Olivia Rodrigo’s SNL Hosting Debut Brought the Best Jake Paul Joke of the Year, and He Loved It

Olivia Rodrigo’s long-awaited first turn as host of ‘Saturday Night Live’ delivered one of the sharpest monologue moments of the season, and it came courtesy of a very unexpected name from her Disney past. Rodrigo pulled double duty on the May 2 episode, making her hosting debut while also serving as musical guest, and she wasted no time proving she could hold her own in front of the Studio 8H crowd.

The three-time Grammy winner recounted some of her early projects as a child actor, acknowledging that she used to be co-stars with Jake Paul on the Disney Channel series ‘Bizaardvark’. The setup landed perfectly. She framed the two of them as wide-eyed kids with very different visions of the future, and the punchline wrote itself. The joke directly referenced Paul’s 2024 boxing match against Mike Tyson, which streamed on Netflix, with Rodrigo wrapping the whole bit up with an enthusiastic “and we both did it, hooray!”

Paul took to social media shortly after, sharing a clip of her monologue and writing that they both “had the vision,” that he had told her she would sell stadiums out, and that he was genuinely proud of her. The response was disarmingly warm.

When a commenter suggested he had missed the point and that she was laughing at him rather than with him, Paul replied that he fully understood she was making a joke at his expense, adding that she was on SNL and that is simply what they do there, and that it did not change his admiration for her or her success.

On Instagram, Paul also posted a throwback photo of the two of them on the set of ‘Bizaardvark’ and reposted his tweet set to Rodrigo’s smash debut single “drivers license.” The whole exchange was the kind of lighthearted celebrity interaction the internet genuinely needed, with both former castmates coming out looking good.

The SNL appearance marked Rodrigo’s third time on the show overall, but her first as host, and the first occasion she served in both the host and musical guest roles simultaneously. She had previously appeared as a musical guest in May 2021 and December 2023. Beyond the Jake Paul moment, she also performed a parody of her breakout hit “drivers license,” cleverly rewriting the lyrics to joke about the modern nightmare of getting a Real ID, and she performed new material ahead of a major release cycle.

Her lead single “Drop Dead” had already broken records for her career upon its April release, marking her fourth number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Her third studio album, ‘You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,’ is set to arrive on June 12. She also announced The Unraveled Tour, a 65-date run across North America, Europe, and the UK, kicking off September 25 in Hartford and featuring support from acts including The Last Dinner Party and Wolf Alice.

Between a headline-grabbing monologue, two live performances, and a genuinely funny ongoing moment with Jake Paul playing out across social media, the episode was a statement of arrival for Rodrigo as a full-blown entertainment force. If this is what her album era looks like before the record even drops, the question worth debating now is whether ‘You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love’ could turn out to be the biggest pop album of the year.