“SNL” alum Andy Samberg gets former costar Kenan Thompson to nearly break by using his real name in sketch

"Ah, yes-a, Kenan."

Andy Samberg's return to Saturday Night Live as a season 50 guest means he gets to reunite with his former costar Kenan Thompson — and attempt to crack up the show's longest-running cast member.

In the latest episode, a sketch set in Italy in the Late Renaissance saw Samberg and fellow show alum Maya Rudolph as parents trying to impress a prince (Andrew Dismukes) with their castrated son Antonio's (host Ariana Grande) singing. It served as an excuse to display Grande's ability to hit impressive high notes, but the sketch's own high note came near the end when Thompson, as a lute player, raised his hand to ask a question and Samberg replied in an Italian accent with, "Ah, yes-a, Kenan."

Samberg's name-checking of Thompson drew huge laughs from the live studio audience and caused the SNL mainstay to struggle to not fully break character as he stifled a laugh of his own and took a beat to maintain his composure, which is rare for the comedy pro.

Related: Saturday Night Live recap: Despite delays, Ariana Grande and Stevie Nicks deliver an entertaining episode

The Lonely Island member was on the Saturday Night Live cast from 2005-2012. Thompson's own time on the show began two seasons earlier, in 2003, and he has remained ever since, holding the record for longest time starring on SNL, now at 22 seasons. Rudolph, who joined the cast in 2000, overlapped with Thompson for five seasons and the trio all shared the screen from October 2005 until Rudolph's exit in November 2007.

Samberg, who has been open about struggling with his mental and physical health near the end of his time on the show, returns to SNL this season for the first time since a 2018 cameo. In the season 50 premiere last month, he launched his stint playing second gentleman Doug Emhoff in a political cold open alongside Rudolph, reprising her impression of VP-turned-presidential-candidate, Kamala Harris. They were joined by fellow SNL alum Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden and comedian Jim Gaffigan as Harris' running mate Tim Walz. The quartet has returned for every show of the new season so far, including for a "Family Feud" cold open earlier in the Grande-fronted ep.

Related: Every Saturday Night Live season 50 host and musical guest

Samberg recently gushed with ongoing admiration for Thompson while speaking to Kevin Hart on an episode of Hart to Heart earlier this summer. "I'll still be watching the show, and I've seen his moves, like I know what he's going to do, but it just kills me still," the Brooklyn Nine-Nine star said. "And he'll do some new s---. I'm like, 'How is this fool still killing it so hard?'"

He continued, "I would challenge anyone to go back through any episode he's been on, which is many, and find a moment where he missed a laugh, where he didn't get his laugh. If you give him a laugh, he hits it every time and it is mind blowing to think about because everybody, like the greats, you can watch and be like, 'Oop, they missed their cue card' or 'Oop, they broke,' or whatever it is. I literally can’t think of a single time that Kenan didn’t stick it exactly." 

Related: Watch Stevie Nicks on Saturday Night Live nearly 41 years after her last appearance

Samberg can be heard sharing memories from his SNL days on the The Lonely Island & Seth Meyers Podcast, alongside his longtime friends and Digital Short collaborators Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, and former "Weekend Update" anchor and head writer Seth Meyers.

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Watch Thompson, Samberg, and Rudolph in the "Castrati" sketch above.

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.