When a cast member stands out on Saturday Night Live, it’s a natural progression for them to leave the show behind and become a movie star. In the 2000s, this was seen in the film careers of such SNL performers as Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and Andy Samberg — who made the leap to the big screen in collaboration with his Lonely Island cohorts.
Some of the funniest comedies from the 2000s starred cast members from Saturday Night Live, including a handful of hits from producer Judd Apatow, who, Hollywood collectively put in charge of film comedy for a spell in the ‘00s.
Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
From Amy Poehler to Janeane Garofalo to Molly Shannon, there are a ton of SNL actors in David Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer, a hysterical satire of summer camp movies. There are also a few non-SNL cast members who got their break in this little cult hit, like Paul Rudd and Bradley Cooper.
The Wet Hot American Summer cinematic universe has since been expanded significantly as Netflix has premiered a string of limited series bringing back (some of) the original cast.
Idiocracy (2006)
One of several underappreciated movies directed by King of the Hill creator Mike Judge, Idiocracy stars Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph as a soldier and a sex worker, respectively, who are accidentally sent 500 years into the future.
In this dystopian futuristic world, everybody has become so interminably stupid that they can’t even use simplistic language to try to explain their predicament.
Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby (2006)
Adam McKay reportedly got the studio on board with Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby using a six-word pitch: “Will Ferrell as a NASCAR driver.”
Initially, Ricky Bobby is at the top of his game. However, when he loses his nerve, his wife leaves him for his best friend, and he has to move back in with his mom and deliver pizzas on a bicycle. Talladega Nights is a hysterically absurdist take on an underdog sports story.
Hot Rod (2007)
When Andy Samberg was tapped to star in Hot Rod, he reworked the script with his Lonely Island partners Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone to suit the absurdist comedic sensibility they’d honed during their early career and creating “Digital Shorts” for SNL.
Samberg plays a wannabe stuntman trying to raise the money to pay for his stepdad’s life-saving surgery so he can keep him alive long enough to kick his butt.
Step Brothers (2008)
Another collaboration of McKay, Ferrell, and John C. Reilly, Step Brothers is a nonstop laugh riot about two middle-aged men who refuse to grow up and move out of their parents’ house.
Ferrell and Reilly’s unparalleled on-screen chemistry can be seen in all of their collaborations, but Brennan Huff and Dale Doback are the roles they were born to play together.
Superbad (2007)
Jonah Hill and Michael Cera star in Superbad as the teenage versions of screenwriters Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, desperately trying to secure some booze before heading to a party filled with popular kids (including the girls they have crushes on).
Rogen appears in a supporting role opposite SNL’s Bill Hader as a pair of cops who take Seth and Evan’s friend Fogell out for a night of drinking, smoking, and shooting stop signs to show him that cops can be fun, too.
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)
Bill Murray has appeared in all of Wes Anderson’s movies since Rushmore, but he’s only played the lead role in one: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Zissou is an eccentric oceanographer in the mold of Jacques Cousteau, but Murray of course dials up the absurdity.
Although it was dismissed by critics and moviegoers back in 2004, The Life Aquatic has since been re-evaluated as a cult classic. It’s filled with great gags, including an action-packed pirate attack set to the sounds of Iggy Pop at the midpoint.
Shrek (2001)
From its pitch-perfect storytelling to its anachronistic soundtrack full of Smash Mouth, there’s a lot to love about Shrek, but arguably the movie’s greatest asset is the chemistry shared by Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy in the respective roles of Shrek and Donkey.
They each give individually hilarious and unforgettable vocal performances as these characters, but they also create a tangible friendship between them that’s difficult to pull off in animation.
Mean Girls (2004)
Tina Fey adapted the screenplay for Mean Girls from a self-help book about teenagers called Queen Bees and Wannabees. Fey appears in a supporting role — as do her SNL co-stars Amy Poehler and Tim Meadows — but the movie’s real star is Lindsay Lohan.
Lohan plays a girl who grew up outside the United States and has to adapt to the ruthless environment of an American high school. She contends with “the Plastics,” a group of popular girls led by the vicious Regina George (Rachel McAdams).
Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Adam McKay and Will Ferrell first brought their uniquely bizarre sense of humor to the big screen in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, a ‘70s-set satire of sexism in the workplace.
Ferrell stars alongside Paul Rudd, Steve Carell, and David Koecher as the leader of a chauvinistic all-male news team who’s threatened by the arrival of Veronica Corningstone, played by Christina Applegate, the new female co-anchor.