"SNL" makes rare departure from its comedic opening

Paul McCartney and Martin Short on "SNL." / NBC

"Saturday Night Live" made a rare departure from its comedic opening to pay tribute to the children and adults killed at a Connecticut elementary school.

Not known for treating anything seriously or tenderly, the show made a fitting exception during the first moments of its show Saturday. Rather than the usual comedic sketch, a children's choir appeared on camera and angelically sang "Silent Night," with the touching refrain, "Sleep in heavenly peace."

Then the members of the New York City Children's Chorus shouted out the NBC show's time-honored introduction: "Live from New York, it's 'Saturday Night!'"

It was the night's sole reference to the tragedy and struck just the right tone.

Later, the chorus returned to join musical guest Paul McCartney in a rendition of his "Wonderful Christmastime." The former Beatle also performed "My Valentine" and teamed up once again with Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear of Nirvana to play the new song, "Cut Me Some Slack." The collaboration first took place at New York's "12-12-12" Sandy benefit concert last week at Madison Square Garden.

Appearing in a sketch in an unbilled cameo, actor Samuel L. Jackson made a distinctive contribution of his own.

Pretending to be miffed at getting interrupted as a guest on the mock talk show "What Up with That?" Jackson said what sounded very much like an obscenity, followed by another term usually blipped out from live TV broadcasts.

Playing the host of "What Up with That?" Kenan Thompson looked startled by Jackson's vulgarities but kept going.

"C'mon, Sam. That costs money!" he quipped, cracking up the studio audience, by referring to possible fines for airing obscenities.

Moments after the show ended, Jackson tried to explain in a Twitter posting.

"I only said FUH," he insisted, adding that Thompson was supposed to cut him off with his second eruption, but "blew it!!"

Jackson's tweet was accompanied by a photo of himself looking mortified.

Besides Jackson, some of the stars dropping by for this special Christmas "SNL" included Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, Kristen Wiig, Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey. The guest host was Martin Short.

[Kimbakat]

I wish Martin brought back the nerd character with the black flip top and the triangle with the funny dance.

[jnostromo]

I love how some individuals resort to infantile name calling ...shows great maturity..My wife and I have 3 children and they all were raised with respect for other sand moral values...So you are off base on your childish comment...The truth is actions have consequences...Hollywood needs to look in the mirror...

[jnostromo]

If the entertainment industry truly wanted to honor the innocent, they will look at themselves and the violent trash they are polluting the younger generation with...There is a constant bombardment of violent refuse spewing forth glamorizing and relishing evil, the criminal, the psychotic...

[workerdroid]

You whining, sniveling ****. Blaming someone or something else for your failure as a parent is pathetic. It starts with family. If you're going to have one, then own up to the responsibility.

[121Red]

I agree this has become such a sick society to live in. Almost all the programming on television, except for shows aired by PBS and some other decent networks, are pure trash which is poisening young minds! Some serious cleaning up needs to be done.