SNL 50, review: The anniversary special had Jack Nicholson, Ryan Reynolds and Macca

Telegraph

17-02-2025

Even when the humour was lacking, American comedy 'institution' Saturday Night Live has never been short of star power – with Madonna, Taylor Swift and, erm, Donald Trump among the celebrities to have guest hosted the weekly sketch show across its 50 year history.
Trump presented SNL months before winning the US presidency for the first time in 2016 but wasn't on hand as the series marked its half-century with a marathon three-hour special. Still, the broadcast did not lack for glitter or bombast. It started with Sabrina Carpenter and Paul Simon performing Simon and Garfunkel ballad Homeward Bound and ended with Paul McCartney negotiating a medley of Beatles hits. In between, the comedy marathon unleashed a galaxy of stars – among them such reach-for-your-sunglasses names as Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Eddie Murphy, Tom Hanks, Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Kim Kardashian.
And that was just those who turned up to perform (Nicholson, 87, was on hand to introduce a song by his friend Adam Sandler). Just as much fun was to be had spotting a-listers who had simply come along to watch – including Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Jenna Ortega, Lady Gaga and David Letterman. The audience also included Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds, who appeared to crack wise about his wife, Blake Lively's ongoing legal battle with It Ends with Us director Justin Baldoni. 'Oh Ryan Reynolds – how's it going,' asked Tina Fey from the stage. 'Great – why, what have you heard?' he deadpanned, a quip widely regarded as a jokey reference to Baldoni-gate.
But for all the birthday sparkle, in one respect, Saturday Night Live was assuredly its usual self. As is the convention, it wasn't funny in the least. That was despite the best efforts of Steve Martin, who followed on from Carpenter and Simon, to deliver the traditional opening monologue. It was as close as the 180-minute slog came to amusing. Martin joked that, at age 79, he was the new 'diversity hire' and that the Gulf of Mexico had been renamed 'the Gulf of Steve Martin'.
The musical line-up was impressive, too. Espresso singer Carpenter was honoured to stand beside Simon but held her own during their performance. Later, SNL appeared to offer a tacit apology for its treatment of the late Sinéad O'Connor, whom it hounded and ridiculed after she tore up a picture of the Pope during her segment in 1992.
The show sought to make amends by having Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard reprise O'Connor's cover of Prince's Nothing Compares 2 U – the added subtext being that Cyrus and O'Connor had clashed on social media in 2013. (The segment was introduced by Aubrey Plaza in her first public appearance since the death of her husband.)
Ryan Reynolds during #SNL50
"Ryan how's it going? Great… why, what have you heard?" pic.twitter.com/8a4A6NIU2D
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) February 17, 2025
Those with the staying power to make it through all three hours will meanwhile have had their reward with a memorable turn by Paul McCartney, who bashed out the bittersweet Beatles hit Carry That Weight on piano.
You can't beat a bit of Macca, and his arrival offered a welcome respite from the deluge of non-gags that had rained down like confetti at a Coldplay concert. They included a bizarre Will Ferrell skit in which he impersonated French-Canadian singer Robert Goulet and danced with Kim Kardashian and Scarlett Johansson and a sketch in which Eddie Murphy portrayed an ex-con convinced he was Harry Potter. Maybe it was funnier in rehearsals.
Tom Hanks, American comedy's dad-in-chief, was in the house, too. He introduced a back-handed celebration of SNL's tradition of what Americans call 'ethnic humour' – along with gags about sexual assault and child abuse. There followed a montage of iffy caricatures of Mexicans, Italians, Asian people, etc – plus a flashback to a joke involving an underage Macaulay Culkin in the bath and cancelled guests OJ Simpsons, P Diddy and R Kelly.
Almost every American comedian of note has passed through the doors of SNL at one point or another. Their ranks include Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, the aforementioned Steve Martin and his long-term foil Martin Shortt (likewise at hand).
But much of the show's mythology is built on the brief career of John Belushi, who blazed a rock'n'roll trail before dying of a heroin overdose in 1982. In a poignant if eerie tribute, SNL broadcast a previously unaired sketch in which Belushi played an old man dancing on the graves of SNL contemporaries such as Chase and Aykroyd.
It was a hugely poignant, but, in failing to raise anything approaching a laugh, also encapsulated 50 years of SNL – a show that has etched itself into comedy mythology without ever actually being all that funny.