Cookie Monster’s Campaign to Host SNL Falls Short

The viral campaign to get Cookie Monster to host SNL succeeded. Almost. He didn’t host, but he did get on the show.

Cookie made a appearance beside Jeff Bridges during his monologue. The pair performed an unaltered version of ‘Silver Bells,’ in the middle of which Jeff asked our lovable blue friend what he wanted for Christmas.

“An iPad!” he said. The crowd laughed. He promptly changed his request to a cookie, which he received (and devoured) at the end of the song. Cookie Monster didn’t make another appearance until the cast signed off, this time with his puppeteer on camera.

The internet campaign to get Cookie Monster to host the show was spawned from a four minute ‘audition tape’ released by Sesame Workshop. In it, Cookie Monster starred in his own adaptations of SNL skits ‘MacGruber’ and ‘Weekend Update’ while pleading his case to Lorne Michaels.

The Facebook page that linked to the video and gathered more than 120,000 fans buzzed with excitement last night when Cookie showed up. Last night’s cameo was enough to make many of these SNL fans happy. “Thank you, SNL, for giving me the best early Christmas gift EVER!!!” wrote one excited viewer.

Others who joined the group had hoped to see the Muppet have as much success as Betty White did last year when a similar campaign landed the 88 year old actress a gig hosting the show. Or, as one woman put it, “now we want the whole cookie, not only a crumb.”