On Tuesday, as your various social media timelines filled up with your friends' April Fool's declarations of engagements, pregnancies, and other outlandish tales, this one popped up and I really wanted to believe...
'Live From New York, It's Saturday Night!'
On the Huffington Post Comedy blog, posted prompltly on April 1 at 12:10 am, Star Trek icon, activist and social media star George Takei announced that had been invited to host Saturday Night Live later this season. Oh myyyy. We all know that he would be an awesome personality to have on the show. But...
You know it was too good to be true. Later in the day, the post was updated with the following disclaimer:
UPDATE: Uh oh, Uncle George got you! He is NOT scheduled to host "SNL" any time soon, though all of us at HuffPost Comedy would love it if he did. Maybe one day... until then, April Fools!I sooooo wanted it to be true. In fact, I held off on posting about this until April 2 because I was hanging on to a thin shred of hope that the update was actually the April Fool's joke -- double April Fool's? Maybe? No. No plans for Sulu on SNL. This feels even more cruel than last year's declaration that Takei would be joining the latest movie in the Star Wars franchise.
It also feels a bit like wishful thinking. I mean, why the hell not? Uncle George notes that his imaginary SNL appearance would mark only the third time that a person of Asian descent has hosted the perennial sketch show institution. That's only two Asians -- Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu -- in 39 freaking seasons.
Oh, you cruel jokester. We want to see George Takei on Saturday Night Live!