This may have been my most foolish endeavor yet. How do you possibly distill 50 years of comedy greatness (and a lot of crap) into a top 10 list? You can’t do it. While I could have made a more idiosyncratic list of just my favorite sketches, it feels like a major oversight to ignore some of the show’s most popular moments. So I tried to balance the two, even if it meant cutting personal favorites like “Puppet Class” and “Kiss Me I’m Irish.” (My favorite performer, Bill Hader, is well-represented on this list already.) Besides, I tend to prefer my sketches brief, dark, and not filled with celebrity cameos or impersonations, which is not really what the show is about.
So I’ve given a spotlight to some great sketches that for one reason or another have been scrubbed from the internet (though I’d give the Instagram account @snlreelz a follow). And I’ve listed my top 10 commercial parodies (in alphabetical order) before getting to the list proper. I’ve also included links where applicable
SPECIAL COMMENDATION – 5 Great Sketches You Can’t Find Online
“Halftime Motivation” with Peyton Manning (aired 3/24/2007)
Though you can find a few snippets of the joyous absurdity on display, there seems to be no full version of this sublimely silly sketch. Will Forte tries to motivate his team – who have gotten their asses kicked in the first half – with a song that will pump them up and raise their spirits, only to deliver a freewheeling dance to a ridiculous instrumental. His goofy moves even got Kenan Thompson to break.
“Love Is a Dream” (aired 1988)
There aren’t really any laughs to be had in this lovely short film. But it’s still one to admire for its surprising production values and sweetness. Now that its stars have both passed, it takes on added resonance.
“Make ’em Laugh” (Opening Monologue) with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (aired 11/21/2009)
A young star performing a song in lieu of a traditional monologue is old hat at this point. It’s usually a pretty weak tune that you’re begging to be over quickly. But at the height of his fame, JGL instead paid tribute to Donald O’Connor’s all-timer number from Singin’ in the Rain. Music rights surely keep this from being available widely, but it deserves to be as famous as Tom Holland’s performance of “Umbrella” on Lip Sync Battle.
“New York City Stories, Part 2” (aired 10/7/2006)
The less said about this short’s siblings with Amy Poehler as Yoko Ono and Rosie Perez, the better. But this one, with Poehler as Patti Smith and Fred Armisen as Lou Reed mourning the closing of CBGB, is hilarious and wildly specific. When Reed says he saw Iggy Pop take a swing at a cop’s horse, you believe him.
“Victims of Recession” with Anne Hathaway (aired 10/4/2008)
While an edited version of this can be found on the show’s official YouTube page, you can’t find the original, which I watched live. That’s because it was “too mean” to some of the real architects of the subprime mortgage crisis. All future versions had that part cut out. That’s one of a long line of cowardly decisions by Lorne Michaels, but the sketch itself still goes after bigger cowards like President George W. Bush and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
HONORABLE MENTIONS – Top 10 Commercial Parodies
“Bad Idea Jeans” (aired 9/29/1990)
“Colombian Decaffeinated Coffee Crystals” (aired 11/16/1991)
“Colon Blow” (aired 11/11/1989)
“First CitiWide Change Bank” (aired 10/8/1988)
“Old Glory Insurance” (aired 11/18/1995)
“Oops! I Crapped My Pants” (aired 9/26/1998)
“Schmitts Gay” (aired 9/28/1991)
“Taco Town” (aired 10/8/2005)
“Totino’s” with Kristen Stewart (aired 2/4/2017)
“Wilson Countersink Flanges” (aired 12/5/1992)
TOP 10 SKETCHES
10. “Farewell Mr. Bunting” with Fred Armisen (aired 5/21/2016)
Apparently there is no expiration for a Dead Poets Society parody, especially one with a gory twist. One of those great, unexpected sketches that catches you off-guard when you’re watching live.
9. “Matt Foley” with Christina Applegate (aired 5/8/1993)
Aside from John Belushi (who also died tragically from a drug overdose), no performer has ever had the irrepressible energy that Chris Farley brought to Studio 8H. I debated putting the Chippendales sketch here, but I’m still a little conflicted as to whether or not Farley’s supposed to be laughed at or with. So instead I went with what might be his greatest character: the homeless motivational speaker Matt Foley, whose intense style produces results, just not how he or his audience imagines. While his performance is legendary, it’s the little touches (the ill-fitting wardrobe, the arm movements) that make this one endure.
8. “Stefon’s Spring Break Tips” (aired 3/10/2012)
Bill Hader’s “culture correspondent” Stefon is easily my favorite recurring character from this century, dishing out horrifying tips to unsuspecting tourists. While I could have picked nearly any of his frequent appearances on Weekend Update, I’m going with this one, which features my favorite club name (“Kevin?!”) and that perfectly timed lip lock.
7. “What’s That Name? (Election Edition)” with John Mulaney (aired 11/2/2024)
Political satire in the age of Trump is hard. How do you parody someone who’s larger than life? Someone who’s both dumber and more evil than previously thought possible? Someone who, uh, hosted the show during his first run for office? Unfortunately, SNL‘s first pass stunk, with Alec Baldwin’s lame impression winning an Emmy but scoring few laughs from anyone who doesn’t have an In This House We Believe… sign in their yard. Eventually we got James Austin Johnson’s pitch-perfect impersonation, but the writing sometimes lets him down. So leave it to John Mulaney – who once likened Trump’s first term to a horse running loose in a hospital, and pissed off a lot of people by calling the 2020 election an “elderly man contest” – to skewer self-righteous liberals who’d rather show their “bravery” than do any reckoning.
6. “Debbie Downer at Disney World” with Lindsay Lohan (aired 5/1/2004)
Though we’ll get to two other examples later, this might be the best case of cast members breaking adding to the sketch. Incredibly, this was the debut of Rachel Dratch’s incredible character, a woman who can never enjoy anything. Whether bringing up train derailments or her barren womb, she makes even The Happiest Place on Earth depressing. But because no one on stage can stop cracking up, their laughter is contagious.
5. “Vincent Price’s Halloween Special” with Jon Hamm (aired 10/30/2010)
A sketch that may or may not have been taken directly from my brain. No one was exactly clamoring for a Vincent Price impression in the late 00s and early 10s, so I’m sure Hader had to fight to get these on. But his brilliantly flustered performance, along with committed turns from Fred Armisen (as Liberace), Kristen Wiig (as Gloria Swanson) and host Jon Hamm (as James Mason) made this a true classic. Some lines are burned into my brain, like Price snapping “Save your sassy asides for your windowless bars!” and this priceless exchange:
Price: “So no spaceman costume, James?”
Mason: “Didn’t even open the box. Too old fashioned.”
Price: “The suit was too old-fashioned?”
Mason: “No, I had two old fashioneds and couldn’t open the box.”
4. “Close Encounter” with Ryan Gosling (aired 12/5/2015)
A solidly constructed sketch – three yokels relate share their alien abduction stories with government officials – gets elevated by an absolutely lights-out performance by Kate McKinnon.
3. “Motherlover” with Justin Timberlake (aired 5/9/2009)
Of course there had to be a Digital Short. I could have easily picked “Jack Sparrow” or “People Getting Punched Right Before Eating” or any other number of brilliantly stupid ideas from the Lonely Island. But I had to go with this sequel to “Dick in a Box,” which I still remember seeing the night it aired at a friend’s house and howling the whole way through. The guys are committed once again to their dumb, horny idea, but Susan Sarandon and Patricia Clarkson as their moms steal the show.
2. “Celebrity Jeopardy!” (French Stewart, Burt Reynolds, and Sean Connery) (aired 10/23/1999)
My first favorite sketch. Maybe it’s a little juvenile. Maybe it’s a little broad. Maybe it’s that era’s best collection of celebrity impressions crammed into seven minutes. By this point, Darrell Hammond (as Sean Connery) and Will Ferrell (as Alex Trebek) had perfected their routine as bully and victim, even if the latter never quite sounded like the late, great host. Even Jimmy Fallon shines as French Stewart, a name anyone born after this aired has probably never heard. But of course this installment belongs to guest host (and former cast member) Norm Macdonald, who’s all smiles as Burt Reynolds. I mean, Turd Ferguson.
1. “More Cowbell” with Christopher Walken (aired 4/8/2000)
When in doubt, go with this. It’s got a high approval rating from both devoted fans and people who haven’t watched the show since the fall of 2008. Young, old, liberal, conservative, people who knew the song before they saw this sketch and those who didn’t. Everybody loves this sketch. It took a deeply absurd premise – intra-band fighting during the recording of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” – and made it sing. Ferrell purposely wore a shirt a few sizes too small and played the hell out of that cowbell. Combined with Walken’s typical deadpan as the song’s fictional producer, they helped create an iconic sketch that could have easily ended up on the cutting room floor.