What's better than Natasha Lyonne hosting Saturday Night Live? Saturday Night Live having all of Lyonne's Saturday Night Live friends come out during her monologue to welcome her into the show. A monologue can set the entire tone for the show and Lyonne knocked hers out of the park with both Maya Rudolph and Fred Armisen making appearances. Lyonne talked about how hosting was a big deal for her as she's a "real" New Yorker and has had connections to the show for as long as she can remember.
She's working with Amy Poehler on their Netflix show Russian Doll, and she's friends with some of the older cast members (and she dated Armisen for quite a few years) so her monologue was clearly her getting to be a part of this show that has meant a lot to her and also explaining a bit of her life.
Lyonne was a child star and says that her parents saw her talent and put her in auditions, and she brought a clip of her from The Pee-Wee Herman Show where she comes into the room to meet Pee-Wee Herman and loudly says "Hi" at him. From there, she talked about her life as a child star has led to her having multiple arrests and a drug addiction, but she came out of it all on the other side.
Monologues are a tough game with Saturday Night Live. In theory, your monologue can completely destroy your night. And so sometimes it's meant as a way to make the host a bit less nervous and ease them into it all but Lyonne felt like she was a natural at it. Making fun of her voice (as both Rudolph and Armisen did their own impressions of Lyonne), talking about her life, and joking that she glossed over decades in order to talk about how she's now doing well.
But it was just so easy, and it really showed the audience how well Lyonne was going to do as the host. She didn't seem nervous or like she had any kind of hesitation in being part of the show. She jumped right in and was ready to bring us a great show for the final episode of Season 47. Lyonne not being on the show more often is a crime because she was just so good and this monologue really nailed what is so fascinating about Lyonne.