‘Phenomenal’: NFL icon’s hilarious Saturday Night Live appearance goes viral

NFL legend Peyton Manning showed he’s got more than one string to his bow with a hilarious appearance on a popular TV show.

Peyton Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, but it turns out the NFL legend is also a comedian.

Over the weekend, the two-time Super Bowl winner made a hilarious appearance on the Weekend Update segment of Saturday Night Live (SNL) that has taken the internet by storm.

SNL co-host Colin Jost attempted to get Manning’s opinion on the latest news in the NFL world, but he was having none of it.

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Instead, the 45-year-old showed off his comedic chops by responding to each question about football by launching into a monologue about how much he enjoyed the second season of the hit Netflix show Emily in Paris.

When asked by Jost what he made of last weekend’s epic playoff games, Manning addressed every NFL topic by linking it to an analogy about Emily in Paris, which follows the journey of an American woman’s professional and personal life in Paris.

“Yeah, I heard they were incredible,” Manning replied completely deadpan when asked about last weekend’s games.

“Yeah, sounds like all the teams did a great job, lots of passing and all the touchdowns were in the end zone.

“Well I planned to (watch the games) but I had an hour to kill before the first game and just for fun, I put on the first episode of Emily in Paris season two.

“And I watched the entire season straight through. Oh my god Colin. This show has everything. Romance, adventure, sensuality, culture, a fresh take on feminism — finally — not to mention a culinary tapestry so rich, I can only describe it as food porn.”

NFL legend Peyton Manning stole the show on SNL.

Jost quizzed Manning on why he supposedly watched the rom-com instead of the blockbuster line-up of NFL games.

“Sure, watching football was the safe thing to do,” said Manning, who went full satire and had even popped a red beret on his head.

“That’s what everyone expected me to do. But if I’ve learned anything from Emily, it’s to follow my passions and always be true to myself. The French have a saying: ‘Parlez-vous francais?’, which means, ‘You do you girl’.”

When it was pointed out to him that was not the correct translation, Manning hilariously retorted: “I don’t speak French Colin, but thanks to Emily, I speak love.”

Peyton Manning stopped by Update to talk…Emily in Paris? pic.twitter.com/mjq9s09MaD

— Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) January 30, 2022

Jost responded: “Honestly I cannot believe that you just spent 10 straight hours watching Emily in Paris.

“You could have seen Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes — one of the best quarterback duels in history.”

Manning, who obviously watched last weekend’s matches, including the incredible shootout that saw Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs eliminate the Buffalo Bills in overtime, turned the comedy up to 11 as he said: “Go Bills! They’re still in it right?”

When asked what his thoughts were on the rumours NFL legend and fellow quarterback Tom Brady had retired, Manning once again drew on the experience of ‘Emily’.

“I’m not sure it’s true,” he said. “I think it’s probably just speculation but if it were me, I probably would retire if it gave me more time to watch Emily in Paris.

“But I really think for Tom right now, it’s just a tough decision between balancing his career and relationships, sort of like Emily.”

Manning kept the gag going in a comical rant full of double entendres, in which he suggested the best way for Emily to navigate her complicated love life was through a football play book.

Manning went full football nerd while dissecting Emily in Paris.

“Let me break it down for you,” he began.

“This is a classic showdown between Emily’s career and her love life. Early on, the O’s were getting completely dominated by the X’s, and there were a lot of X’s, if you know what I mean. Gabriel, Matthew Cadault, Timothy, Doug from Chicago, obviously.

“Now Gabriel wants to go deep on a relationship with Gabriel and to get ahead at work. But as long as Camille’s blocking her she’s gotta go through her progressions and check down to

Alfie in the flat. Sure, if feels like a broken play and she’s just dumping it off, but emotionally, she’s making forward progress.

“And don’t even get me started on the coaching, OK? Her friend Mindy seriously told Emily to break her pinky promise to forget about Gabriel and stay true to Alfie. Sacre bleu, man.

“It’s almost halftime of season two, you gotta call a time-out there. Oh la la? More like, ‘Oh no you didn’t girl’.”

NFL and SNL fans alike couldn’t get enough of Manning’s antics.

NFL reporter Matt Verderame tweeted: “Peyton Manning is phenomenal on Weekend Update. Dude is hilarious.”

Ex-NFL quarterback Peyton Manning is now a comedy icon. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Producer Dan Sterling said: “Is anyone else seeing Peyton Manning on their TV screens right now absolutely crushing a comedy sketch?”

NPR TV critic Eric Deggans agreed: “Peyton Manning - and Emily in Paris - is the funniest thing on SNL this week…yet another thing I did not expect to be writing in 2022.”

Clay Travis added: “Peyton Manning absolutely killed it on SNL, funniest segment I’ve seen on SNL in years.”

Peyton Manning on SNL: GOLD 😂👏

— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) January 30, 2022

I don’t know why Peyton Manning just did an Emily in Paris bit on SNL but I would take like 20 more minutes of that.

— Ashley Bastock (@AshleyBastock42) January 30, 2022

Manning and his brother, who is also a Super Bowl-winning quarterback, have made a successful foray into the media with their show Manningcast on ESPN’s Monday Night Football coverage.

Judging by Peyton’s latest hilarious effort, we can’t to see what he comes up with next.

Originally published as ‘Phenomenal’: NFL icon’s hilarious Saturday Night Live appearance goes viral