SNL: We Pick the 15 Funniest Sketches of Season 50 — Watch Video
Saturday Night Live's landmark 50th season has come and gone… and as usual, it left us with plenty of big laughs.
NBC's sketch comedy institution wrapped up Season 50 last month, bringing back lots of familiar faces along the way, with cameos from legendary alumni like Adam Sandler and Tina Fey. But SNL delivered some instant-classic sketches this season, too — maybe even ones we'll still be talking about 50 years from now. (We'll probably have to explain to our grandchildren who or what Moo Deng was, though.)
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We're celebrating the end of another SNL season — and a half-century of Studio 8H greatness — by looking back at the funniest Season 50 sketches, from uproarious live moments to pre-taped short films to Weekend Update characters we hope to see a lot more of in future seasons. Our favorite sketches include stellar work from hosts like Ariana Grande, John Mulaney and… Lady Gaga? Who knew she was a comedy powerhouse?
(Note: In the interest of fairness, we left off any sketches from February's live SNL50 anniversary special — although those were fantastic, too. Click here for a full rundown.)
Read on to see which Season 50 sketches made the cut — press PLAY on the photo that accompanies each entry to watch the sketch in full — and be sure to hit the comments below and let us know if we left off any of your favorites.
This short film is a real emotional roller coaster, telling the tale of a cute monkey that was sent into outer space at the dawn of the Space Race — and might not make it back home. The Mad Men-era period detail is exquisite here, and Beppo's story actually becomes genuinely poignant at times. (We're rooting for you, Beppo!) But John Mulaney and company make sure to weave lots of absurd humor into the mix, even when things go dark. (And zero forever.)
Ariana Grande really showed off her vocal range in this goofy trip back to the Italian Renaissance, playing a young boy who has an incredibly high singing voice… thanks to an involuntary castration. (Poor Antonio.) The sight gag of Grande's haunted face is priceless, and SNL greats Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg even pop in to explain the castration process in broad Italian accents: 'We never cut. We just-a twist!'
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che's annual joke swap is always a good time, where they write incredibly offensive jokes for each other to read on air without seeing them first. They really outdo themselves here, though, with Jost comparing his wife Scarlett Johansson's, um, private area to Costco roast beef — with a shocked Johansson watching live backstage. She did eventually get an apology from Che… penned by Jost, of course.
Yes, Shane Gillis bombed hard with his controversial monologue — and his episode earned a 'F' grade from TVLine readers — but we did find a silver lining in this commercial parody, where Gillis hawks a tried-and-true medication for men facing anxiety and depression: Just down a couple beers! His confidence goes through the roof, and he uses the wonder drug to cope with everything from 'winter' to 'museum.' (Watch it here.)
No frills or cameos here: This is just a good old-fashioned hilarious sketch, led by new featured player Ashley Padilla as a wife who tells embarrassingly horrible jokes at a company dinner. (Or just one embarrassingly horrible joke, really. Over and over again.) Padilla's magnificently over-the-top delivery won our hearts immediately. She better be back next season, Lorne.
SNL pays tribute to a cultural staple with this fake ad for every older woman's favorite accessory: little red glasses! (They say, 'I teach Philosophy of Dance, and I eat tapas every night.') Lady Gaga's Noo Yawk accent is fantastically on point here, and the heightening rises to absurd levels: 'I have a Celestial Seasonings credit card!'
Two keys to making a great SNL sketch: (1) Give Kenan Thompson a crazy character to play, and (2) let him cook. Here, he plays rock'n'roll legend Little Richard, who repeatedly pops up on a cheesy '90s family sitcom for some reason. We're not asking too many questions; we'll just enjoy Thompson letting out joyous 'woooo's and delivering the immortal line: 'I'm sorry that your goddamn dog died.'
Who is Lord Gaga? Why, he's Lady Gaga's husband, of course! Mikey Day brings the perfect air of snooty pomposity to this Weekend Update character, who is the heir to a vast textile empire and condescendingly applauds his wife's little 'hobby' in the arts. ('If only it all paid, eh?') But the joke goes to another level when Lord Gaga mocks the very idea of a man being outearned by his wife… while Colin Jost (husband to Scarlett Johansson) just sits there and seethes.
Season 50's cameo cavalcade peaked in this cold open, with Martin Short getting inducted into SNL's vaunted Five-Timers Club by a glitzy parade of A-list luminaries led by Tom Hanks and Paul Rudd. The sheer star wattage here is almost overwhelming, but they bring the jokes, too, including Kristen Wiig's weird sexual energy and a delightful reunion of 30 Rock stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin. For SNL junkies, this is a real Christmas gift.
This glorious Weekend Update character, with Bowen Yang playing the cute baby hippo that became a viral sensation, offers both high and low comedy. On one hand, we get a painfully pretentious Moo Deng complaining about his sudden fame, a la Chappell Roan. ('I will not be making an endorsement in this year's election.') And on the other, we get Yang in a hippo suit trying to drink water from a hose fired right at his face. Truly the best of both worlds.
Walton Goggins turns the sleaze factor up to 11 for this riotous sketch, playing a wildly flirty waiter entertaining a pair of middle-aged moms at a Mother's Day brunch — and annoying their sons. Goggins sells it with his suggestively unbuttoned shirt and his smooth Southern drawl, hitting on the ladies with outrageous lines like when he told the sons: 'You got to spend nine months inside your mama, I'm just trying to get 20 minutes.' (Watch it here.)
Here, host Jon Hamm and Bowen Yang play a gay couple who bring their new baby to a get-together — only their friends gently point out that they didn't have a baby a day ago. Hamm and Yang treat their friends' very reasonable questions about where the baby came from as wildly offensive homophobic slurs. ('People think they can ask gay people anything! It's not OK!') Plus, we kind of love Hamm and Yang's chemistry as a couple. We 'ship them!
Hear us out! Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island pals make a triumphant return to SNL with this absolute banger, with Samberg and Akiva Schaffer pitching a stuffy business boardroom on their new innovation: a sushi glory hole. ('Instead of strange d—k, you'd be getting a snack.') Now we're not saying we'd kneel down in a dirty bathroom stall just to enjoy some high-end raw fish… but the song is pretty convincing.
Michael Longfellow is deliciously sadistic as the host of this game show sketch, which simply asks contestants to correctly name a person. John Mulaney plays a sanctimonious contestant who claims to be an expert on politics… but can't even name Hillary Clinton's VP pick Tim Kaine when he's standing right in front of him. (Kaine is a very good sport about it, too.) And when the host challenges Mulaney's contestant to remember the name of a single one of the Black victims of police violence he had once tweeted out with the hashtag #RememberTheirNames, calling him 'pal of mine' in the process? Chef's kiss. (Watch it here.)
SNL's repetitive Trump parodies got tiresome by the end of Season 50, but they thankfully find a new twist on it here by satirizing the HBO hit The White Lotus and putting Donald Trump and his family on an ill-fated trip to Thailand. Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Ivanka Trump, Chloe Fineman's impression of Parker Posey (sorry, Melania Trump) is perfectly spot-on, and Jon Hamm delivers a pretty nifty RFK Jr. to boot. (We'll just ignore the cheap swipe taken at Aimee Lou Wood's teeth.)
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