Quick pop culture pop quiz: How many years has it been since Bill Murray last hosted Saturday Night Live?
If you guessed any number lower than "25 whole goddamn years," then you have failed this particular crucible of late night TV knowledge; Murray has actually been a relatively rare return guest to the series that helped make him famous, not hosting since he got his Five Timers Club jacket back in February of 1999. (He has made a few guest appearances since, but never as host.) Now, though, Murray is publicly floating the idea of making one last trip back to Studio 8H, saying on a recent podcast appearance that "I told ‘em I’d like to host one this year. So maybe if I get organized. I think I did it two other times when I was there. I’d like to try it one more time. It might be the last time to try it.”
Murray, 74, has, of course, now reached that age where people start printing your age after your name when they talk about you in print. (Also, his last few years have been kind of a bummer.) But that didn't stop him from going on Travis and Jason Kelce's New Heights podcast this week, where, in addition to trying to drum up a little work, he also defended the current Saturday Night Live cast from the same accusations of lousiness that have dogged basically every Saturday Night Live cast since the first one. "People always give me a hard time about, ‘Oh, the original show was so great and it’s lousy now,’” Murray said. “And I say, ‘No, it’s not.’ The show that’s on now, they do stuff that’s just as good as anybody ever did, all the time.” Which is very nice, unless you choose to interpret it the mean way, which you absolutely could.
