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Tina Fey As Princess Leia Was A Great Tribute

Rogue One star Felicity Jones was the host of Saturday Night Live for it's winter premiere but she was a little nervous about giving her monologue. So of course, Tina Fey as Princess Leia appeared to help her out. Well, sort of. Fey might have looked like the ultimate princess, but no one can replace Carrie Fisher. Instead, Fey joked that the robes were just a new outfit from Eileen Fisher. She offered Jones as much help as she could — guiding her to not be nervous and to watch out especially for Leslie Jones, who often appears in a skit at the very end when the writers "don't know how to end it."

(Later, Jones shows up to end the monologue. Get it?)

It was pretty cute, and a nice extra tribute to Carrie Fisher from the sketch show. Earlier in the evening, SNL aired the 1978 episode that Fisher appears in, most iconically as Princess Leia, just after the film stole viewers' hearts by starring in Star Wars. In that episode, she most famously showed up in her gold bikini at a beach party and tried to ignore Bill Murray, a then cast-member.

Saturday Night Live definitely paid their respects to Fisher, who passed away earlier this month, this week.

It was also fitting that they brought Tina Fey in to play Fisher's hologram (Fey joked that she was like Tupac in that sense, which might be the funniest opening monologue joke in a long time). Fey has always been public about her respect for the actress, and even wrote Fisher into an episode of her sitcom 30 Rock. In that episode, Fisher plays an aging TV writer and Liz Lemon's old idol. She turns out to be just a little out of her mind and forces Lemon to take a long, hard look at her life.

After Fisher's death, Fey released a statement saying, "Carrie Fisher meant a lot to me. Like many women my age, Princess Leia occupies about sixty percent of my brain at any given time." She added, "But Carrie’s honest writing and her razor-sharp wit were an even greater gift. I feel so lucky that I got to meet her. I’m very sad she is gone.”

For sure, Fisher would have appreciated Fey's jokes about her Princess Leia wardrobe and using her likeness to coach Jones, the newest addition to the Star Wars franchise, through her monologue.