Jason Sudeikis is hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’: 5 characters he should bring back

Jason Sudeikis says he got his start in comedy in Mrs. Shipley’s improv classes at Shawnee Mission West High School and at Comedy Sportz in Kansas City.

But he REALLY got his start on “Saturday Night Live,” when he was hired as a writer in 2003 and became a cast member in 2005, creating memorable performances until he left the show in 2013 and focused on his movie career ( “Horrible Bosses,” “We’re the Millers”).

He has returned occasionally, most notably impersonating then-Vice President Joe Biden. But now that his career has reached new heights with his Emmy Award-winning comedy “Ted Lasso,” Sudeikis is strutting back to “SNL” as host this Saturday, Oct. 23 (10:30 p.m. on NBC).

What can we expect?

Maybe we’ll get some shoutouts to the Kansas City area. After all, Sudeikis often wore University of Kansas gear at the end of “SNL” shows, and he laces “Ted Lasso” with KC references. Two words: barbecue sauce.

He might put on his Ted Lasso mustache for a skit skewering the beloved soccer coach he plays.

And here’s hoping he’ll reprise at least one of the five best recurring characters he played on “SNL”:

1. Joe Biden

Sudeikis has said his gregarious father, Dan, inspired both Ted Lasso and his friendly, somewhat clueless Biden impersonation. Jim Carrey, Woody Harrelson and now new cast member James Austin Johnson have played Biden, but can we agree that none were as good as Sudeikis?

2. ‘What Up With That’ dancer

The best part of the recurring BET talk show sketch, with Kenan Thompson as host Diondre Cole, may be the energetic backup dancer in the red track suit. That’s Sudeikis putting on the moves he says he learned from his dancer/choreographer sister Kristin Sudeikis. The running man dance is the same one he did as Ted Lasso in the pilot episode, celebrating with his Wichita State football team. Sudeikis’ fellow Shawnee Mission West alum Paul Rudd appeared in the first “What Up With That” sketch. Is it too much to hope that he’ll make a cameo on Saturday?

3. ESPN host Pete Twinkle

Sudeikis still teams up with former “SNL” castmate Will Forte at Kansas City fundraisers Big Slick Celebrity Weekend and Thundergong! (which returns Nov. 20). Perhaps their most memorable pairing was Sudeikis as sportscaster Pete Twinkle with clueless sidekick Greg Stink in multiple “SNL” sketches. The one about the ladies dart tournament sort of, kind of foreshadows “Ted Lasso.”

4. ‘Two A-Holes’

This one would need the return of Kristen Wiig, but maybe she’ll make an appearance just so she and Sudeikis can reprise those preppy, self-absorbed, hilarious jerks again.

5. The Devil

Sudeikis as The Devil frequently stuck his pitchfork into Seth Meyers’ business on Weekend Update. (Meyers recently wrote a tribute to Sudeikis in Time magazine’s “100 most influential people of 2021”). In one of the most memorable, The Devil skewers Topeka’s own Westboro Baptist Church. The Devil has plenty of fodder for another sketch, doesn’t he?