Janet Jackson Revived Her “Good Times” Role in This SNL Sketch with Maya Rudolph
Penny Woods made a new friend (a rat named Mr. Stinky) during her 2004 double-duty episode.
When Janet Jackson pulled double duty on Saturday Night Live in April 2004, Good Times fans were rewarded with quite the treat.
The first-time Host and two-time Musical guest paid homage to her big acting break by reprising her role as Penny Woods in a parody of the 1970s sitcom. SNL's "Good Times" co-starred Season 29 cast members Kenan Thompson, Maya Rudolph, Finesse Mitchell, writer J.B. Smoove as Jimmy Walker, and returning star Tracy Morgan.
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Jackson was 11 years old when she made her debut as Penny in 1977, so in 2004, the nearly 40-year-old pop icon simply piled all of her hair on top of her head and wore a colorful sweater vest to emulate the spunky pre-teen. And it totally worked.
SNL's "Good Times" starred Janet Jackson, Maya Rudolph, and J.B. Smoove
Thompson plays Good Times matriarch Florida Evans, a mom dealing with family drama, money problems, and constant visitors in her home. Rudolph plays both daughter Thelma and neighbor Willona, who was Penny's adoptive mother, while Mitchell plays youngest son Michael. J.B. Smoove plays oldest Evans son J.J., and Morgan shows up as building superintendent Nathan "Buffalo Butt" Woods.
Florida is just discovering that Thelma and J.J. used the rent money to buy lottery tickets when Penny arrives at the Evans home.
"Hello Penny, how was school?" Florida asks.
"Well, we didn't actually have school today," Jackson says when the applause finally dies down. "See, they ran out of books and my teacher got stabbed."
Thompson's Florida runs through a few of her most iconic moments on the real show, like her obsession with her portrait of Jesus and the time she yelled "Damn, damn, damn!" and dropped a casserole after her husband had just died. In the sketch, it's because Willona reveals her latest date hit her.
Meanwhile, Penny feeds crackers to her new pet and "only friend": a rat named Mr. Stinky, who's not long for this world.
Watch SNL's "Good Times" above, and watch Janet Jackson host Season 29, Episode 17 on Peacock.
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"Good Times" wasn't the only iconic sketch from Season 29, Episode 17
Jackson's 2004 episode also included "An Easter Treat," which featured American Idol judge Simon Cowell joining Morgan, Jimmy Fallon, Horatio Sanz and Chris Kattan on stage to perform an Easter song about Christmas (hat sounded an awful lot like their original Christmas song).
Things got a little extra silly in the sketch "Corksoakers," where Jackson learned about how to cork bottles of wine from workers at an Italian vineyard who love to soak cork. Fred Armisen's character likes to soak two corks at once, while Seth Meyers' character likes to soak the big thick corks. Jackson loses it when asking how they learned to soak corks (and whether their wives like to soak corks) and it's hard to blame her.
Jackson also joined Tracy Jordan for an episode of "Brian Fellow's Safari Planet" with flying squirrels, but she hasn't been back to the show since.
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