SNL celebrated their 50 years of comedy sketches with an extravagant three hour episode Sunday night which included a plethora of stars. The special was filled with nostalgic skits throughout the years and SNL stars such as Molly Shannon, Kate McKinon, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock and Kristen Wiig to name a few. Throughout the past 50 years, 894 people have hosted the late night show.
Sabrina Carpenter and Paul Simon kicked off the show with their duet of “Homeward Bound”. Simon mentioned the reason that made this moment “full circle” was that he originally performed this song in 1976 with George Harrison, a year after SNL debuted on TV.
The scene was then transferred to Steve Martin who performed the opening monologue. He left no jokes out as he shared feelings about his age and President Trump’s renamed “Gulf of America”. Martin put his own spin on the renaming when he bantered about how he got the call to deliver the monologue while on boat in the “Gulf of Steve Martin”.
Martin was joined by special guests, John Mulaney, previous skit writer for SNL, and Martin Short, Steve’s co-star who was a previous SNL cast member. Short was jokingly made fun of for being Canadian and taken off stage. Steve shared that the pair has worked together for so long that they could “finish each other’s careers.” Martin’s dry humor of serious topics throughout the monologue adds to the comedy.
There were many hilarious skits throughout the night. The first comedy skit was a parody of the old-school “Lawrence Welk Show” featuring the Maharelle sisters Janice (Scarlett Johanson), Holly (Kim Kardashian), Margaret (Ana Gasteyer) and the odd-sister-out Dooneese (Kristen Wiig) along with Robert Goulet (Will Ferrell). Ana Gasteyer, Kristen Wiig and Will Ferell are part of the numerous SNL alums who returned for the special. They revived this classic SNL skit which originally was performed over a decade ago. Wiig created the hysterical character of Dooneese along with her tiny hands herself.
The next skit was “Black Jeopardy” hosted by Keenan Thompson with Eddie Murphy, Tracy Morgan and Leslie Jones. The four comedians together made for comedic gold as they all had good timing and delivery of their lines. Chris Rock and Tom Hanks, reprising his role of Doug, a strong political believer, were featured in the game.
The “Bridesmaid Speech” skit which was made wildly popular through social media this past year causing many younger audiences to tune into SNL had a reprisal. The original Bridesmaid Speech was sung to the melody of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso”. This time around, Carpenter herself was featured alongside SNL cast members singing a parody of “Defying Gravity” from “Wicked.” The plotline of this skit intensified Pedro Pascal’s character Ronaldo. Ronaldo turns out to be brothers with Domingo, the original star of the Bridesmaid speech. Bad Bunny is featured as their third brother. Kelsey’s (Chloe Steinman) parents are played by Molly Shanon and Martin Short. The whole storyline is just a big comical mess with every member somehow interconnected.
There was a Q&A section featuring the dynamic duo Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. They highlighted head of the wardrobe costume department Donna Richards, who has dressed every host since 1997. Their segment featured stars from Julia Louis-Dreyfes, Adam Driver and Cher to Jason Momoa and Peyton Manning. Fey and Poehler spotlighted Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds and asked them “How are things going?” Reynolds answered very abruptly saying, “Why what did you hear?” Lively had a shocked face in light of all the craziness surrounding their recent lawsuit against Justin Baldoni.
One of the best segments of the night was the weekend updates, which take place every week hosted by Michael Che and Colin Jost. Seth Meyers was featured as he was one the anchors from 2008-2013. The most iconic moment was when Bill Murray, one of the first weekend update anchors, took the stage. He ranked each weekend update anchor throughout SNL’s 50 years without ranking Colin Jost at all.
In my opinion, the most hilarious skit of the night was “Close Encounter” featuring Kate McKinnon, Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson and Pedro Pascal being investigated about aliens by a Space Force officer played by Jon Hamm and a doctor played by Aidy Bryant. Kate McKinnon is just too funny that even Streep and Pascal broke character a few times throughout the skit.
Adam Sandler, on a rare occasion wearing a suit, played the guitar and sang a song about the iconic and problematic moments in SNL’s 50 years aired live. A scene that followed featured Jimmy Fallon, Drew Barrymore, Ayo Edebiri, Robert De Niro and Rachel Dratch. Dratch reprised one of SNL’s most famous roles of “Debbie Downer”. Her seriousness mixed with her legendary side eye really capped off the entire scene. Barrymore also made fun of how she interviews her guests on her daytime show by getting too close to De Niro.
SNL ended the night with a recap of their many iconic skits throughout the years. They also acknowledged many of the actions they have done wrong over the years. SNL took accountability for when the comedy went too far. On a more positive side in SNL history, they gave credit to their many writers throughout the years and highlighted the various individuals’ comedy careers that they have helped to kick-off. SNL’s 50th Anniversary Special was one to remember.
