The 'Abbott Elementary' star kicked off her 'Saturday Night Live' debut by schooling her audience.
Quinta Brunson had a real-life "pinch me" moment on April 1. The Abbott Elementary creator and star made her Saturday Night Live debut as the night's guest, and according to her monologue, it was a long time coming.
Brunson shared that she had always dreamed of being on SNL when she was a kid, but the audition process "seemed long," so she took the simple route when she "created my own TV show, made sure it became really popular, won a bunch of Emmys and then got asked to host and it was so much easier!"
The 33-year-old went on about the network sitcom's success, at one point comparing it to Friends. "Except instead of being about a group of friends, it's about a group of teachers. And instead of New York, it's in Philadelphia. And instead of not having Black people -- it does," she joked.
Brunson then shared that viewers seemed to expect her to fix problems within the public school system in real life, much like her character, Janine Teagues. But, as she explained, she's the "opposite" of her character and still learning how to deal with her fame. The actress joked that it comes with the price of lying to her mother -- especially about some of the famous faces she's been introduced to recently.
After showing a video she and Barack Obama recorded to thank her mother for being a teacher, Brunson ended her monologue with the statement that teachers get "taken for granted."
"Please remember how important teachers are, acknowledge the work they do every day and for the love of God, pay them the money they deserve," she concluded.
Brunson took part in various sketches later in the show, including one where she played one of various drugs dealers try to one-up each other in a bathroom, another where she played a doctor who keeps running into the same midwife, and one in which she portrayed an increasingly concerned partner in a "Couple Goals" game show.
One other moment from the show saw the actress play one of the many people who were lured into acting as bridesmaids in a cult documentary a la Wild Wild Country.
Lil Yachty, also made his first-ever SNL appearance, playing selections from his latest LP Let's Start Here.
Next week's episode will feature Molly Shannon as the host and the Jonas Brothers as musical guest.
Saturday Night Live airs live coast-to-coast at 11:30 p.m. ET/ 8:30 p.m. PT on NBC.
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