Steve Carell Will Pause Being a Super Serious Thespian to Host Saturday Night Live

Once upon a time, when you could make it through an entire day without two or three news alerts that the whole world was on fire, Steve Carell was a funnyman -- most notably on The Daily Show With Jon Stewartand on The Office, where he played dimwitted middle manager Michael Scott. Now everything's different: Carell is a super serious actor, starring in the drug addiction drama Beautiful Boy and the emotional karate kick Welcome to Marwen, both out in in the next few weeks. He will portray former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the film Vice, out on Christmas Day, which is basically putting his reputation as a jokester on a little boat, setting it on fire and shoving it out to sea.

But he's not entirely done being funny yet, it seems, since the former NBC golden boy will return back to his old HQ Nov. 17 when he hosts Saturday Night Live for the third time. (He also was the voice of Gary in the show's "Ambiguously Gay Duo" sketch, so don't be surprised if he reprises that during his time at 30 Rock too.)

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Singer-songwriter Ella Mai will be musical guest; one of her songs is the multi-platinum hit single "Boo'd Up." Incidentally, Carell's boo (and wife) Nancy is a Saturday Night Live alum herself; she met Steve back when he was a teacher at the famous Second City improv school in Chicago. We'll find out if he's still got those comedy muscles to flex soon enough.

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Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30/10:30c on NBC.