Kanye West Is Completely Straight Faced In New Saturday Night Live Promo As ‘Famous’ Lyric Causes Uproar

Kanye West can’t seem to crack a smile in the latest promo for Saturday Night Live, despite the best efforts of comedians Melissa McCarthy and Taran Killam.

As Us Weekly reports, Kanye West is set to be the musical guest on the next episode of the comedy sketch show. Melissa McCarthy is going to be the host. During the promo, Taran Killam is trying to compliment Kanye West and Melissa, but it doesn’t go over well.

“Melissa and Kanye — biggest show ever,” Killam says.

“Oh, stop,” McCarthy interrupts. Killam does, but Melissa gets disappointed about that. Taram then tells her that she really just doesn’t know what she wants. “Something in the middle,” she says eventually. “There’s probably a happy medium, right?”

Kanye just shrugs. In fact, he manages to star blankly into the camera for the duration of the promo spot.

Kanye West will be on Saturday Night Live on February 13 to promote his new album, The Life of Pablo. The rapper, 38, debuted the new album and his new fashion collection, Yeezy Season 3 at a New York Fashion Week show at Madison Square Garden. The event was streamed live on TIDAL and according to The Verge, the stream received 20 million viewers.

Most of the celebrities closest to Kanye West were in attendance, including his wife Kim Kardashian and sisters in law Khloe, Kourtney, Kendall, and Kylie. Caitlyn Jenner also attended and was dressed in one of Kanye’s designs. Kid Cudi, a rapper who Kanye has mentored over the years, was also there.

One of the biggest surprise attendees on the night was Lamar Odom. The former Los Angeles Laker entered the venue with his estranged wife Khloe Kardashian to cheers from the Yeezy season 3 audience, according to Us Weekly entertainment editor Ian Drew. The article in Us Weekly goes on to report that it looked like Odom was fully aware of his surroundings and enjoying the show. They also report that Lamar had a huge smile on his face during the event and even sang along to the lyrics at one point with Kourtney Kardashian.

Lamar Odom was found unconscious last October at The Love Ranch, a popular brothel in Nevada. He was taken to hospital in a critical condition and was in a coma for 72 hours. His recovery seemed to be touch and go for a long time as there were claims that he may have lost all of his cognitive skills as a result of his health scare. So, it was reassuring for fans to see him at Yeezy Season 3.

But the biggest surprise of the night didn’t come from any of the attendees at the event but from the music on The Life of Pablo album. Near the end of the show, Kanye played a song called “Famous” and there’s a line in it that seems to be about Taylor Swift.

As a previous Inquistr article reported, the lyric in question is the following.

“I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that b***h famous”

The lyric is an obvious reference to when Kanye West stormed on stage during a Taylor Swift acceptance speech during the 2009 VMAs to declare that Beyonce had the best video of all time. It seemed that any of the resentment between them had dissipated when Taylor Swift presented West with the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award at the 2015 MTV Music Video Awards.

But it seems like that’s not the case.

Vox reports that Kanye West has claimed via Twitter that Taylor approved of the lyric.

5th thing I’m not even gone take credit for the idea… it’s actually something Taylor came up with …

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 12, 2016

3rd thing I called Taylor and had a hour long convo with her about the line and she thought it was funny and gave her blessings

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 12, 2016

2nd thing I asked my wife for her blessings and she was cool with it

— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 12, 2016

According to Vox, Taylor Swift has denied claims that she approved of the lyric via a statement from her publicist.

“Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single ‘Famous’ on her Twitter account,” the statement said. “She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message.”

[Photo via Youtube Screenshot/ NBC]