played homage to all those high school tropes.
In the preview, Eilish holds a marble notebook and stares up at 30 Rock, nervous and excited to grace the stage at Saturday Night Live for the very first time during the show’s season 45 premiere. Fortunately, Harrelson is there to show her where the stage is, a la a seasoned high school “super senior.”
“I hosted '89, '92, '14, so I know my way around this place,” Harrelson explains.
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“That's cool. I was not alive for most of that,” retorts Eilish, who was born in 2001.
Eilish then greets the other members of the SNL gang, including Michael Che and Colin Jost who try (and fail) to knock Eilish’s books out of her hand. Eilish, being Eilish, never drops her assured gaze, even as Melissa Villaseñor attempts to out-audition her for the role of musical guest.
It was really inevitable that jokes about Eilish’s age would make themselves into Saturday Night Live. Despite being just 17, the singer has already performed to massive crowds at Coachella, held a number one song on the Billboard charts, and recorded a remix of said hit with her icon Justin Bieber.
Eilish is one of the younger people to appear on Saturday Night Live, though she’s not the youngest. Drew Barrymore was just seven when she hosted the sketch show for the first time in 1982. Macaulay Culkin, coming off Home Alone’s success, was 11 when he hosted in 1991.
Check out the promo below:
Eilish joins a season that includes musical guests like Taylor Swift and Camila Cabello and hosts like Stranger Things star David Harbour and Emmy winner Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
The season 45 premiere of SNL airs this Saturday at 11:30 pm on NBC.