One of the best to ever do it on Saturday Night Live is coming back to Studio 8H. Amy Poehler, who starred on the show from 2001 to 2009, will host the second episode of Season 51 on October 11, which happens to be the NBC sketch comedy show’s 50th birthday.
Poehler told Harper’s Bazaar UK last year that SNL was the job that changed her life the most. “It was certainly the first big job I had, where I said my name and got health insurance,” she said. “I realized, ‘Oh, I think I can make a living doing what I want to do.’ I had done a sketch comedy show on Comedy Central, and there would be times where people would notice that, but it felt very niche. I was performing in New York, and I felt like I had a name for myself there. But certainly, SNL was the first time where I got fan letters.” (She also quipped, “Back then, there used to be this thing called paper, and they would put a pen on this thing called paper.”)
As we await her triumphant return to the SNL stage, check out our picks for her best sketches so far…
8. “Annuale”
Alongside Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig, and Casey Wilson, Poehler played an actor in a TV commercial for Annuale, a (fake) medication that limits periods to once a year. And as the ad shows, all mayhem breaks loose when that once-a-year occasion hits.
7. “The Needlers: Fertility Clinic”
A recurring SNL bit saw Poehler and costar Seth Meyers play Sally and Dan Needler, a.k.a. The Couple That Should Be Divorced. And their acrimony is on full display in this “Fertility Clinic” sketch. “Oh, I have an idea, Dan: If the baby needs constant attention, maybe we can dress it up like your secretary,” Sally says at one point. (“Or a bottle of red wine,” Dan replies.)
6. Leslie Knope on “Weekend Update”
As “Weekend Update” cohost Colin Jost reported a lack of interest in local government in the United States, Poehler popped in to reprise her Parks and Recreation role as Leslie Knope, while her former costar Aubrey Plaza once again played April Ludgate. “I used to watch this when Seth Meyers was by himself with no one else,” Leslie said in a nod to Poehler’s former job cohosting “Weekend Update.”
5. “Editorial Response: Sen. Clinton”
Poehler came face to face with one of her impersonation targets in 2008 when the real Hillary Clinton, then a U.S. senator from New York who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, popped in. Seeing Poehler and Clinton side by side shows just how gifted an impressionist the former is.
4. “Inside Barbie’s Dreamhouse”
Barbie’s Dreamhouse turns into a nightmare in this sketch, featuring Poehler as the blond doll facing a midlife crisis, while Britney Spears plays Barbie’s younger sister, Skipper. Except Skipper isn’t really Barbie’s sister, as the sketch reveals. “I was young. I was alone. G.I. Joe was in Vietnam, Ken was in Canada…” Barbie says. “The ’70s were a crazy time. I experimented a lot.”
3. “He’s Cuter in Person”
Poehler tells SNL costars Rachel Dratch and Maya Rudolph that host Justin Timberlake “doesn’t really do it” for her. But when she gives him notes on a sketch — while dressed as a leprechaun — she proves very susceptible to his charms, as her barking laugh indicates.
4. “The Dakota Fanning Show”
In character as a Dakota Fanning who has her own talk show, Poehler hosts “the only forum for child actors to discuss cinema, theater, politics, philosophy, and the cultural zeitgeist at large.” And when anyone dares express an interest in pop culture — or any other topic she deems less than intellectual — she shuns them. Just ask Dakota’s beleaguered bandleader, played by Kenan Thompson.
1. “Bronx Beat: Jake Gyllenhaal”
Never mind “Weekend Update” — if we’re talking Poehler’s cohosting roles on SNL, we have to talk about the “Bronx Beat” sketches, in which she and Rudolph play gabbing New Yorker moms who complain about everything until a handsome guest like Jake Gyllenhaal arrives. But after that distraction wears off, they’re back to talking about what drives them nuts.
Saturday Night Live, Season 51 Premiere, Saturday, October 4, 11:30/10:30c