Fans have been speculating whether Paul McCartney’s performance on the 50th anniversary episode of Saturday Night Live contained a nod to the iconic Chris Farley sketch.
The rock legend closed out the 50th-anniversary episode of the US sketch show with a medley performance featuring songs from ‘Abbey Road’. It marked his fifth time performing as a musical guest on the long-running sketch comedy show and his first time performing there since 2012.
During the set, Macca played three songs from The Beatles‘ iconic ‘Abbey Road’ record: ‘Golden Slumbers’, ‘Carry That Weight’ and ‘The End’.
Now, some are convinced that the decision to close out the set with ‘The End’ could be a nod towards a previous sketch the songwriter on the show.
This comes as the Beatle appeared as a musical guest on the episode broadcast back on February 13 1993, and also made a memorable appearance on The Chris Farley Show.
As highlighted by Consequence, the lighthearted skit saw Farely seem pretty starstruck when sitting with McCartney, eventually asking him about the lyrics to the song ‘The End’.
“‘In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.’ Is that true?” he asked the musician, before being overjoyed when the artist said he thinks it is.
At time of writing, it hasn’t been confirmed whether or not the decision to end with that song was an intentional nod to the 1993 appearance with Chris Farley, although it does seem likely given how many other Beatles classics the singer could have rounded off the night with.
Check out the performance on the 50th-anniversary episode below, and find the original moment with Chris Farley above.
Elsewhere on the show, performances came from the likes of Miley Cyrus and Lil Wayne, and both Sabrina Carpenter and Paul Simon kicked off the show with ‘Homeward Bound’ – which the latter had performed on the show with George Harrison in 1976.
With his medley, McCartney brought a close to a music-filled weekend for SNL, which had its own 50th-anniversary concert that saw the remaining members of Nirvana reunite with Post Malone on vocal duties.
Elsewhere, David Byrne joined Robyn for a rendition of ‘Dancing On My Own’, Jack White covered Neil Young and more.
Just before the appearance on the star-studded episode over the weekend, McCartney also played three surprise intimate shows at the 575-capacity Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan – just hours after announcing them on social media.
These followed the final show of his ‘Got Back’ 2024 tour, which was held at London’s O2 in December and was joined by his former Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr and The Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood.
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