lorne michaels it seems i have grown quite fond of you

The SNL 50th Anniversary Special

Let’s just cut right to the chase:

SNL40 was better.

Yeah! I said it! Sue me, Kim Kardashian! The opening, the Q&A, the guest stars, the sketches — they weren’t as good, and it hurts me to say it. Steve Martin doing the monologue both times was the right choice. Julia Louis Dreyfus getting a moment to make fun of Tina Fey worked, but what does it say that Sabrina Carpenter (whomst I love), someone who was never a cast member and hasn’t really been in any sketches until last night, was maybe the funniest part of the entire anniversary show? I just read over this small paragraph, and I sound so annoying. But just let me explain:

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Here we are — February 15, 2015. It’s the Saturday Night Live 40th anniversary special. Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake introduce the show with a musical medley of some of the greatest hits, which leads into Steve Martin’s monologue that features special guests Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin, Melissa McCarthy, Chris Rock, Peyton Manning, Billy Crystal, Miley Cyrus, Paul McCartney, and Paul Simon. It’s literally appealing to all ages. Fast-forward to February 17, 2025, and the show begins with Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter and leads into Steve Martin once again doing the monologue. So far, so good, in my humble opinion.

At SNL 40, the show continued with montages of the best political skits, the best digital shorts, auditions of cast members and people who maybe should’ve been, an “In Memoriam” that was introduced by Bill Murray and ended with a lighthearted and funny jab at Jon Lovitz, and updated versions of some of the most popular sketches — The Californians, Jeopardy, Weekend Update, etc. What worked about those that, I believe, didn’t work in SNL 50 was that they did the popular sketches with the cast members and the actors who made them famous. SNL 50 only did half of that. The “Alien Encounters” sketch with Kate McKinnon included Meryl Streep’s first-ever spot on SNL, but it would’ve been funnier if Ryan Gosling was there to play his role. They didn’t use iconic SNL guest stars, like Melissa McCarthy or Justin Timberlake or even Ariana Grande. At SNL 40, they had Jerry Seinfeld do a Q&A with the star-studded audience. And even though Jerry Seinfeld SUCKS, John Mulaney wrote him a great bit, and it was one of the funniest parts of the show. Tina and Amy did the Q&A this time, and we all know I love those mothers. It wasn’t as funny as the other one, but it was ok. Adam Sandler sang an original song that was really sweet, but Tom Hanks introduced an In Memoriam that wasn’t actually an In Memoriam; it was a homage to the sketches that are considered extremely politically incorrect today. So we just watched a medley of all of the sketches that would get them … canceled? I literally don’t know what the point of that was.

The best part of SNL 50 was the homecoming special on Friday at Radio City Music Hall. It was a three-hour show of a ton of the biggest musicians performing the hits they performed whenever they were the musical guests on SNL. Eddie Vedder, Cher, Robyn and David Byrne, Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, et cetera et al. In addition to that, SNL greats performed some of their best musical bits — Andy Samberg with a squad of cameos for his Lonely Islands hits, Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer, Jimmy Fallon singing the Blues Brothers, The Roots as the house band — it was such a fun show and makes up for Sunday. I don’t knowwwwww maybe I’m complaining about nothing. But since we’re here, let’s listen to MY IDEAS about how the SNL 50th anniversary special would’ve been funnier.

• the show should’ve ended with anyone who was once a cast member standing on stage and singing “We Are The World.”

• Melissa McCarthy at any point — example here:

• more montages of the decades of the show

• a whole segment on the OG cast — the only moment that Gilda Radner was mentioned shouldn’t have been here:

• a Jeopardy sketch, even though they did it at the 40th — we needed more Will Ferrell

• better Kristen Wiig characters — Aunt Linda, Mindy Grayson, Target Lady, Gilly, Liza Minnelli trying to turn off a lamp … an award-winning list here

• a cold open of all of the cast members who have played presidents — opportunity missed!

• a segment on all of the sitcoms/shows/movies that have been created by current and former SNL people that have become some of the most famous shows/characters/movies in media history

• every cast member who has been an anchor on Weekend Update coming back for Weekend Update

• Lorne announcing his retirement and passing the torch to Tina Fey — wouldn’t that just make you tear the Fuck Up

I heard they worked on this whole thing for over a year, but it feels like they just kind of did whatever. There was SO MUCH POTENTIAL. It’s fine — I’ll start working on the 60th.

You know what we needed? We needed the SNL cast from the mid 2000s to the 2010s to be more active. I needed Amy Poehler in several skits. Seth Meyers needed to giggle at the screen. Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph should’ve crashed into another sign with their golf cart. Bill Hader needed to interview the audience as Herb Welch. I needed my team, my community, my family up there. Perhaps that was the issue. Or maybe everything was fine and this whole episode of Circle Back is exhausting. I guess we’ll never know because it is illegal for you to tell me.

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For the girlies who love the history of SNL, I wanna know who your top five cast members are. Here are mine:

• Gilda Radner

• Kristen Wiig

• Will Ferrell

• Chris Farley

• Jan Hooks

There are people like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler whomst I adore, but Tina’s writing was so great, and both of them had careers after SNL that I liked more. SO THINK ABOUT THAT when you list your top 5.

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Even though I didn’t love this anniversary show, I do think its creation is still so magnificent and difficult and jaw-dropping. It takes so many people and so much hard work to make any part of it, and that was so obvious last night, just like any of the other episodes. That is always so incredible. It’s beautiful and fun and inspiring no matter what. Just living miles away from it at any given moment is exciting. Can’t you hear it in my voice?

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movie rec: Bridesmaids (2011) — one of the greatest movies to come out of SNL

tv show rec: The Women of SNL (2010) — go discover how SNL would be nothing without these ladies!

book rec: Bossypants by Tina Fey

a poster I want on my wall but it’s somewhere in my apartment and I can’t find it: Gilda Rader - Live From New York