Long live Kenneth Parcell.
Comedian, 30 Rock alum, and TV host Jack McBrayer made a surprise cameo during the January 31 episode of Saturday Night Live. And art met real life when channeled his iconic role as NBC page Kenneth for a “Weekend Update” segment outside of 30 Rockefeller Plaza with Sarah Sherman.
Sherman was serving as self-designated “weather correspondent” amid New York City’s bone-chilling temps, following snow that’s left cars encased in ice and pedestrians having to navigate mountains of frozen slush at crosswalks.
“I’m here live outside of Rockefeller Center, where conditions are very, very cold. For Weekend Update, I’m Sarah Sherman, now back to you Colin,” the Season 51 cast member said from her post outside. When Colin Jost asked for more of a “report,” Sherman added, “it’s cold, there’s snow, and I deeply regret doing this.”
But that was before she came across a face that’s synonymous with the building to 30 Rock fans, i.e. McBrayer.
RELATED: Watch Alexander Skarsgård’s Saturday Night Live Sketches & Monologue from January 31
RELATED: Alexander Skarsgård’s Dad Stellan Skarsgård Made Two Hilarious SNL Cameos Last Night
Jack McBrayer made reference to his 30 Rock role in his surprise Weekend Update cameo
“It’s so cold, even the pigeons are frozen. Check it out,” Sherman said, before smashing a plastic bird as proof. Then she pulled open her (incredible, food-embroidered) winter coat to reveal a sparkly, strappy dress she claimed Jost asked her to wear. Then she decided to grab a man on the street to interview.
“Hey, sir,” Sherman said, as the audience cheered upon recognizing McBrayer’s grin, his face a Kenneth-style open book. “I’m locked out! Colin locked me out!”
“Oh, sorry,” McBrayer told her, “I’m off duty tonight!”
RELATED: Pete Davidson Played Border Czar Tom Homan in SNL’s “ICE Meeting Cold Open
“Rude,” Sherman told McBrayer — who was clearly supposed to be Kenneth — as they both threw it back to Colin in unison. It was an incredible callback to the character McBrayer played for 139 episodes on the SNL-parodying sitcom that’s streaming on Peacock.
“KENNETH ELLEN PARCEL ON SNL IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2026,” one fan wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter.
Jack McBrayer was at SNL to support his good friend Alexander Skarsgård
Like many celebrities who grace the hallways of Studio 8H during any given live episode, McBrayer was in the building to support a friend who was hosting. Jack McBrayer and Alexander Skarsgård have been best friends for more than a decade, attending awards shows together and even co-hosting a Funny or Die web series together. More recently, McBrayer appeared in Skarsgård’s Murderbot series.
According to Cracked, they first bonded after chatting at some events and discovering they were neighbors at the time.
Jack McBrayer took a pic with real NBC pages backstage
McBrayer is arguably best known for playing NBC’s most loyal page ever — in this SNL universe, he’s *still* in the building after all these years! So it’s only fitting that he took a photograph with three real pages in 30 Rock’s hallways; see that photo here. They took it in the real 30 Rock hallways, that is, not 30 Rock‘s hallways, for which Tina Fey meticulously recreated the real thing.