Is 'SNL' Bringing Back the Five-Timers Club for Justin Timberlake?

OK, not to be horrible and speculative, but tonight is Justin Timberlake's fifth time hosting NBC's Saturday Night Live, and that's a big deal. Tom Hanks once described the fifth time as "the most special of all," and, lo, Hanks and other five-timers may be making an appearance tonight.

OK, not to be horrible and speculative, but tonight is Justin Timberlake's fifth time hosting NBC's Saturday Night Live, and that's a big deal. Tom Hanks once described the fifth time as "the most special of all," and, lo, Hanks and other five-timers may be making an appearance tonight.

Five times is a special number in the world of SNL hosts. It means you've made it in this crazy world of ours. You get mentioned in the same breath as SNL legends like Hanks, Alec Baldwin, Elliot Gould, Buck Henry, Candice Bergen, Bill Murray and Christopher Walken. And people are excited for Timberlake! They're waiting out in snow storms. He's getting breathless blog buzz leading into tonight's show.

Now, we don't have any inside information from the writer's room or anything. But when Martin tweets a picture of himself hanging out with Chevy Chase, Dan Akroyd, Paul Simon, Tom Hanks, Martin Short, and the godfather himself, Lorne Michaels, all hanging out in the SNL offices, well, we take it as a sign. Twenty-three years ago, back in 1990, a young Tom Hanks made it. On the occasion of his fifth time hosting the show, Hanks was inducted into the Five-Timers club, quite literally, during his monologue. There's a secret handshake and everything. Hanks showed the world an exclusive look of SNL's Five-Timers Club. Keep an eye out to see if you recognize some of the staff:

So, in that sketch we have Martin, Hanks, Simon and Elliot Gould. The sketch even takes a shot at Chevy Chase! And it just so happens  those guys are lounging around the SNL playground the day before another young whipper-snapper gets inducted into their super cool club? Call us crazy, but we'd bet our life savings that Hanks will be teaching Timberlake the 'one, two, three, four, five, you're great!' handshake before the opening credits roll tonight.

Update: Yep, they did.