Did you know Saturday Night Live is 50 years old? Even if you’re not a fan, it’s possible you might have picked up on this from the fact that SNL has seemed particularly inescapable in culture recently. There was last year’s movie from Jason Reitman, Saturday Night, which dramatized the first chaotic night of the show back in 1975. There was Peacock’s four-part docuseries SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night released earlier this year—not to be confused with NBC’s documentary Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music, which was also out last month. And finally—in addition to the endless stream of news stories, listicles, and magazine covers chronicling and honoring the sketch comedy variety show—there was Sunday night’s special prime-time, star-studded and, of course, live episode, SNL50: The Anniversary Special, that brought together a bunch of former cast members and hosts for a huge (and, mercifully, final) birthday celebration for the iconic series.
Over a three-and-a-half-hour runtime that felt longer than the Oscars (NBC even hosted a red carpet show before the main event), Sunday’s show was at times an odd one. Executive producer Lorne Michaels made the curious decision to open the festivities with a quiet performance from Sabrina Carpenter and his good friend and neighbor Paul Simon singing “Homeward Bound,” which Simon had first performed with George Harrison on SNL back in 1976. (“I was not born then, and neither were my parents,” Carpenter quipped in her rendition.) Yes, the performance showcased the show’s multigenerational longevity, but it was also kind of boring! Similarly, an amusing montage of clips paying tribute to some of the legendary physical comedy over the show’s history ended on a series of dances that took much of the wind out of the sails.
Additionally, for a show marking half a century of live broadcasts, it was also plagued with technical issues, including sound problems (Scarlett Johansson and Maya Rudolph both had mic issues) and directing choices that gave away punchlines (Tom Hanks’ surprise appearance in the “Black Jeopardy” sketch was revealed through an errant wide shot, while Lin-Manuel Miranda was shown wearing his Hamilton costume in a hallway long before he came out to perform).
The episode was mostly a walk down memory lane in which we got to rewatch some famous sketches that would be familiar mostly to Gen X and millennial viewers, but with a bunch of extra celebrities thrown in this time. Admittedly, some weren’t quite as funny as others. (I’m getting tired of Domingo, I’m sorry!) Still, it was mostly good TV—if not just for the fact that every time they cut to the star-studded audience we got to play a game of “Who’s Who.” Cher! Steven Spielberg! The Rev. Al Sharpton?!
Here, in no particular order, are all the best moments from the night.
Sixteen-time host and former cast member Steve Martin was given the honor of opening proceedings. (Only Alec Baldwin, who appeared later in the show, has hosted more times.) “The monologue, traditionally the weakest part of the show,” Martin joked. “The monologue is like a rent-controlled tenant; it’s not going anywhere even though it stinks.” Helping him out were Martin Short and John Mulaney, as well as the show’s writers, whom Martin showed standing outside in the rain in one funny bit that he joked was written by A.I. Reflecting on the age of the show, Martin quipped, “A person born during the first season of Saturday Night Live could today be easily dead of natural causes.”
“Welcome to Black Jeopardy, the only Jeopardy! where every single viewer fully understood Kendrick [Lamar]’s halftime performance,” joked Kenan Thompson, as he opened the sketch that first appeared back in 2016, when it was celebrated for its razor-sharp insight into white and Black America. This time, the main gag was that none of the contestants seemed to know much about one of the categories that was all about SNL, which felt appropriate for the night, if not quite as funny. Thankfully, we had Eddie Murphy doing an incredible impression of Tracy Morgan—while standing right next to Morgan.
Part of the reason SNL has stayed relevant is that the show’s creative team understood long ago the importance of going viral, realizing they needed to make sketches to be consumed by an online, rather than television, audience. The digital shorts from Andy Samberg and the Lonely Island team are among the most legendary of these and are still quotable to this day. (How many times have you gone on a boat and sung the words, “I’m On A Boat”?) Appearing Sunday in an ‘80s synth-inspired number, Samberg led Bowen Yang through a crash course on how many cast members throughout the years have suffered anxiety (as well as IBS).
Bonus pick: “The Lonely Island: Musical Medley” that aired on Friday at the SNL50: The Homecoming Concert. (Yes, there was a whole other tribute show.)
In a bit that reunited the best awards show hosts of our generation (fight me!), former “Weekend Update” co-hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler called on famous members of the audience to see what questions they had about the show’s history. Quinta Brunson, Jon Hamm, Peyton Manning, and Bad Bunny all made appearances, but the most incredible moment came when Fey and Poehler called on Ryan Reynolds, who was sitting next to wife Blake Lively in their first major public appearance since the Justin Baldoni/It Ends With Us saga broke. Credit to the couple on everybody’s lips, because they definitely leaned into the drama. When Fey asked how things were going, Reynolds replied sheepishly, “Great! Why? What have you heard?!”
Nothing was ever really going to top Kate McKinnon’s original “Close Encounter” sketch from 2015, in which she made Ryan Gosling lose his shit with graphic descriptions of the alien abduction experienced by her character, Colleen Rafferty. The sketch has been revived twice now, so the joke is getting a touch old, but Sunday’s episode revived things by introducing us to Colleen’s similarly chain-smoking mother, played by none other than Meryl Streep, who was somehow making her first ever appearance on SNL. Also, Pedro Pascal looks weirdly hot with a mullet?
We didn’t see much of the original 1975 cast on Sunday night, but Laraine Newman made a fantastic appearance opposite Pete Davidson’s dumb-as-a-rock stagehand Chad. In addition to being funny, the bit did a much better job than the opening Carpenter/Simon number at paying tribute to the longevity of the show through the pairing of different generations.
When Tom Hanks appeared somberly in a suit and tie to pay tribute “to those we’ve lost,” audiences were naturally steeling themselves for a montage of cast members who have died, like John Belushi, Chris Farley, Norm Macdonald, and Gilda Radner (whose portrait was held up at the end of the show in a particularly moving moment). But it was a classic bait-and-switch, with Hanks instead paying tribute to all the tasteless jokes and decidedly non-PC characters that have appeared over the show’s history and aged horribly. Cue a series of clips about ethnic stereotypes, sexual harassment, and ableism. It was an ingenious and hilarious way to tackle some of the show’s controversies, as well as acknowledge former guests who probably won’t be invited back, such as R. Kelly, Diddy, and former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle.
No SNL reunion would be complete with an appearance from Rachel Dratch as her infamous party-pooper character Debbie Downer, who first appeared in a 2004 sketch that made the entire cast break into fits of laughter. Still concerned about the rates of feline AIDS, Downer was back on Sunday night, serving as the bartender in the star-studded green room, where she ruined the vibes with observations about bird flu and microplastics. And, yes, she still can’t have children.
Whenever Mulaney turns up to host the show lately, he recruits the cast to perform a mini musical of sorts. This time, he was back with a Les Mis-inspired salute to New York City that somehow brought us Kristen Wiig dressed up as the sexy green M&M singing a parody of “I Dreamed A Dream.” A fever dream, more like.
When Adam Sandler hosted back in 2019, he performed a moving song on the acoustic guitar that he’d written about Farley, his late friend and former colleague. Sandler was back on Sunday night with another moving song (introduced by his Anger Management costar Jack Nicholson), this time paying tribute to the show’s 50 years and many of its stars, writers, and crew. “Fifty years of one of us getting to say, ‘Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!’ Fifty years of standing on home base waving goodnight and goodbye!” Sandler crooned at the end in a moment where it was impossible not to feel a lump in your throat. “Fifty years of the best times of our lives.”
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