I want to reflect on what Saturday Night Live (SNL) has meant to me. I was lucky enough to grow up in a family of funny people.
These people exposed me to comics at a very young age—some would say too young, but I think it was just fine.
In my family, it was always better to find the funny and good in life rather than dwell on the bad things.
Over the years I have decided on some of my favorite SNL sketches. Here are my top five Sketches in no particular order.
- The first sketch is called Birthday Party. The premise is that it is a little girl’s birthday party, and one of the guests, who is a child, has a crush on the birthday girl’s father.
Now, writing this out I can see how this sketch might be weird. It starts with Aidy Bryant playing the little girl. The description of the YouTube Video says, “Melanie (Aidy Bryant) creeps out her friends when she hits on the birthday girl Taylor’s dad (Ryan Gosling).”
This sketch aired during season 41 (2015).
- The next sketch is called Santas My Boyfriend. The premise is that three women sing a very funny song about how they are all dating Santa. I was really young when this sketch came out I would say about four years old. I saw this sketch for the first time, I would say within the last six months. The YouTube video says While trimming a Christmas tree, three ladies (Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Kristin Wiig) find they have someone in common as they break into song.” This sketch aired during Season 32 (2006)
- This sketch is a newer one but it is so funny. It brought back icons such as Maya Rudolph and Kristin Wiig. This was when Kate McKinnon came back to host after she left the cast. This sketch has very good one-liners and some adaptations. The YouTube description says “A commercial advertises ABBA’s rediscovered Christmas album.” This aired during season 49 (2023)
- Although SNL is a live show, it films some sketches before the live taping. In this one, called Salad, Aidy Bryant makes an overnight salad for her family while singing a song. The YouTube video’s description says, “A mom (Aidy Bryant) sneaks into her kitchen to make an “overnight salad” for her husband (Daniel Craig) and children.”
- I actually watched this sketch when I was a child. It is very silly and out there. This ended up turning into a mini-series of sketches. The YouTube description says, “An instructor (Seth MacFarlane) tries to keep the class on track, but war vet Anthony Peter Coleman (Bill Hader) has a hard time shedding his PTSD while performing with his puppet, Tony.” This sketch aired during season 38 (2012).
An honorable mention for me is any Weekend Update sketch for the most part. I don’t know if it is the design of the sketches or something else, but I have always thought they were funny. Of the weekend updates, I like the joke swaps Colin Jost and Michael Che do on the last episode of the year. I am not going to link any of the joke swaps in this post because of how awful in a good way they are. If you are curious, you can find them on your own.
Also, on Weekend Update, I like this 1999 sketch of Jimmy Fallon doing an impression of Jerry Seinfeld. It is not even that this sketch is funny; it is that Fallons’ impression of Seinfeld is crazy accurate. If you close your eyes, you can’t even tell which one of them is talking.
To conclude there are many amazing SNL sketches that I did not make it to this post. With that being said, There have been so many great sketches throughout the year and I am sure there are many more to come.