Summary
- SNL has been on TV for decades and has produced many iconic skits that continue to be popular over the years.
- The best SNL skits are often hilarious and unforgettable, providing plenty of laughs for fans.
- The show frequently incorporates current topics and guest hosts to create fresh and funny moments in its skits.
While most TV shows have a limited run on TV, Saturday Night Live has been around for decades and the best SNL skits of all time continue to show why it has remained popular. The series has no doubt had its ups and downs, and comedians come and go from the NBC show, with many of them moving on to have lucrative acting careers, but SNL is always around. Since 1975, the series has provided hundreds of musical performances, skits, and plenty of laughs.
With every new season of Saturday Night Live, there are new skits to add to the show's long legacy and challenge for the best SNL skits of all time. While not every skit is an instant classic, there are some that provide the laughs and unforgettable moments that live on through the years. And while the show has been a stable of television culture since 1975, there are endless great skits that fans can always look back on.
The 50 Best TV Shows Of All Time, Ranked
The best TV shows of all time will be debated forever, but there are clear contenders. These are the very best TV shows of all time, ranked.30 Spelling Bee
Season 31
Will Forte was never afraid to embrace his weirdest ideas in his skits which made for some hilarious moments. One of the most underrated and brilliant sketches to come from him is also one of the simplest ideas. Forte plays a man competing in a spelling bee and is asked to spell the word “business.” After asking a variety of questions regarding the word, including if the judge could spell it for him, Forte makes his attempt. What follows is over a full minute of Forte throwing out random letters including about a dozen Qs in a row. It is a ridiculous idea that goes on just long enough to be hilarious.
29 Career Day
Season 43
Adam Driver is an amazing actor and Saturday Night Live host as evidenced by his memorable appearances on the show. While Driver’s skills are well-known by now, he fully commits himself to this hilarious sketch and delivers an astounding performance. Taking place during a high school career day, Driver plays the elderly father of Pete Davidson’s character, an oil baron who teaches the kids about the ruthlessness of his business. Driver is hilarious, screaming at the top of his longs as this outrageous and compelling character who seems perfectly suited to become a recurring character for Driver.
28 Diner Lobster
Season 43
After being a writer on Saturday Night Live for years, John Mulaney has become one of the show’s most popular hosts. He also brought back one of the skits he wanted to do as a writer that was deemed too strange to life as a host. The premise finds Pete Davidson as a clueless patron of a diner who orders a lobster which launches into a Les Misérables style musical production. Indeed, it is a strange concept but it works surprisingly well, making for a hugely entertaining set piece that has inspired several sequel sketches.
27 Cobras & Panthers
Season 22
Norm MacDonald was famously fired from Saturday Night Live for his controversial Weekend Update jokes, but he was also a gifted sketch artist with this overlooked gem showcasing MacDonald’s unique sense of humor. The premise follows a 1950s street gang with members who perform West Side Story-like musical numbers. However, MacDonald plays the one member who cannot understand why everyone is breaking out into song. His bemused delivery of asking his fellow gang members “How’d you come up with a song so fast?” is a hilarious way of addressing the suspension of disbelief that goes along with all musicals.
26 CBS Evening News: Katie Couric Interviews Sarah Palin
Season 34
After leaving the show as its head writer in 2006, Tina Fey made several memorable guest spots on the show as Republican politician Sarah Palin. Palin became a media sensation as the surprise pick for John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 presidential race. The fact that Fey bore a striking resemblance to Palin and could pull off a hilarious impression of her set it up to be a hilarious surprise for audiences as Fey and Poehler did their own take on Palin’s infamous interview with Katie Couric. It is a laugh-out-loud segment that cemented Fey’s take on Palin as one of the best impressions on SNL.
25 HBO Mario Kart Trailer
Season 48
One thing about the best SNL skits is that the show is live, so the cast and crew can use current topics when creating its funniest moments. In season 48, The Last of Us was becoming one of the hottest HBO shows, a dark post-apocalyptic series based on a video game. The SNL sketch brought in Last of Us star Pedro Pascal as the host, and he spoofed his own show by creating a fake trailer for HBO's next dark video game adaptation, Mario Kart. The idea of taking the bright, fun video game and giving it a dark real-world aesthetic was hilarious and one of the recent additions to the all-time best SNL skits.
24 A Christmas Carol
Season 48
Only Murders in the Building reminded the world of why Martin Short and Steve Martin are one of the best comedy duos in history. In this addition to the best SNL skits of all time, Short plays Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, after he wakes up from his ghostly visits. He wants nothing more than to do good, but when he tries to throw coins down to the people on the street, it has disastrous results. The skit just builds and builds, with the accidents becoming gorier and gorier until Martin's ghost disappears and Short just slowly backs away from the carnage.
23 Simon: Summer Drawings
Seasons 16-19
Mike Myers has some of the most iconic of the best SNL skits, from Wayne's World to minimalist artist Dieter. However, one of his best is also one of the darkest characters ever to appear on Saturday Night Live. Myers plays Simon, a British child who sits in his bathtub and shares his drawings with the audience. There were five skits in this run, and he is often sharing things that are truly horrific, but at his age, he is too innocent to understand the trauma he lives through. With lines like "cheeky monkey," it is memorable but is also disturbing in many ways.
22 The Blues Brothers
Debuted In 1978
Most fans know The Blues Brothers from the movie that spun off of one of the best SNL skits of all time. In the skit, Dan Akyroyd and John Belushi were a little different than what fans saw in the movie. While the movie saw the two on an adventure to save the orphanage that raised them, the SNL skits were all about Akyroyd and Belushi performing their songs in their high-energy acts. The first-ever appearance was in 1978. Later, John Goodman joined up and there have been many appearances by the band with different real-life soul musicians since their first appearance.
21 The Church Lady
Debuted In 1986
So many people just remember Dana Carvey from his role in Wayne's World skits. However, he has another major addition to the best SNL skits of all time with his portrayal of The Church Lady in her show, Church Chat. In an era where televangelists ruled the airwaves, Carvey took on the role of preaching to the masses in the most condescending way possible. Between talking down to everyone to insulting fornicators and sinners in the world of entertainment and politics. With lines including "could it be Satan?" this was one of the most quotable skits ever to show up on SNL.
20 Farewell, Mr. Bunting
Season 41
As a relatively new skit, "Farwell Mr. Bunting" is sure to go down as one of the biggest laughs in the best SNL skits in history. The skit initially feels like a rather faithful recreation of the iconic scene from Dead Poet's Society where the inspiring teacher (played by Fred Armisen) is fired and the students all stand on their desks and pay tribute to him. The skit is very patient in making the audience wait for the big moment. Finally, one student stands up on the desk and is immediately decapitated by the ceiling fan. The shock of the moment mixed with the bloody chaos that follows is unforgettable.
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19 The Roxbury Guys
Debuted In 1996
Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan's recurring skit as the Roxbury Guys was one of the best SNL skits that is so popular it was made into a movie. It is a fairly simple set up of these two obnoxious and oblivious guys going out to dance clubs and unsuccessfully trying to dance with girls. The skit was featured countless times but the most memorable was likely when Ferrell and Kattan were joined by Jim Carrey who fit into the absurdity of the skit perfectly.
18 Black Jeopardy
Recurring Sketch
While there is another Jeopardy-themed skit on SNL that is likely more iconic to fans, "Black Jeopardy" has become one of the funniest and most clever recurring best SNL skits on the show in recent years. The skit depicts a game of Jeopardy aimed at Black American contestants with one of the contestants inevitably feeling out of place. Some of the highlights include Chadwick Boseman's appearance as T'Challa and Tom Hanks playing a white conservative who does surprisingly well.
17 Debbie Downer
Debuted In 2004
What is interesting about the Debbie Downer skit is that it became famous for how wrong it all went. Rachel Dratch stars in the skit as the titular character, a pessimistic woman who cannot help but bring down the mood of whatever happy occasion she is a part of. The first time the skit aired, showing Debbie ruining a family trip to Disneyworld, it devolved into the entire cast breaking character and unable to say their lines through all their laughter. Needless to say, the audience loved it.
16 Harry Caray
Debuted In 1996
Will Ferrell is regarded as one of the best SNL cast members of all time and Harry Caray is surely one of his best characters. Based on the real-life baseball announcer, Ferrell does a ridiculous impression of the man and has him providing his perspectives on anything not baseball related. Harry's disheveled appearance, his unique voice, and his general detachment from the world around him make it an endlessly enjoyable recurring bit that is simply a showcase for Ferrell's comedic brilliance.
15 Mister Robinson's Neighborhood
Debuted In 1981
One of the most famous actors to come from Saturday Night Live is Eddie Murphy. The actor appeared in 65 episodes of SNL, but one of his best SNL skits was “Mister Robinson’s Neighborhood.” The skit parodied the famous show Mister Roger’s Neighborhood starring Fred Rogers. Instead of teaching children life lessons, Mr. Robinson was a criminal who often taught children about illegal things like shoplifting. Mr. Robinson was a character that appeared several different times on the show, but the time he taught kids about nutrition was one of the best SNL skits of all time.
14 NPR’s Delicious Dish: Schweddy Balls
Season 24
Another thing SNL parodied was NPR (National Public Radio). In one episode, Jo McCullen (Ana Gasteyer) and Terry Rialto (Molly Shannon) hosted a segment on the air called Delicious Dish and had a guest star on the show named Pete Schweddy. Frequent SNL host Alec Baldwin played Mr. Schweddy the owner of a business called Seasons Eatings and his most famous product was a holiday dessert called Schweddy Balls. The skit was full of double entendres mainly about Pete’s balls. Many comedians today wouldn’t have been able to keep their composure, but all three of the actors in the skit did perfectly.
13 MacGruber
Debuted in 2007
Will Forte appeared in 156 episodes starting in 2002 and MacGruber was one of his most famous characters. MacGruber was obviously a parody of the famous 80s show MacGyver. While MacGyver was always able to get himself out of a tight space due to his scientific resourcefulness, MacGruber always failed and often blew himself up. These best SNL skits were so well received that the character was given his own film in 2010, starring Forte and Kristen Wiig. While it is hard to pick the best MacGruber skit of them all, the one with Jonah Hill revolving around an embarrassing workplace rumor stands out.
12 Two Wild & Crazy Guys
Debuted In 1977
Two of the most popular Saturday Night Live actors of the 70s were Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin. Both actors went on to have massively successful acting careers, but some of their funniest material came from SNL. One skit the two actors were in together was “Two Wild & Crazy Guys” which was about two Czech-born brothers named York and Georg Festrunk. The brothers were always looking to pick up some ladies, but the swingers weren’t always successful with women. The characters appeared multiple times on the show, most recently in 2013 when Justin Timberlake hosted the show.
11 Celebrity Jeopardy!
Recurring Sketch
“Celebrity Jeopardy” is one Saturday Night Live skit that has appeared in several episodes. Jeopardy! is a perfect show for SNL to parody since it allows the cast members to impersonate several celebrities. The skit started in 1996, but one of the best SNL skits came in 1999 in the show's 25th season. This skit included some of SNL's best celebrity impersonations including French Stewart (Jimmy Fallon), Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond), and Burt Reynolds (Norm MacDonald). Will Ferrell also appears in the sketch as Alex Trebek and has returned to the role several times even after he moved on from SNL.