The December 6 episode of Saturday Night Live was hosted by James Franco, but musical guest Nicki Minaj practically stole the show and she proved to everyone that she could handle her own when it comes to comedy. In one skit, Minaj impersonated Beyonce who was a guest in a fictitious MTV show Jingle Ballerz which featured Taran Killam as Eminem, Kenan Thompson as Rick Ross, and James Franco as Riff Raff among others. The sketch attempted to explain the holiday season with the help of various hip hop personalities.
But Minaj didn’t stop there. She also impersonated Kim Kardashian during the Weekend Update segment, explaining that Kim’s controversial nude photos for Paper magazine were taken out of context because they didn’t include the correct backgrounds (a gynecology office, a classroom, and the Keystone pipeline).
During the second half of the show, Minaj joined Franco for another sketch. The skit is about a man who needs to create a new password but isn’t able to because his brain is too full of memories to store a new one. Nicki plays as herself in the skit, singing a few lines of her hit song “Anaconda”.
Nicki’s performance was another crowd-pleaser. She performed three songs from her upcoming third album The Pinkprint. Skylar Grey joined Minaj for a performance of the ballad Bed of Lies which she co-wrote with rapper. Minaj also performed a medley of Only and All Things Go, the latter dealing with personal subject matter including a former engagement, the death of a cousin, and a pregnancy scare.
This is the second time that Minaj has appeared on the comedy show. During her first appearance on the program, she performed the songs Right Thru Me and Moment 4 Life from her album Pink Friday. She also appeared on a sketch with The Lonely Island called The Creep.