The late, fabulously popular Betty White was back on stage on “Saturday Night Live,” thanks to the magic of reruns, to remind us why she was so beloved and what a loss it is that she’s gone.
“Many of you know that I’m 88-and-a-half years old, so ... it’s great to be here for a number of reasons,” she quipped in her monologue in the May 2010 episode that “SNL” re-aired Saturday in a tribute to her. (She died Friday in her Los Angeles home just weeks before her 100th birthday.)
White told the audience then that no one wanted to do live TV when she started back in 1952 with her live sitcom “Life of Elizabeth,” but “we just didn’t know to tape things” yet.
She gave a nod to Facebook for the viral social media campaign that convinced “SNL” to invite her to be a guest host.
“Now that I do know” what Facebook is, “I have to say it sounds like a huge waste of time,” White cracked. “I would never say that people on it are losers, but that’s only because I’m polite.”
If she wanted to connect with old friends, White quipped, she didn’t need Facebook — but a Ouija board.
As for “poking” on Facebook, in her day it was “something you did on a hayride ... under a blanket,” White explained.
Now “I’m here tonight because you wanted me to be. ... I feel so loved,” she told the wildly enthusiastic audience. “If I could I would take you all on a big hayride ... starting with you, sir.”
White was a hit in “SNL” sketches in the episode, including in “MacGruber” (in which White reveals her “grandson’s” “micropenis”), in a discussion of White’s “muffins” on “NPR’s Delicious Dish” (“What are you waiting for, stupid? Eat it!”), and in “The Lawrence Welk Show.”
She returned for the 40th anniversary special of “SNL” in 2015 to appear in a steamy make-out session with Bradley Cooper in “The Californians.”
White won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her “SNL” episode. It was one of five prime-time Emmys she won in a career that spanned over half a century.
Check out White’s “SNL” sketches below:
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