Alan Duke
CNN
(CNN) — CNN anchor Anderson Cooper played the groom in a surreal wedding scene send-off for Bill Hader’s Stefon character on the season finale of “Saturday Night Live.”
Hader announced last week that he was leaving SNL after eight seasons to move to California and get more sleep, which meant his memorable characters were also saying goodbye.
Stefon — Weekend Update’s New York City correspondent — gave one last report Saturday night, rushing off the set after telling anchor Seth Meyers, “You never respect me.”
“I didn’t want to do this here, but I’ve met someone else, and he’s a lot like you, except he likes me for me, and we are getting married,” Stefon said. “Bye, Seth Meyers.”
Stefon has always appeared to have a unrequited gay crush on the straight Meyers, but now Meyers seemed hurt by the rejection.
“Hey, go to him,” Meyers’ “platonic work friend” Amy Poehler said. “It’s never too late. Follow your heart.”
Thus began a bizarre pre-produced segment that parodied the “Wayne’s World” parody of Dustin Hoffman’s frantic run to interrupt his true love’s wedding in “The Graduate.”
Meyers ran from NBC’s Rockefeller Center headquarters down 5th Avenue to Marble Collegiate Church, where he found Stefon at the altar.
Fetish characters described in Stefon’s many SNL reports made up the bridal party, including “human traffic cones” as bridesmaids.
The camera panned to reveal his groom — Anderson Cooper.
A brawl ensued when Cooper stopped Meyers in the aisle. “Get ready for Anderson Cooper — 360!” he said as he went into a slow motion round-about spin. But one punch from Meyers knocked Cooper out.
Meyers grabbed Stefon, and the couple dashed away, while DJ Baby Bok Choy — another character from Stefon’s reports — blocked Cooper from following. Wedding guests — including smurfs, a gremlin and Alf — converged to celebrate.
Ben Affleck, host of the last episode of SNL’s 38th season, made a cameo appearance, yelling to Meyers: “Follow your heart, bro. Follow it!”
Meyers and Stefon then reappeared live on the “Weekend Update” set as SNL cast members tossed rice on them.
Meyers is taking over NBC’s “Late Night” show next year, although he is expected to return to SNL for season 39.