How Eminem's Surprising 'Saturday Night Live' Cameo Came to Be

Eminem on SNL
NBC

Devon Sawa, who starred as Stan in the original video, also opened up to ET about the sketch and praised Pete Davidson's performance.

Ask and you shall receive! Saturday Night Live delivered one of the show's funniest sketches in years over the weekend with a parody of Eminem's 2000 hit "Stan," and the show managed to surprise fans with a cameo from the iconic rapper himself.

A source tells ET that Eminem’s appearance on SNL "came together really quickly."

"He was approached a couple of days in advance by SNL to see if he was available and it worked out for him to do it," the source explained. Reps for Eminem did not respond to requests for comment.

Eminem is no stranger to Studio 8H. The rapper has been a musical guest seven times over the past two decades.

The pre-recorded musical sketch starred Pete Davidson as Stu, a troubled man with bleached blonde hair who is an obsessive fan of Santa Claus. He continuously writes increasingly deranged letters, begging for a PlayStation 5 for Christmas, as the song plays out in the same darkly tragic path as the original.

Eminem's appearance comes at the very end of the sketch -- after Davidson's character drunkenly drives off a bridge. The rapper rocks in a festive Christmas sweater and opens a present labeled "To Shady, From Santa." Inside, he finds the video game console Stu had wanted so badly but didn't get.

"That's crazy. A PS5? I didn't even ask for this!" Eminem says. "I guess Shady must have been a good boy this year. Sorry, Stu. You f**ked up."

The sketch was easily the most talked about moment from this weekend's episode -- hosted by Jason Bateman, who also played Santa in the parody video. Fans praised the comedy, the writing, and the attention to detail when it came to the set decoration and Davidson's wardrobe.

The costuming flawlessly matched the outfit worn by Devon Sawa, who played the eponymous Stan in the original Music Video 20 years ago.

ET spoke with Sawa on Monday, while he was promoting his upcoming horror film Hunter Hunter, and he opened up about how much he enjoyed the sketch.

"I don't think I've smiled so much in a long time," Sawa said.

The actor praised Davidson's performance and the incredible effort put in to recreating and reimagining the Stan character, as Stu.

"I think he nailed it. Some people don't see some of the things that I saw. He did everything from the pencil blow to certain eyerolls," Sawa shared. "He really kind of copied me perfectly but also did his own thing and spun it his own way and I'm very flattered that I was in a music video that's lasted so long."

Sawa also said that he had no idea that the parody was coming, and didn't find out until someone messaged him Saturday night.

"Someone tweeted me, 'Are you watching SNL right now?' and somebody else tweeted that they were doing a 'Stan' parody, and my first reaction was, 'Oh no, are they ripping it apart?' But it's just funny," Sawa said. "It's just they took the song, twisted it, and [Davidson] is a talented dude."

Check out the video below to hear more.

Saturday Night Live airs live, coast-to-coast at 11:30 p.m. ET, 8:30 p.m. PT on NBC.

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