"Can we be funny?" the showrunner asked.
"Why start now?" the mayor quipped, skipping scarcely a beat.
It was September 29th, 2001, not three full weeks after the epicenter of human civilization had its heart ripped out by hate and by violence. Tension and catharsis were at loggerheads as Lorne Michaels exchanged earnest patter with Rudolph Giuliani in what was to become the most indelible, profound Saturday Night Live cold-open ever conceived.
I didn’t remember that Reese Witherspoon hosted that episode until I googled it this morning. The ‘who’ didn’t really matter as much as the ‘what’ and the ‘why.