Editor’s observe: This record was initially revealed in 2022. It has been up to date for February 2025, in honor of SNL’s fiftieth anniversary.
As we glance again on the legacy of Saturday Evening Stay in celebration of its fiftieth anniversary, what’s putting is how there haven’t been too many shifts in tone through the years; the SNL of at the moment doesn’t really feel too dissimilar from the place it was a decade in the past.
That’s as a result of on this new trendy period, the variety of mass solid exoduses has been fewer, with most performers selecting to exit the sequence on a one-on-one foundation. There was one notable exception: In 2022, Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson, Kyle Mooney, and Cecily Robust all left the sequence.
But Kenan Thompson continues to interrupt data because the longest-running solid member in historical past, and whereas the above comedians are missed, performers like Mikey Day and Chloe Fineman have continued to hold the torch. As a result of regimes would possibly rise and fall. However SNL itself stays fixed.
— Liz Shannon Miller
“(Do It On My) Twin Mattress” and “Again Dwelling Baller”
When the present misplaced Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island friends again in 2012, SNL music grew to become extra of a free-for-all with Chris Redd, Pete Davidson, and Mooney/Bennett all attempting their arms on the kind, principally to good impact. But it surely’s arduous to high this pair of bangers from the present’s feminine solid members, the place they apply pop-diva swagger to twenty-and-thirtysomething rituals of returning dwelling for the vacations. Like the perfect Lonely Island numbers, they marry humorous visuals to genuinely catchy tunes; “Twin Mattress” particularly will stick in your head for weeks on finish. — J. Hassenger
“Diner Lobster”
Granted, John Mulaney was in all probability all the time fated to do a number of SNL internet hosting gigs, what along with his beloved stand-up act, facility with reside efficiency, and ties to the present the place he labored for years as a author. But it surely actually looks like “Diner Lobster” is the sketch that created his lightning-fast rise to five-timer standing — an instantly beloved epic that pairs the inexplicable act of ordering lobster off a diner menu with a music rating modified from Les Miserables.
On the very least, it impressed Mulaney to mount a Broadway-centric musical sketch for each episode he’s hosted since. By mixing and matching songs from different musicals, and selecting broader subjects than “ordering lobster from a diner menu,” Mulaney has helped to craft some fulfilling musical revues. The factor is, none of them match the single-minded zeal of this New Yorker’s delight. The unique “Diner Lobster” is a full-on tour de pressure — and contains only one instance of how perennial Weekend Replace visitor Pete Davidson was really fairly humorous in sketches, too. — J. Hassenger