Saturday Night Live has been a television staple for over 40 years and has discovered and nurtured some of Hollywood's greatest talents, like Kristin Wiig, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Chevy Chase, Eddie Murphy, and more.
And their annual holiday episode is always a highlight of the season. No other show can combine slapstick comedy with timely humor quite like SNL. Here are the 10 funniest holiday sketches in the show's history, from the Hallmark Dating Show to gift wrapping gone wrong, and more.
Hallmark Dating Show - Season 45
Scarlett Johansson, who was hosting, plays a contestant on the Hallmark Channel Original Game Show, "A Winter Boyfriend for Holiday Christmas." She must choose a new boyfriend from all the generic Hallmark archetypes, like the guy who works at a Christmas tree farm; a prince from a faraway, small, wealthy Europeanish nation; or a guy who is (cough, cough, "might be") Santa Claus himself. Which Hallmark hunk will she choose?
Your Hometown - Season 38
"Your Hometown" is set up like a luxurious travel commercial, and the destination: Your Hometown. The commercial made fun of what it's like to visit your hometown during the holidays, and all the things you have to put up with while you're there - like bumping into people from your high school, Christmas shopping in strip malls, dealing with nosy parents, and more. It's the perfect sketch for anyone who has moved away from their hometown.
Holiday Jewelry - Season 43
This season 43 sketch that featured Cecily Strong and Kate McKinnon directly mocked Pandora charm bracelets, which had a period of extreme popularity. The plot of the sketch made fun of how much work women put into Christmas gifts, and how, in return, they get stuck with receiving small charms that are both expensive, yet dull and boring.
On a broader scale, the sketch also poked fun at the way that women (especially moms and wives) seem to invest much more thought and effort into gift-giving than the rest of their family.
Dad's New Girlfriend - Season 27
In this hilariously brutal sketch, host Elen Degeneres plays Nancy, the new wife of a recently-divorced father (Will Ferrel). It's going to be her first Christmas with his grown children, and the second they arrive, all hell breaks loose. The sketch is basically five minutes of watching Ellen get berated by an angry, mean-spirited family, and the results couldn't have been funnier.
Worst Lady on an Airplane - Season 39
Anyone who has ever flown will relate to this way-too-real sketch. The premise is that the Worst Lady on an Airplane stops by Weekend Update to share her travel tips leading up to the busy holiday travel season.
Unfortunately, the advice she gives isn't how to be a good traveler, but instead, it's how to be the absolute worst flyer in human history. The funniest (and saddest) part about the sketch is that many of the jokes made about horrible airplane passengers are all too real.
Holiday Baking Championship - Season 45
One of the highlights from Eddie Murphy's triumphant return to SNL was this totally bonkers sketch mocking Food Network's Holiday Baking Championship. In the sketch, things go from funny to downright bizarre when Murphey's Sonic the Hedgehog cake is revealed to be a satanic abomination hellbent on committing suicide and dragging the show's judges down into hell.
The Christmas Candle - Season 42
SNL is known for their parody songs and one of their holiday highlights is The Christmas Candle. During Emma Stone's episode, she, along with Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant, give thanks for scented candles, the gift that keeps on giving, from one woman out of gifting ideas to another...and another, and another, and on and on forever... It was yet another example of SNL hilariously mocking something that's all too familiar to audiences everywhere.
Motivational Santa - Season 19
Chris Farley created the role of Matt Foley, one of SNL's most famous characters. Foley is a down on his luck motivational speaker who uses his own destitution and desperation to try and encourage kids to make good choices in life, otherwise, they'll spend their life "living in a van down by the river."
Farley's holiday interpretation of the character adds even more humor, transforming Matt Foley from a horrendous motivational speaker into the kind of mall Santa that would give parents nightmares.
Gift Wrap - Season 43
In season 43's Gift Wrap sketch, both the cast and audience couldn't control their hysterical laughter. Host James Franco plays a store employee who is on gift-wrapping duty. After he accidentally slices off the tips of his fingers, blood squirts all over the stage, and at one point even gets in Leslie Jones' mouth (she later admitted in an interview that her onstage gagging was very much real and that she was holding back vomit the entire sketch.) Franco says it's his favorite SNL sketch of all time.
NPR's Delicious Dish: Schweddy Balls - Season 24
When the Schweddy Balls sketch first aired, it was an instant classic, created a massive controversy, and went down in the history books as one of the moments that changed television forever. In the sketch, Alec Baldwin plays Pete Schweddy, a baker who goes on NPR to discuss his favorite holiday recipes.
He starts talking about his namesake recipe, his Schweddy Balls (which are little chocolate truffles). Throughout the sketch, he, along with castmembers Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon, make numerous sexual innuendos that noticeably have the audience shocked and laughing harder than almost any other sketch in the show's history.