Jason Bateman Talks Vaccine, Monkey Attack in 'SNL' Monologue

9:02 PM PST 12/5/2020 by Sharareh Drury

Hosting Saturday Night Live for the first time since 2005, Jason Bateman started off his monologue by joking that he has already received the COVID-19 vaccine.

Bateman discussed a sketch from his first SNL hosting gig, which starred a chimpanzee. He told the story of the monkey trying to bite his face during the credits of the episode.

"They hate that humans have faces and they want to remove them," he said, insisting that he was telling a true story. Footage from the episode backed him up, and Bateman poked fun at the show's past cast members—including Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph—for seemingly not caring about the monkey attacking him.

The Arrested Development and Ozark star last hosted for SNL five years ago alongside musical guest Kelly Clarkson.

This week's musical guest is country star Morgan Wallen, who had originally been slated for the second episode of the 46th season but was dropped after breaking COVID-19 safety protocols for the NBC variety sketch series. Wallen was replaced by Jack White for that episode.