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Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Cheri Oteri Give Behind-the-Scenes Scoop on SNL’s Epic 40th Reunion

Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and Cheri Oteri
Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and Cheri Oteri spoke about SNL 40.

One crazy night! The biggest names in Hollywood got together in the Big Apple on Sunday, Feb. 15, for Saturday Night Live's massive 40th anniversary special. Less than 24 hours later, SNL alums Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers dished on the epic bash from their Tonight Show and Late Night desks, respectively. 

"That was one of the most insane nights of my life ever," Fallon, 40, spilled. "Everyone was just in the best mood, in the best spirit. What love. Yesterday was just so fun."

Noticeably missing from the reunion show was SNL's Cheri Oteri, who explained her absence on Watch What Happens Live on Monday, Feb. 16.

"I have to say that I wasn't originally able to go… then just a couple of days ago, I was able to pull it together," Oteri told host Andy Cohen, explaining that she was still a part of the event and afterparty. 

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Fallon looked back on the hilarious show on The Tonight Show, recounting a special moment with one of the members of SNL's five-timers club. "They go to commercial break and Tom Hanks is right there," he explained. "I went over to Tom Hanks and his shoe was untied, so I just went over as a bit and I went to tie his shoe, and I go, 'Anything else you need, Mr. Hanks?' Before I even finish it, he gave me a $20 bill."

The funnyman then turned to the wild afterparty at New York City's Plaza Hotel, casually name-dropping as he discussed encounters with Justin Timberlake, Jack Nicholson, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Paul McCartney, Steve Martin, and Martin Short, and painted a picture of the soirée.

"They have a stage set up with just instruments: drums, mics, guitars, bass, keyboard, but no band," Fallon said. "Just a set up in case anyone wants to get on stage and jam." 

A jam session soon took off, as Fallon ended up on the stage with SNL great Dan Aykroyd and Paul McCartney. "We sing a blues song and then Taylor Swift is in the crowd, and so I go, 'Well Taylor, come on up!'" he said, explaining that the trio sang The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" before starting on Swift's "Shake It Off." "Me and Paul McCartney are singing, I didn't even know he knew "Shake It Off"! He's like, 'Shake It off, Shake It Off,'" Fallon says, imitating McCartney's accent with Swift's lyrics. "He's like, 'I invented shaking it off.'"

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The star-studded performances continued after McCartney and Swift's set, as Miley Cyrus soon took the stage to "play a sad song" seemingly about the death of a goldfish, and was joined by Ariana Grande and Blondie's Debbie Harry, who played the band's classic "Tide Is High."

"Then those guys split, come off the stage, and Michael Bolton comes on," Fallon continued. "Little Bolton explosion, dude. Lord Boltron himself comes up, he does 'When a Man Loves a Woman,' does the whole jam, Ariana's harmonizing with him."

"Michael Bolton destroyed," Meyers weighed in on Late Night. "Michael Bolton got up, sang 'When a Man Loves a Woman,' played guitar. When Michael Bolton gets up, you don't think, 'I'm going to get my balls blown off' but that's what happened — not just to me, to everybody. Everybody was grabbing whatever balls they could get. We all went home… I think I had one of Tom Hanks' balls and maybe a Goodman, I'm not sure."

Bolton was soon upstaged, however, by a tambourine-playing Bill Murray, and none other than Prince, who addressed the boisterous crowd as "Dearly inebriated" before playing his 1980s hit "Let's Go Crazy."

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"Here's the thing about Prince," Meyers reflected. "In a room full of the coolest people on earth, Prince is still the coolest person on earth."

Watch Fallon and Meyers spill in the videos above!

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