History Trivia / SaturdayNightLive

** It has become almost memetic over the years to reference how Creator/NormMacdonald was fired from ''SNL'' because "he wouldn't stop making Creator/OJSimpson jokes" on ''Weekend Update''. In fact, in the wake of Macdonald's death, numerous headlines, TV journalists and fellow comics referenced that scenario all over again. There are several problems with it, however. One is that Macdonald wasn't fired from ''SNL''; he was removed from the ''Weekend Update'' segment at the demand of then-NBC President Don Ohlmyer, while Lorne Michaels announced specifically that he was not firing Macdonald. Instead, Macdonald left on his own several episodes later, because he didn't like acting in sketches and thought he "stunk" in them (though fans of his Burt Reynolds impression likely would not agree). The second problem is the idea that Ohlmyer openly stated that he didn't like Macdonald making OJ jokes, and that was the reason for his removal from Update. This might be the unspoken reason, though Ohlmeyer insisted it was simply because he didn't think Macdonald was funny, but it gets repeated today as if it were confirmed fact. This doesn't explain, however, why Ohlmyer only stepped in where Macdonald was concerned, but said nothing about more than two years' worth of SNL as a whole producing sketch after sketch about OJ, or that when Macdonald was removed, it was well after the OJ trial was over and he wasn't making OJ jokes nearly as frequently.[[note]]If anyone is wondering if perhaps the full sketches regarding the OJ trial were less pointed and brutal, don't worry, they were not. The entire point of over 90% of them was the appearance of OJ Simpson's obvious guilt, the defense team's theatrics trying to distract from their lack of a case, Judge Ito's frequent refusal to allow critical evidence, and OJ himself practically dancing up and down wanting to admit he did it. Tim Meadows played OJ (and defense lawyer Johnny Cochrane), as a complete psychopath who seems almost to want to be caught, yet his position at the show was never threatened by Ohlmyer.[[/note]] By the time of Macdonald's removal, Macdonald had moved on to repeated "notes to self", non-sequitor humor concerning [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Germany's love of David Hasselhoff]], Frank Stallone [[TheChessmaster Chessmastering]] everything suspicious, and jokes about the Clintons. A final note is that SNL may be done live, but all jokes are pre-written well in advance and any time a player has gone completely off-script, making jokes that weren't approved, they are met with immediate loss of their jobs, not removal from just one segment or sketch.

** Creator/SteveMartin (15)
** Creator/JohnGoodman (12)

** Creator/TomHanks (9)

** '''Molly Kearney'', hired at the start of the 48th season, is non-binary, and the first non-binary cast member ever. They have portrayed male and female characters and when playing themselves, spoken up about being non-binary on camera.

* '''Denny Dillon''', '''Terry Sweeney''', '''Danitra Vance''', '''Janeane Garofalo''', '''Creator/KateMcKinnon''', '''John Milhiser''', '''Creator/BowenYang''', '''Punkie Johnson''' and '''Molly Kearney: These nine are, so far, the only ''Saturday Night Live'' cast members who are on the LGBTQ+ spectrum [[note]]though it's mostly homosexual men and lesbians. ''SNL'' hasn't hired a bisexual or a transsexual person, though Kearney ended up being the first non-binary cast member and Garofalo came out as asexual decades later, but, due to the show being a LongRunner always looking for up-and-coming talent and many former cast members are still alive, that can change[[/note]]:

* '''Denny Dillon''', '''Terry Sweeney''', '''Danitra Vance''', '''Creator/KateMcKinnon''', '''John Milhiser''', '''Creator/BowenYang''', and '''Punkie Johnson''': These seven are, so far, the only ''Saturday Night Live'' cast members who are on the LGBTQ+ spectrum [[note]]though it's mostly homosexual men and lesbians. ''SNL'' hasn't hired a bisexual, a transsexual person, or even a nonbinary or asexual person, nor have any former cast members come out as such, but, due to the show being a LongRunner always looking for up-and-coming talent and many former cast members are still alive, that can change[[/note]]:

** Season 20 (1994-1995): Unlike seasons 6 and 11, which were bad because of new cast members who were barely experienced with working in sketch comedy and/or as an ensemble and writing that wasn't top shelf, this season was plagued with an overcrowded cast that hated each other, Phil Hartman leaving for other projects (mostly ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''News Radio''), and overexposure of Creator/AdamSandler and Creator/ChrisFarley. Once again, NBC confronted Lorne Michaels about it and told him that the show was ending due to low ratings and bad reviews -- and Creator/LorneMichaels, once again, dodged cancellation by weeding out the bad cast members and writers[[note]]though most of them left on their own accord because they were tired of the show, in the cases of Kevin Nealon and Ellen Cleghorne, or found out how daunting working at ''SNL'' is, in the cases of Morwenna Banks and Chris Elliott[[/note]], keeping in the good ones, and hiring newer, better talent. Lorne Michaels has cited season 20 as the closest he's been to being fired and having his show canceled.

* TropeNamer and TropeCodifier: Has named and/or codified the following:
** AmbiguouslyGay: ''The Ambiguously Gay Duo'', and "Lyle, the Effeminate Heterosexual".
** ElNinoIsSpanishForTheNino
** EveryYearTheyFizzleOut
** GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff:[[invoked]] RunningGag of Norm [=McDonald=]-era Weekend Update sketches.
** HappyFunBall
** TheThingThatWouldNotLeave
** WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell: From a ''Film/WaynesWorld'' sketch.

** Creator/PeteDavidson was set to host May 6, 2023 with Music/LilUziVert as musical guest. Then the show was forced to cancel the episode due to the WGA voting to go on strike.

* DuelingShows: Creator/{{ABC}}'s ''Series/{{Fridays}}'', ''Series/{{SCTV}} Network 90'', ''The New Show'', ''Series/InLivingColor'', ''House of Buggin'', Creator/TheWB's '' Hype'', FOX's ''Saturday Night Special'', and FOX's ''Series/MadTV1995'', to name a few — all of which were canned for one reason or another:

* When Creator/PedroPascal hosted in Season 48, he broke during two different sketches: One in which a coma leaves him mumbling like an "LA Mushmouth," to quote Kenan Thompson's character, and one which stars Ego Nwodim as Lisa from Temecula, a smart-mouthed lawyer who loves eating "extra, extra well-done" steaks. None of the actors in the latter sketch could contain themselves, thanks to Lisa's sass and her messy meat-cutting techniques.

** Creator/EddieMurphy refuses to acknowledge his characters from the show (Gumby as a faded, Jewish comedian, Mr. Robinson,[[note]]a squatter and petty thug who hosted an inner city take on ''Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood''[[/note]] Buckwheat, etc), though they are some of his most enduring legacy and he even performed them when he came back to host in 2019. It's probably because of a 1995 "Weekend Update" sketch in which Creator/DavidSpade, as part of his "Hollywood Minute" segment, made a brutal TakeThat at Murphy's then-fading Hollywood career, saying "Look, kids, a falling star! Make a wish!" (Murphy wasn't amused), and also due to fans asking Murphy to do those sketches for them when they meet him. [[TakeThatAudience Allegedly, he wrote the SNL sketch where Buckwheat is assassinated for this reason.]]

* '''Creator/EddieMurphy''', the first black ''SNL'' cast member to be famous, the youngest black male cast member to be hired (Murphy was only 19 when he joined the 1980-1981 cast) and the only host to host an episode while still a cast member — specifically the December 11, 1982 show that was '''supposed''' to be helmed by Nick Nolte, but Nolte was too hungover from partying to make it to rehearsals, so Murphy took over...much to the shock and anger of the cast, who felt that Eddie Murphy was overtaking the show (even his overexposed-on-the-show partner-in-crime Joe Piscopo thought Eddie was hogging the spotlight too much). Murphy's star power was obvious enough that he survived the 1981 purge of the Jean Doumanian cast (along with Joe Piscopo[[note]]Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius also survived, but they only appeared in the season six finale, which was also the first episode Dick Ebersol produced before the show was temporarily canceled due to a Writers' Guild strike and NBC trying to salvage the show. There was no set host, but there were appearances by Chevy Chase, Al Franken, Christopher Reeve, and Robin Williams, and the musical guest was Jr. Walker and the All-Stars[[/note]]), and he quickly became probably the biggest star the show has ever created. Murphy left the show in 1984 for a wildly successful film career. He boycotted ''SNL'' after Creator/DavidSpade made an unflattering joke about him during a "Weekend Update" segment in 1995, but returned for the show's 40th anniversary special... although even then, he didn't do any skits or comedy bits and some observers thought he looked a bit disinterested[[note]]Norm Macdonald later explained Murphy was originally supposed to play Bill Cosby during the ''Celebrity Jeopardy'' sketch, but felt uncomfortable mocking Cosby and backed out close to airtime, which left him with nothing to do except for a brief, off-the-cuff monologue praising the show. Kenan Thompson wound up doing Murphy's role in the sketch. Though by the time Murphy would host in 2019, Cosby had been convicted of sexual assault, so Murphy gladly took a potshot at him in his opening monologue.[[/note]]. Murphy also has the longest gap between hosting episodes at 35 years (and, technically, the shortest gap between being a cast member and hosting an episode as he hosted while still an active cast member in 1982); Murphy hosted a season 10 Christmas episode in 1984 and didn't come back to host again until 2019 (which, coincidentally, was a Christmas episode).

** Creator/BuckHenry (10)

** Creator/ChevyChase (8)

* The youngest person to host SNL is Creator/DrewBarrymore, who was 7 years old when she hosted the November 20, 1982 show. The oldest person to host SNL was Creator/BettyWhite, who was 88 years old when she hosted the May 8, 2020 show.

** Famously, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger to Hans and Franz, despite their CatchPhrase being mistakenly attributed to him... at first.

** Creator/AlexTrebek has spoken very highly of Creator/WillFerrell's portrayal of him in the ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' sketches. Not only did he cameo in one sketch, but he has also incorporated references to the sketches during actual ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' episodes.

* '''Creator/AbbyElliott''', the first (and so far only) cast member who is the child of another cast member (her father is Chris Elliott, who was on ''Saturday Night Live'' during its 20th season [1994-1995]). Chris' own father was Bob Elliott of Radio/BobAndRay (who appeared on a Christmas episode of ''SNL'' in 1978), making it three generations of Elliotts who have appeared on the show in some capacity. Elliott was also the youngest female cast member in the show's history (21 and five months when she first appeared as a cast member in 2009), beating out Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus (21 and eight months when she first came on the show in 1982). Her departure from the show in 2012 makes her the only member of the Elliott family who has been on ''SNL'' the longest (her grandfather cameoed in one episode and her father was on the show for a season[[note]]and the season he was on was deemed by many to be a major low point that hasn't been reached on the show since season six[[/note]]), with four years (2008 to 2012) under her belt.

* '''Creator/RobRiggle''', the only member of the [[SemperFi U.S. Marine Corps]] to be a cast member. Also the third former cast member to later become a correspondent on ''Series/TheDailyShow'', joining '''A. Whitney Brown''' [[note]]A feature player who first appeared on the 1985-1986 season; he rarely appeared in sketches, but often appeared with Creator/DennisMiller on Weekend Update to do a segment called "The Big Picture"[[/note]] and '''Nancy Walls''' [[note]]Nancy Walls was on the show during the 21st season -- 1995-1996, and was let go in favor of Ana Gasteyer. Is married to Steve Carell, who auditioned to be on ''SNL'', but got passed up in favor of Creator/WillFerrell[[/note]].

* '''Creator/RichHall''' (no relation to Brad or Anthony Michael): The only cast member from ''Fridays'' [[note]] ABC's answer to ''Saturday Night Live'' that lasted from 1980 to 1982[[/note]] to be a cast member on ''SNL'', though Rich Hall wasn't credited as a cast member on ''Fridays''. He, like Michael O'Donoghue on ''SNL'', was a writer who often appeared on-camera performing bits that he wrote himself.

* '''Creator/AnthonyMichaelHall''' (no relation to Brad Hall or Rich Hall): the youngest cast member ever hired, at only 17 when he joined the 1985-1986 cast, and the only one to have been under the age of both 18 and 21 when hired (''SNL'' has had cast members who were over 18, but under 21, such as '''Robert Downey, Jr.''', '''Eddie Murphy''', and '''Pete Davidson''').

** Fred Armisen is another cast member who has shown he has music ability (He was the drummer for '90s indie rock band Trenchmouth, also plays guitar, and later went on to become the band leader for the studio band of ''[[Series/LateNight Late Night with Seth Meyers]]'', though whenever he played Liberace, he faked playing the piano).

* DuelingShows: Creator/{{ABC}}'s ''Series/{{Fridays}}'', ''Series/{{SCTV}} Network 90'', ''The New Show'', ''Series/InLivingColor'', ''House of Buggin'', Creator/TheWB's '' Hype'', FOX's ''Saturday Night Special'', and FOX's ''Series/{{MADtv}}'', to name a few — all of which were canned for one reason or another:

** ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' — serving 14 years as ''SNL''[='s=] worthiest late-night sketch show rival — was canned in 2009 due to low ratings and budget constraints. There was word of ''[=MADtv=]'' coming back as a cable show, but, unless one were to count the Cartoon Network sketch show ''MAD'' and Creator/ComedyCentral's ''Series/KeyAndPeele'', ''[=MADtv=]'' as viewers know it is gone. It did briefly come back in 2016 on The CW, but was hardly seen by anyone (and those who have seen it panned it for its bad writing and acting).

* '''Creator/SethMeyers''', the only cast member to have a family member who was on a rival show (Creator/JoshMeyers, his younger brother, was on ''Series/{{MADtv}}'' for the show's eighth and ninth seasons). Meyers is now the longest-running male cast member on the show following Darrell Hammond's departure in 2009 (Meyers has been on the show since 2001, but he didn't become popular until he replaced Creator/TinaFey as Weekend Update anchor). Meyers has beaten Creator/DennisMiller as longest-running Weekend Update anchor (and is the second Weekend Update anchor after Charles Rocket to alternate between having a female co-anchor and doing the segment by himself), though his record was later surpassed by Creator/ColinJost.

* '''Creator/PeteDavidson''' (2014-2022): Davidson[[note]]a stand-up comic from Staten Island whose father, Scott Davidson, was one of the firefighters who died in the line of duty during the 9/11 attacks. Davidson was [[{{Tearjerker}} a little under eight years old when his father died]], and his father's death is said to be the source of a lot of his mental problems[[/note]] is the first ''SNL'' cast member to be born in the 1990s (Davidson was born in November of 1993).

** In April 2012, ''SNL'', for the first time in 27 years, hired '''Creator/KateMcKinnon''', a cast member who, like Terry Sweeney, is openly gay and often cross-cast as the opposite sex; and, like Denny Dillon, is a white lesbian with blond hair and a penchant for playing strange characters. Like Erica Ash on ''Series/{{MADtv}}'''s 14th season, [=McKinnon=] got her sketch comedy start on Logo's ''The Big Gay Sketch Show''. [=McKinnon=] is also the first lesbian cast member to actually be popular (much like how Eddie Murphy became the show's first popular black cast member in the early 1980s) and the first cast member to win the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress (though several cast members were nominated before) and only the third overall actually win one (after Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner, from the original "Not Ready for Primetime" cast). She had held the title for the longest-tenured female cast member until she was surpassed by Cecily Strong by one episode, who joined the cast months after she did.

* '''Creator/EddieMurphy''', the first black ''SNL'' cast member to be famous, the youngest black male cast member to be hired (Murphy was only 19 when he joined the 1980-1981 cast) and the only host to host an episode while still a cast member — specifically the December 11, 1982 show that was '''supposed''' to be helmed by Nick Nolte, but Nolte was too hungover from partying to make it to rehearsals, so Murphy took over...much to the shock and anger of the cast, who felt that Eddie Murphy was overtaking the show (even his overexposed-on-the-show partner-in-crime Joe Piscopo thought Eddie was hogging the spotlight too much). Murphy's star power was obvious enough that he survived the 1981 purge of the Jean Doumanian cast (along with Joe Piscopo[[note]]Denny Dillon and Gail Matthius also survived, but they only appeared in the season six finale, which was also the first episode Dick Ebersol produced before the show was temporarily canceled due to a Writers' Guild strike and NBC trying to salvage the show. There was no set host, but there were appearances by Chevy Chase, Al Franken, Christopher Reeve, and Robin Williams, and the musical guest was Jr. Walker and the All-Stars[[/note]]), and he quickly became probably the biggest star the show has ever created. Murphy left the show in 1984 for a wildly successful film career. He boycotted ''SNL'' after David Spade made an unflattering joke about him during a "Weekend Update" segment in the 1990s but returned for the show's 40th anniversary special... although even then, he didn't do any skits or comedy bits and some observers thought he looked a bit disinterested[[note]]Norm [=McDonald=] later explained Murphy was originally supposed to play Bill Cosby during the ''Celebrity Jeopardy'' sketch, but felt uncomfortable mocking Cosby and backed out close to airtime, which left him with nothing to do except for a brief, off-the-cuff monologue praising the show. Kenan Thompson wound up doing Murphy's role in the sketch.[[/note]]. Murphy also has the longest gap between hosting episodes at 35 years (and, technically, the shortest gap between being a cast member and hosting an episode as he hosted while still an active cast member in 1982); Murphy hosted a season ten Christmas episode in 1984 and didn't come back to host again until 2019 (which, coincidentally, was a Christmas episode).
* '''Creator/DarrellHammond''', the cast member with the most celebrity impersonations (107, with Bill Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donald Trump, most of UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush's Cabinet [particularly Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney], ''Hardball'' host Chris Matthews, and Sean Connery as his most frequent and most popular)[[note]]As of 2013, Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, and Kenan Thompson have the highest number of celebrity impressions -- Armisen has 102, Kenan has 140 and counting, Bill Hader has 84, and Jason Sudeikis has 79, though now it's just Kenan Thompson following the departures of Sudeikis, Armisen, and Hader[[/note]], the last cast member hired in the 1990s to leave the show (Hammond left at the end of Season 34), the oldest cast member to leave the show (Hammond was 55 when he left the show), and the longest-running white male cast member at 14 seasons. With the death of Don Pardo in August 2014, Darrell Hammond has been hired back to the show, this time, as the new announcer (appropriately, considering that he sometimes filled in for Pardo whenever he was sick or otherwise unavailable and Hammond's Pardo impression is almost like the real thing. Ironically, Darrell Hammond decided not to do a Pardo impersonation for his role as announcer, both out of respect and the fact that ''SNL'' is always trying to reinvent itself).

* '''Leslie Jones''' is the oldest cast member ever hired at 47 years old[[note]][[OlderThanTheyLook even though she looks younger than that]][[/note]], beating out Michael [=McKean=] (who was 46 when he was hired almost 20 years ago) and the last member of the current cast to be born before ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' premiered on television (Leslie Jones was born in September 1967) and the oldest black female cast member ever hired.

* '''Leslie Jones''' is the oldest cast member ever hired at 47 years old[[note]][[OlderThanTheyLook even though she looks younger than that]][[/note]], beating out Michael [=McKean=] (who was 46 when he was hired almost 20 years ago) and the only member of the current cast to be born before ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' premiered on television (Leslie Jones was born in September 1967) and the oldest black female cast member ever hired.

** The most recent Hispanic cast member is '''Melissa Villaseñor''', who, like Noël Wells, is Mexican, despite having fair skin.
* '''Creator/KenanThompson''' (2003-present): From Nickelodeon in his youth (''Series/AllThat'' and ''Series/KenanAndKel''), he is the first cast member to be born after the show debuted (Thompson was born in 1978; ''SNL'' first came on in 1975), the first cast member to get his start on a Nickelodeon kids' show, and now surpasses Tim Meadows[[note]]who was on the show from 1990 to 2000, but became prominent between 1995 and 2000[[/note]] as the longest-tenured black male cast member, as well as the longest-tenured cast member in the show's history.
* '''Creator/PeteDavidson''' (2014-present): Davidson[[note]]a stand-up comic from Staten Island whose father, Scott Davidson, was one of the firefighters who died in the line of duty during the 9/11 attacks. Davidson was [[{{Tearjerker}} a little under eight years old when his father died]], and his father's death is said to be the source of a lot of his mental problems[[/note]] is now the first ''SNL'' cast member to be born in the 1990s (Davidson was born in November of 1993).

** In April 2012, ''SNL'', for the first time in 27 years, has hired '''Creator/KateMcKinnon''', a cast member who, like Terry Sweeney, is openly gay and often cross-cast as the opposite sex; and, like Denny Dillon, is a white lesbian with blond hair and a penchant for playing strange characters. Like Erica Ash on ''Series/{{MADtv}}'''s 14th season, [=McKinnon=] got her sketch comedy start on Logo's ''The Big Gay Sketch Show''. [=McKinnon=] is also the first lesbian cast member to actually be popular (much like how Eddie Murphy became the show's first popular black cast member in the early 1980s) and the first cast member to win the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress (though several cast members were nominated before) and only the third overall actually win one (after Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner, from the original "Not Ready for Primetime" cast).