Ben Affleck Sings As a 40-Something Valedictorian in SNL's High School Musical Parody
The Five-Timers Club member had all the middle-aged night school students swooning in the 2008 sketch.
The year was 2008. High School Musical's Troy Bolton, Gabriella Montez, and Sharpay Evans were in their senior year. And the hilarious minds at Saturday Night Live decided to put a fresh spin on the franchise: What if the musical starred students dealing with “all the disappointment and real world problems of adult education"?
When Ben Affleck returned to host SNL for his fourth time on November 1, 2008, The Accountant 2 star played a heartthrob with a criminal ulterior motive in Season 34’s “Night School Musical” sketch.
“If you like High School Musical 1, High School Musical 2, and High School Musical 3, then nothing can prepare you for the musical event of the decade,” a narrator says at the top of the sketch. “Get ready for… Night School Musical — Senior Year Equivalent.”
With long, flowing hair and olive green utility jacket, the Good Will Hunting Academy Award winner proved too irresistible for his middle-aged classmates. Playing students of a certain age, Affleck and the Season 34 cast members showed off some very stiff choreography and rapped with absolutely no rhythm. Watch the hilarious sketch above.
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Ben Affleck played a 40-something valedictorian in SNL’s High School Musical parody
The sketch begins with Andy Samberg, Kristen Wiig, Fred Arminsen, Will Forte, and Casey Wilson singing in a locker-lined hallway.
“This is our last chance to make it right. Grown adults up at school at night! Learning trades and get your GED after hours,” they all sing. “Screwed up once, but now we’re turning the tide.”
While Wiig plays an empty-nester grandmother whose grandkids help her with all of her schoolwork, Armisen's character is a dude named Rodney who’s out on bail to learn computers. Meanwhile, Wilson plays a single mother who will smoke just about anything, with Samberg’s balding character as her love interest who still can’t read at 49.
“What’s gonna happen to us next year?” Willson’s character asks Samberg in a musical break of the sketch. “You gonna treat me different once you’re certified to operate a forklift?”
“Me? What about you, and your fancy degree in framing?” Samberg’s night school character questions back. “You’ll probably never talk to me again.”
“I guess no one knows what the future holds,” she responds.
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Former cast member and current SNL announcer Darrell Hammond is a night school teacher who’s younger than most of the middle-aged students, and threatens everyone with detention if they don’t “turn off all that racket.”
“And things get really shaken up when a cool new transfer student shows up," the narrator chimes in.
Enter Affleck. Sporting a bushy beard and long dark hair, an electric guitar plays as he holds onto a mop in a dim hallway. “My name is Wolf and I’m a crazy dude. A little bit broke down DeLorean,” he sings. “I came in here to rob the snack machine and it made me the valedictorian.”
As an American flag drops down and Wiig and Wilson’s characters dance alongside him, Affleck continues to sing: “This must be a really low quality school, if I’m at the top of the class / I have no idea what I’m doing here, but I’m seeing a lot of middle-aged a--.”
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Watch "Night School Musical" from Season 34, Episode 7 above, and stream all 50 seasons of Saturday Night Live on Peacock anytime.
Ben Affleck is a member of SNL's Five-Timers Club
Affleck became a member of SNL’s Five-Timers Club on May 18, 2013, when he hosted Season 38's finale episode following the release of Argo. His then-wife, Jennifer Garner, helped induct him.
The Armageddon actor made his SNL hosting debut in 2000, then returned to Studio 8H twice in 2004 and again in 2008. In total, Affleck has hosted five SNL episodes.
