When Saturday Night Live debuted on television in 1974, it was a sketch comedy show that included live music and Jim Henson’s Muppets. It also debuted at a time of political uncertainty, as the war in Vietnam was coming to an end, and when NBC didn’t actually have a ton of faith that the show would last. 50 years later, the show has had some dips in quality now and then, but it’s evolved into a program that skewers pop culture, provides social commentary on the world at large, and allows the audience to see actors and singers in some hilarious situations.
The original cast included comedy greats like John Belushi, Dan Akroyd, and Gilda Radnor. So many of the early performers in the show have gone on to hugely successful careers and left their mark on pop culture. Likewise, the show has become a window into whom fan-favorite actors and singers of the era are, as the hosts reflect some of the most popular performers at the time. The show has had its ups and downs in over 900 episodes of live television, but these episodes show some of the best that SNL has to offer.
10 Eddie Murphy / Lizzo
December 21, 2019
When Eddie Murphy returned to host Saturday Night Live in 2019 it was 35 years after he last appeared on the show. Murphy had joined the show when he was 19 in season 6 and became one of its breakout stars within just two years. When it was announced that he would host the series, there was a lot of anticipation for what would be involved in the show.
Murphy brought back several of his classic sketches from his time on the show, including “Mister Robinson,” and even appeared as Gumby during a “Weekend Update” sketch. It reminded the audience of just how great of a comedian Murphy is and how much he’s contributed to some of the most lasting parts of SNL’s legacy.
Combined with Murphy’s return to the show was Lizzo’s debut on the program with her track “Truth Hurts.” She has since returned to the show twice more.
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9 Ariana Grande
March 12, 2016
…a lot of
Saturday Night Live’s
usual audience didn’t realize how talented she was in the world of acting.
Saturday Night Live has aired over 900 episodes, and in those, less than 50 times has the host doubled as the musical guest. Ariana Grande did it masterfully in 2016. Though Grande had grown up doing musical theater and had appeared in sitcoms on Nickelodeon, adults were recognizing her as a pop singer as she began working on the music scene, so a lot of Saturday Night Live’s usual audience didn’t realize how talented she was in the world of acting.
Grande performed impersonations in the episode of fellow singers, like Shakira, Britney Spears, and Whitney Houston. The episode also parodied the Kids Choice Awards, The Sound of Music, and got in a few political campaign jokes. It offered some of the best of what modern SNL has to offer when the host has a comedic background.
8 Richard Pryor / Gil Scott-Heron
December 13, 1975
Richard Pryor is a legendary comedian who has left a huge legacy. He also, however, was known for pushing the envelope, which is why his single episode of Saturday Night Live is such a memorable one. He appeared in the seventh episode of the first season as the host and appeared in one of the show’s most controversial sketches of all time.
In addition to relatively standard SNL fare for the time, like a riff on The Exorcist with Pryor as a new priest, there was also a sketch that would likely have caused quite a stir today. Pryor appeared opposite Chevy Chase in a sketch called “Word Association,” which largely ended up being the two men trading insults and racial slurs back and forth. It likely wouldn’t even make it to air today, but it’s remembered as one of the stunts that helped propel the public’s interest in the show forward. It got people talking.
7 Ryan Gosling / Chris Stapleton
April 13, 2024
Part of the interest in Saturday Night Live is that the performances are, as the title implies, live. The audience is curious if the stars of the show and the guests will make it through their more ridiculous sketches without breaking. While it can be common for guest hosts to lose track of themselves and laugh during a sketch, the cast members are undoubtedly better at stifling their laughter or hiding their breaking character from the audience.
That’s not the case for Ryan Gosling’s 2024 appearance, and that’s part of what makes it such a genuinely fun episode. The early vibes of the sketches feel like the SNL cast is determined to get Gosling to break character. Instead, it’s the likes of Heidi Gardner and Chloe Fineman who break in hilarious sketches like “Beavis and Butt-head.” It’s refreshing to see the entire cast fighting the urge to break as everyone appeared to truly be enjoying themselves.
Also fun was Chris Stapleton joining in on a few of the sketches and Emily Blunt appearing to put the supposed rivalry between Gosling’s Barbie and her Oppenheimer movies to bed.
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6 Justin Timberlake
December 16, 2006
If there’s any host that is golden for Saturday Night Live, it’s Justin Timberlake. He has a knack for fitting seamlessly into the show with the rest of the cast. Many of his appearances pair him with Jimmy Fallon, who is one of his real-life friends. Most often, he’s either the host or the musical guest, but here, he plays double duty a decade before Ariana Grande was given the chance to prove herself doing it.
When Timberlake hosted, it was during a time when the show was not exactly holding court among TV viewers anymore. There would be a bright episode, and then people would lose interest for weeks. Justin Timberlake’s episode helped to revitalize interest at the time with the help of such popular holiday sketches as “D**k In A Box.” Of course, it also featured a memorable cold opening as Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Kristen Wiig all sang about dating Santa Claus, which didn’t need a boost from Timberlake’s presence.
5 Carrie Fisher / The Blues Brothers
November 18, 1978
When Carrie Fisher hosted Saturday Night Live in 1978, it was fresh off the success of Star Wars. Joking that no one would recognize her outside of the movie, Fisher performed her opening monologue in costume as Princess Leia, despite her going on record years later to talk about how much she disliked most of her character’s wardrobe.
Fisher is a seriously underrated comedic actress. While she would become known in later years for her biting wit and sarcastic nature, when she first appeared on SNL, she was Princess Leia to the general public. Her appearance in the series showed off her comedic chops. She participated in sketches that utilized her Star Wars popularity and paired it with popular things of the past, like Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello’s beach movies of the 1960s.
The episode featured many sketches that would become staples in the show, like “Weekend Update” gags, though this time with Jane Curtin reporting on everything from recent archaeological finds to McDonald’s hamburgers. It also featured an appearance by the Blues Brothers, who were always a popular musical addition to the show.
4 Christopher Walken / Christina Aguilera
April 8, 2000
Christopher Walken is a fan-favorite SNL host. He’s stopped by to host the show seven times. When he hosted in April 2000, he brought a special energy to the show, which, at the time, had modern comedy heavyweights Will Ferrell, Tracy Morgan, and Jimmy Fallon among the cast. The early 2000s were known for some fantastic sketches, but not as many fantastic episodes as a whole. Walken’s is one of the rare instances.
Walken has become known for contributing a little song-and-dance to his SNL appearances, and he did it in his monologue here. He also participated in the iconic “More Cowbell” sketch that has since been labeled one of SNL’s perfect sketches as he encouraged Blue Oyster cult to add more of the musical instrument to their set. He also did a superb job playing Fidel Castro and appeared in legacy sketches like “The Census” and “The Continental.”
3 Pedro Pascal / Coldplay
February 4, 2023
Part of the reason such a recent episode as this 2023 one makes it into the best of SNL is because of the anticipation for the appearance of Pedro Pascal as the episode’s host. Pascal is known for his dramatic roles but has never been afraid to make reporters laugh on red carpets or closed interviews, so there was a lot of interest in how he would work with the SNL cast.
While his monologue was relatively lowkey compared to past hosts, Pascal embraced modern pop culture in his sketches. He appeared in “The Big Hollywood Quiz” in which contestants struggled with knowledge of modern streaming and in a sketch highlighting a Mario Kart live-action adaptation, a send-up of his own involvement in video game adaptations like The Last of Us. He’s also great in the more typical SNL sketches like “Overprotective Mom” and “Lisa From Temecula” in which Pascal does break character.
It’s obvious that Pascal had a fun time on the show, and he would likely be welcomed back by the cast and fans.
2 Steve Martin / The Blues Brothers
April 22, 1978
Steve Martin is one of the most frequent hosts of SNL in its long history. He’s appeared as host 16 times, but this was one of his earliest appearances on the show. This was only season 3 of the late-night show, but Martin’s fifth time hosting. His hosting duties coincided with the debut of the Blues Brothers, made up of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. Their blues act would eventually get their own movie, making this episode not just a fun one, but an SNL milestone.
In addition to the legendary debut of the Blues Brothers, Steve Martin also has one of the most memorable SNL sketches in the episode: “King Tut.” His sketch starts off as him seriously skewering consumerism before transitioning to a musical parody straight out of an old Hollywood musical, complete with stereotypical Egyptian garb, and the entire SNL band in on the act. The gag appears about halfway into the episode, helping to cement its place in the SNL hall of fame.
The site Ultimate Classic Rock has noted how the song itself has been a “thorny” issue decades later as students have protested the inclusion of the SNL skit in college courses because of its cultural appropriation. The skit, however, is noted for lambasting the way American consumerism has turned other cultural practices into spectacle.
1 Betty White / Jay-Z
May 8, 2010
The episode brought back several former female cast members to appear alongside White and had the kind of energy that
SNL
had been missing at the time.
In the modern era, Saturday Night Live most often books its hosts based on who has relevant projects coming up. They are actors, athletes, and singers that the audience is interested in seeing do something completely out of character. That’s not the case for this 2010 episode though. A social media campaign went viral when fans requested that SNL bring Betty White onto the show.
The late actress was known as one of the most beloved comedic actresses of all time, and she’d done sketch comedy in the past, so SNL was a natural fit for her. Audiences might not have expected her hosting duties to be paired with a musical performance by Jay-Z, but it worked. In true Betty White fashion, when she appeared on the show, she discussed the social media campaign in her opening monologue, saying, “When I first heard about the campaign, I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say it sounds like a huge waste of time.”
The episode brought back several former female cast members to appear alongside White and had the kind of energy that SNL had been missing at the time. Seeing White play Kenan Thompson’s grandmother “scaring straight” teenagers, a cat lady battling a census taker, and revived several sketches the show hadn’t used in a very long time to make it one of the most memorable episodes of Saturday Night Live ever.
The longest-running sketch-comedy/satire show on television, premiering in 1975, Saturday Night Live is a weekly series that features new hosts for each episode, with a core cast of actors and comedians that rotate over time. Episodes feature several skits that are sometimes ad-libbed on the fly, with the hosts engaging in most of them, and also provide musical guest performances that cap off each night.
- Cast
- Leslie Jones , Aidy Bryant , Kyle Mooney , Alex Moffat , Kate McKinnon , Beck Bennett , Kenan Thompson , Colin Jost , Mikey Day , Cecily Strong , Michael Che , Pete Davidson , Melissa Villaseñor
- Release Date
- October 11, 1975
- Showrunner
- Lorne Michaels
