Elizabeth Banks Shines in 'Saturday Night Live' Debut

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NBC

Elizabeth Banks wowed in her first hosting gig for Saturday Night Live.

The 41-year-old actress showed off her impeccable comedic timing in the hilarious episode, which was much easier to watch than last week’s broadcast with Donald Trump, despite the fact that ratings dipped from the previous show hosted by the presidential hopeful.

WATCH: SNL Pays Tribute to Paris

The multi-tasker even directed her monologue, which including singing and dancing, though that shouldn’t come as a big surprise since Banks did direct Pitch Perfect 2.

Check out The Hunger Games star’s SNL highlights below.


Bobby Moynihan Gets More Than He Bargains For

In “Walk-On Guest Star,” Bobby Moynihan plays a middle-school principal named Arnold Baxter who just won a walk-on role on the crime show, The Bureau, only to find out that his character sniffs teenagers’ bathing suits.

Banks and Jay Pharoah act as the FBI agents who bust him on the show, and have no problem calling him a pervert. Things go from bad to worse for Baxter when he finds out that previews for his episode of The Bureau will air on Delta flight videos and in a commercial right before the Super Bowl.

If you watch sketch for anything, make it Banks’ enthusiasm, which is pretty much perfect.

WATCH: Donald Trump Delivers Biggest SNL Ratings Since 2012


Banks’ Girl Group Performs “First Got Horny 2 U”

Banks along with Aidy Bryant, Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong and Vanessa Bayer join together as girl group Infinity Plus Five. The band, dressed in head-to-toe white outfits, sings about their first crushes -- who made them horny growing up.

Strong reveals her desire for TRL host Carson Daly, Banks says Mr. Sheffied The Nanny gave her all sorts of new feelings, and McKinnon says Taylor Hanson helped her realize she was gay. The two weirdest ones, however, may have come from Bayer and Bryant. Bayer reveals having a thing for the Menendez Brothers -- the siblings who made headlines after murdering their parents -- while Bryant wanted to have sexy time with Robbie, the teenage son from the Dinosaurs. Listen, Dinosaurs was a great show!

These ladies proved nothing is funnier than a musical group singing about their awkward teen crushes -- especially when these are the five women doing just that.


Banks Finds Herself in an Uber-Awkward Situation

In “Uber for Jen,” Banks’ character just wants to get to her friends home in New York when she gets stuck with an Uber driver who has some other tasks he needs to take care of before her drop-off. Jen finds herself being dragged on errands, like visiting a local bank and aiding in the delivery of the driver’s wife’s baby.

She even ended up helping her driver hide a body that he hit while attempting to answer the impossible question: Clueless or Mean Girls?

WATCH: Jada Pinkett Smith Talks Kissing Elizabeth Banks in Magic Mike XXL

Don’t worry! Jen did eventually get to her destination, but she only got a three-star rating from her driver.

We’re just not sure if this sketch is amazing or freaky for just how closely it resembles some taxi rides we’ve been in.


Disclosure and Lorde Join Forces

While we love Discloure and Lorde separately, but when they come together, it really is something extra-special.

Lorde joined the band on stage to perform their song, “Magnets,” live for the first time, and the result was absolutely epic.


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Sam Smith later joined Disclosure for their song, “Omen.”

In this week's episode, Strong also helped SNL pay tribute to the victims of Friday's city-wide terror attacks in Paris. Watch her moving bilingual monologue in the video below.