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1[[foldercontrol]]
2!!Trivia items with their own page:
3[[index]]
4* [[HostilityOnTheSet/SaturdayNightLive Hostility on the Set]]
5* [[TroubledProduction/SaturdayNightLive Troubled Production]]
6* [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/SaturdayNightLive What Could Have Been]]
7[[/index]]
8----
9!!Other examples:
10[[folder:General Trivia Items]]
11* AbsurdlyShortProductionTime: The show is infamous for its short and hectic production schedule. It typically starts on Monday morning with a pitch meeting with the week's host and continues with the cast, writers, and crew working almost all hours the rest of the week to write, prepare, and rehearse the sketches for Saturday night from scratch.
12* AccidentallyCorrectWriting:
13** The season 34 episode had a sketch about people who would benefit from the 2008 bailout that happened when the global economic meltdown was still fresh. Darrell Hammond and Casey Wilson played a couple named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Sandler Herbert]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Sandler Marion Sandler]] (no relation to Creator/{{Adam|Sandler}}) who screwed Wachovia Bank out of a lot of money and profited from the economic meltdown. Now, considering that there were two other fictional characters introduced before them, you'd expect Herbert and Marion to be fakes, too, right? Not in this case: turns out Herbert and Marion Sandler were real people who did exactly what the sketch said they did (Creator/LorneMichaels didn't realize this until after the sketch aired), making the brief clip of them being described as "People who should be shot" by a lower-third graphic tasteless and explaining why the NBC website video and the televised reruns got rid of that scene in the "2008 Bailout" sketch. When Netflix aired the sketch as part of their ''Saturday Night Live'' 2000s collection, they aired the scene with Herbert and Marion Sandler, but got rid of the "People who should be shot" lower-third and removed Herbert's line thanking the government for [[KarmaHoudini letting them get away with their crime]].
14** Creator/ChevyChase had a joke on Weekend Update about the murder of performer "Professor Backwards" (who was able to read, write and speak backwards written words). Chase said he wasn't saved because people ignored his cries of "Pleh Pleh". Chase later apologized, saying he had no idea there was such a performer and that he had actually been murdered.
15* ActingForTwo:
16** When he hosted in 2017, Creator/JimmyFallon played both 1977 Creator/JohnTravolta and 2017 John Travolta in a live "Family Feud" sketch.
17** Creator/AlecBaldwin appeared as both Donald Trump and Bill O'Reilly in an "O'Reilly Factor" sketch from 2017.
18** Dana Carvey once played both George Bush and H. Ross Perot in a cold open centered around a political debate (The George Bush segment was taped.) Carvey even pokes fun at this by having Bush say to Perot, "Why don't you [open the show], Live Boy?"
19** When the show did its ''Series/TwinPeaks'' parody, Jan Hooks played Nadine Hurley and then, because (as explicitly noted during the sketch) the show only had two female castmembers at the time, dashed off stage, changed outfits and came back on as the Log Lady.
20** Gal Gadot features in a sketch about reality shows, as Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid alongside Kate [=McKinnon=] as Gigi Hadid (yes, one of the actual siblings has a much stronger likeness with an unrelated person).
21--->'''Kendall:''' [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Wait, which one am I again?]]
22** Thanks to the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic of 2020, all of the cast and crew end up filming their sketches from home, and Chloe Fineman gets the genius idea to play both the beleaguered [=AirBNB=] host and the kinky European guest, who thanks to the lockdown turns into TheThingThatWouldNotLeave.
23** The Creator/SarahSilverman monologue in 2014 leads up to Sarah taking questions from archive footage of herself when she was just the plant in the audience, more than once.
24-->"[[ShamelessSelfPromotion What is this, pretty girls in the audience night?]]"
25* ActorSharedBackground:
26** The Tidal power outage sketch has Jay Pharaoh claiming that Chloe the intern (played by Music/ArianaGrande) is Latino, but then she says "that's a common mistake, I'm just really really Italian."
27** Creator/CecilyStrong, who speaks French, has gotten several roles as French people like Creator/MarionCotillard and Creator/CatherineDeneuve.
28** Creator/VanessaBayer is Jewish, leading to certain recurring roles like Jacob the Bar Mitzvah boy. Even when the scene involves a ''Film/WhenHarryMetSally'', she goes for the Creator/BillyCrystal role rather than [[TheImmodestOrgasm what they normally go for.]]
29** Aidy Bryant is of Irish lineage, which has come up a couple of times, like the "Kiss Me I'm Irish" sketch about an Irish dating game show, and she plays an Irish-American character.
30** In the season 44 Creator/MattDamon episode, Boston native Matt plays the boyfriend of the Girlfriend of the Boxer in Every Boxing Movie Ever, as a stereotypical HollywoodNewEngland character.
31** Season 46 has the "Blue Georgia" sketch, with one of the characters played by Kenan Thompson, who is from Atlanta, Georgia.
32** The very next episode has a sketch about how the It Gets Better campaign has evolved, headlined entirely by the show's own LGBT players, Bowen Yang, Punkie Johnson, Kate [=McKinnon=], and host Dan Levy.
33** Creator/AyoEdebiri is also LGBT, and she's in a sketch in reverse-drag as a heavily sheltered boy at school, who waits till they're visited by a performing hypnotist to come out as bi even when he picked someone else as volunteer..
34* ApprovalOfGod:
35** Famously, Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger to Hans and Franz, despite their {{Catchphrase}} being mistakenly attributed to him... at first.
36** White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer not only took the Creator/MelissaMcCarthy act in stride, but subtly and boldly shouted out to it in front of the White House press pit.
37** [[Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood Fred Rogers]] found Creator/EddieMurphy's Mr. Robinson parody amusing.
38** UsefulNotes/GeraldFord loved Creator/ChevyChase's portrayal of him, to the point where they became friendly. Ditto for UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush and Creator/DanaCarvey.
39** According to Carvey himself, Ross Perot loved his impersonations of him, to the point Perot asked him on the possibility to join him onstage during Election Night in 1992.
40** Creator/AlexTrebek had spoken very highly of Creator/WillFerrell's portrayal of him in the ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' sketches. Not only did he cameo in one sketch (Will's last as a castmember), but [[AscendedMeme he also incorporated references to the sketches]] during actual ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' episodes.
41*** Creator/BurtReynolds also approved of Creator/NormMacdonald's impersonations of him in the same series of sketches.
42** Music/{{Beyonce}} [[https://www.eonline.com/news/538682/beyonce-reacts-to-saturday-night-live-s-the-beygency absolutely loved]] the Beygency sketch, posting a simple positive review that says "Haaaaaaaaaaaa" along with a screenshot of the sketch's logo on [[https://www.instagram.com/p/nnxg_TPw9R her Instagram]].
43** Music/MileyCyrus was a great fan of Vanessa Bayer's "Miley Cyrus Show" sketches, and even appeared in one when Cyrus hosted SNL in 2010, playing Justin Bieber to Bayer's Cyrus. Bayer would later introduce Cyrus' infamous performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards. Bayer would later that year appear as "Old Miley" in a 2013 SNL sketch traveling by time machine to convince "New Miley" (played by returning guest host Cyrus) not to perform her risqué act at the 2013 [=VMAs=] and disappoint her fans.
44** Creator/DrewBarrymore adored Creator/ChloeFineman's impression during the show's parody of ''The Drew Barrymore Show'' and even brought her on to guest on the real show.
45** Music/DionneWarwick had high praise for Creator/EgoNwodim's portrayal of her on ''The Dionne Warwick Show''. She would later [[ParodyAssistance cameo at the end of the third edition of the sketch]].
46** Music/{{Eminem}} loved Creator/PeteDavidson's portrayal of him in the show's music video parodies of "Stan" and "Without Me".
47** Several members of Music/CelticWoman have praised the aptly-named season 46 finale sketch as hilarious.
48** Andrew Giuliani [[https://nypost.com/2021/05/18/andrew-giuliani-gets-a-kick-out-of-chris-farley-snl-skits/ admitted]] he found Creator/ChrisFarley's parody of his antics at his father's NYC mayoral inauguration hysterical and wishes he could've met the man before he died.
49** ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith found Creator/ChrisRedd's portrayal so "hysterical" he retweeted it.
50** ''WebVideo/HotOnes'' host Sean Evans loved the "Hot Ones with Beyoncé" sketch starring Mikey Day and Maya Rudolph.
51** Peyton and Eli Manning enjoyed the parody of their [[Series/MondayNightFootball [=ManningCast=]]] so much that they actually brought Creator/JonHamm (who made a cameo in the sketch) on their next broadcast and Peyton wore the same quarter zip sweater Creator/MilesTeller wore while portraying him.
52** ''WesternAnimation/{{Gumby}}'' creator Art Clokey and his family greatly enjoyed Eddie Murphy's famous ''Gumby'' skits.
53** Creator/RachelDratch impersonated Senator UsefulNotes/AmyKlobuchar during the 2020 Democratic primary, to Klobuchar's unabashed delight.
54** Creator/JenniferCoolidge [[https://twitter.com/JENCOOLIDGE/status/1604616821696405505 praised Chloe Fineman's impression of her]] in a Season 48 Christmas sketch.
55* AscendedMeme: After Devon Walker joined the cast in Season 48, many viewers noted that [[https://ew.com/tv/saturday-night-live-devon-walker-responds-pete-davidson-comparisons/ he bore a strong physical resemblance to recently departed cast member]] Creator/PeteDavidson. The show would acknowledge this when Davidson returned to host in Season 49 by having Walker play "Black Pete" in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-UfkZKKGc0 "I'm Just Pete"]] sketch.
56* AwesomeDearBoy: Roughly sums up Leslie Jones' initial response to being cast as ''Oprah Winfrey'' after the 2018 Golden Globe Awards.
57* CastTheRunnerUp: Creator/BillMurray auditioned for the first season, but narrowly lost out to Creator/DanAykroyd. Then when Creator/ChevyChase announced he was leaving the show in 1976, Lorne Michaels reached out to Murray to take his place.
58* TheCastShowoff: There have been past cast members who have proved that they can do more than just funny characters and spot-on celebrity impressions:
59** Creator/GarrettMorris was a talented singer who would occasionally get to sing classical music on the show. One segment featured Morris singing a Schubert aria whle captions rolled on the screen explaining that the show only let him sing because everyone was scared of him.
60** Creator/CharlesRocket from the Jean Doumanian era was an accordion player (on the Season Six premiere, there was a sketch where he played a deranged man who killed his dates with accordion music, only to get killed by bagpipe players) and an actual news anchor (making Rocket the first and, so far, only Weekend Update anchor who actually had experience as an actual news anchor).
61** Creator/MayaRudolph has shown off her singing ability (she was a keyboardist for the Music/{{Weezer}} spin-off band The Rentals before being on ''SNL'' and had parents who were involved in the music industry; her mom, Minnie Riperton, is best known for the hit song, and famous high note, "Lovin' You", a song conceived as a lullaby for baby Maya).
62** 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. He also made a special, ''Standup for Drummers''.)
63** A. Whitney Brown (a writer-cum-feature player from 1985 to 1991 who often appeared on Weekend Update's "The Big Picture" segment) can juggle, as seen in [[http://www.hulu.com/watch/271790 this video]], a talent he picked up while doing time in a Texas prison.
64** Creator/JasonSudeikis was a college basketball player, so that scene on the [=LeBron=] James episode from Season 33 where he plays a boom mike operator who challenges James to a game of basketball was just an excuse for Jason to show off his moves.
65** More recently, the Creator/ChrisHemsworth episode allowed Cecily Strong to show some considerable pipes in the "Sing Along" sketch.
66** Creator/CecilyStrong speaks French, which she used following the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, delivering a tribute message in French as well as English.
67** The episode with Creator/DonaldGlover has him singing in nearly every sketch.
68** Music/JustinTimberlake may already be known as a singer, but the "Mascotville Mascot" sketches also show off how he can still dance in awkward and constraining mascot suits.
69** Creator/KristenWiig has clearly had some dance training, which pretty much forms the premise of her Triangle Sally character (well, that and the triangle).
70** {{Music/Lizzo}} not only pulls double duty as host and musical guest in 2022, but gets to show off her flute playing skill, particularly in one sketch where she can't sit still while playing or she turns HollywoodToneDeaf.
71** Marcello Hernandez speaks fluent Spanish and demonstrates this ability in several of his sketches.
72* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer:
73** There is a common misconception that Creator/SteveMartin (one of ''SNL''[='s=] most frequent hosts) was a cast member. He was on Creator/LorneMichaels' failed ABC sketch show ''The New Show'', but he was never an ''SNL'' cast member.
74** 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 Ohlmeyer, 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 Ohlmeyer openly stated that he didn't like Macdonald making OJ jokes, and that was the reason for his removal from Update. While it's true Ohlmeyer didn't like the jokes, his solution was to actually fire Jim Downey, who was Macdonald's writing partner for ''Weekend Update'' and the one responsible for writing them. He was content with having Macdonald continue the segment with another writer, but Macdonald refused to do it without Downey which led to Ohlmeyer having Macdonald removed from the segment.
75** It's commonly believed that Creator/SteveCarell auditioned for Season 21 and lost out to Creator/WillFerrell due to Carell making that claim during his monologue when he hosted in 2005. Carell [[https://twitter.com/SteveCarell/status/563499098536304640 clarified years later on Twitter]] that it wasn't actually true and he had in fact never auditioned for the show.
76** Creator/TinaFey's monologue in one of the episodes she hosted begins with her saying she is excited to do all of her characters, before saying that she "actually" didn't have any. She actually had three original characters and some celebrity impressions she did twice.
77** During the ''40th Anniversary Special'', Martin Short mentioned that he only hosted ''SNL'' once. He actually hosted three times at that point.
78*** When Creator/JamesFranco hosted in Season 43, guest star Creator/SethRogen said he himself only hosted ''SNL'' twice. He actually hosted three times.
79** During Elon Musk's hosting gig in Season 46, he revealed he has Asperger Syndrome and claimed to be the first host publicly known to have the condition. That distinction actually belongs to Creator/DanAykroyd, who hosted the show back in Season 28 after being an original cast member.
80* CreativeDifferences: A notable play on this phrase came when Creator/HarryShearer left the show in 1984. When a reporter mentioned to Shearer that this trope was the show's stated reason for his departure, he quipped, "Yeah, I was creative, and they were different."
81* CreatorsApathy:
82** Music/FrankZappa was banned from ever appearing on the show again after his one and only time as a guest host. Zappa (a vocal straight edge) frequently clashed heads with the cast and crew over their more lax stance on drug use in their skits, and decided to get back at them by giving an abysmal performance as a host by frequently mugging into the camera and informing audiences whenever he was reading from cue cards.
83** Since the series was unionized, ''The Land of Gorch'' skits from Creator/JimHenson were left in the hands of the show's unenthused writing team; who often tried to avoid the skits as much as possible due to the stigma of PuppetShows being children's material. Head writer Michael O'Donoghue made his feelings for the skits clear when he was tasked with developing them:
84---> '''Michael:''' I don't write for felt.
85* CreatorBacklash:
86** For years, Creator/EddieMurphy refused 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.]]. Although Murphy finally reembraced SNL and his characters 20 years later.
87** Creator/GarrettMorris was frequently unhappy during his tenure, and expressed the opinion that he was usually typecast in stereotypical roles.
88** Creator/LaraineNewman was also unhappy during her tenure, as she disliked living in New York.
89** Creator/ChrisRock has expressed disdain for the famous "Chippendales" sketch, claiming that exploiting Creator/ChrisFarley's physique for laughs only to have his character rejected by the judges was "just fucking mean". Former SNL writer Creator/BobOdenkirk has said in several interviews that he also despises the sketch for the same reason and refuses to rewatch it, because in his words, "It played right into Chris' own worst opinions about himself."
90** Creator/ColinQuinn admitted he was never comfortable being the ''Weekend Update'' anchor, especially since he only got the gig because NBC forced Lorne Michaels to replace Creator/NormMacdonald, and he preferred his prior role as a writer and featured player.
91** During an interview that took place during Season 45, Creator/PeteDavidson [[https://ew.com/tv/2020/02/24/snl-pete-davidson-outgrown-saturday-night-live/ expressed being unhappy]] with the frequency the other cast members made jokes at the expense of his personal life during sketches as well as typecasting him as BookDumb characters. The following seasons would see both of these practices die down, which made Davidson feel better about the show.
92** Creator/LeslieJones stated a year after leaving the show that she didn't miss it at all, as her five year run was incredibly stressful and restrictive to her style.
93** Creator/TaranKillam disliked working on the 2015 episode hosted by Donald Trump, [[https://www.npr.org/2017/10/17/558160262/taran-killam-says-there-was-never-any-common-ground-when-trump-hosted-snl stating]] the production "was not enjoyable at the time" and that the episode "only grows more embarrassing and shameful as time goes on."
94** Creator/AlecBaldwin wasn't shy about discussing how he absolutely ''despised'' playing Donald Trump on the show. He only took the job in the first place because he figured it would only last a couple months, which then turned into four years when Trump unexpectedly won the presidency. This was actually noted as improving the period's political sketches, as the writers often couldn't count on Baldwin making an appearance and were forced to develop numerous other members of Trump's cabinet to focus them on.
95** Creator/TinaFey would later express regret at the Weekend Update sketch she participated in following the 2017 Charlottesville attack, in which she suggested protesting from now on by doing things such as eating cake, agreeing with the criticism that it came off as out of touch and it looked as if she was implying that protesting/arguing with people of different views was pointless.
96** In a slightly milder example, Creator/JohnMulaney regretted his joke about how the 2020 election was an "elderly man contest" and that "some things will never change," as it gave the impression that he had no clear preference for one or the other when there was [[UsefulNotes/JoeBiden one]] he actually supported and one he despised.
97** The show acknowledged that the "Wario on Trial" sketch during the Elon Musk/Miley Cyrus episode wasn't very good when they jokingly included it as the only season "highlight" in a montage during the Season 46 finale ColdOpen.
98** The 12 episodes produced by Jean Doumanian during the 1980-81 season has been barred from syndication (in America, barring the Creator/BillMurray episode that aired on Creator/ComedyCentral in the 1990s and the Creator/JamieLeeCurtis episode that aired on NBC in 2005[[note]]though, due to Pope John Paul II's funeral at the time, not many affiliates aired this episode[[/note]]; Canada's Comedy Network has aired all of Jean Doumanian's episodes) in America due to how poorly it was received by viewers and the network. Netflix did have the Jean Doumanian episodes (albeit edited to only the best[[note]]to use the term loosely[[/note]] performances and to get rid of the musical performances due to copyright reasons. Also, Charles Rocket's "fuck" in "I'd like to know who the fuck did it" was bleeped out, and has been ever since) and two episodes (one hosted by Robert Hays and the infamous Charlene Tilton episode) aired during VH-1 Classics ''SNL'' Rewind marathon (again, edited down to one-hour episodes).
99** Season 11 (the 1985-1986 season) is also a season everyone would like to forget, most especially for the writers at the time (who would go on to write for ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' during its golden age) who simply didn't know how to create funny material for the cast hired at the time. Unlike season six, season 11 has aired in reruns on Creator/ComedyCentral, Comedy Channel in Canada, NBC (during its NBC All Night block on Saturdays), and E! and, while being regarded as the weirdest/most disconnected season, has been VindicatedByHistory for the most part and does have memorable moments/performances/facts -- specifically, Terry Sweeney as Nancy Reagan, Creator/DennisMiller reviving Weekend Update with his brand of snarky humor, the fact that most of the writers would later be famous for ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', Danitra Vance's characters[[note]]even though Vance was often typecast as slave girls, pregnant teen girls, welfare moms, and black women with low-level jobs, like secretaries, nurses, and waitresses[[/note]], and the fact that the show had the actor who would later be known for playing ComicBook/IronMan (Creator/RobertDowneyJr).
100** Creator/JaneaneGarofalo described her time on the show as the most miserable of her life, citing the sexist, juvenile and homophobic humour of the sketches as why she left midway through season twenty. On an Creator/{{HBO}} special, she said it was like "...being the Indian who was given the smallpox-infested blankets by the white settlers").
101** The Season 46 finale makes clear that just about everyone regretted giving Music/MorganWallen a second chance to be a musical guest on the show after he was dropped the first time for going to a party with no COVID-19 restrictions, after his career was killed for good when he was recorded making a drunken, racist rant at some fans.
102* CreatorKiller:
103** The horrid sixth season, one of three (alongside 11[[note]]1985-1986[[/note]] and 20[[note]]1994-1995[[/note]]) to have actually threatened the show to be cancelled, was not kind to the career of Lorne Michaels' replacement showrunner Jean Doumanian (she resurfaced in TheNineties as the producer of a number of critically acclaimed and moderately successful Creator/WoodyAllen films, until she suddenly backed out of a movie in 2000, leaving Allen stranded, eventually resulting in both of them filing lawsuits against each other) and most of the names she brought for the cast and writers - when the season ended, only Creator/JoePiscopo, Creator/EddieMurphy, and writers Pam Norris, Barry Blaustein and David Sheffield remained; Creator/GilbertGottfried broke out later as he reinvented his comedic persona and distanced himself from the disastrous season. The denouement of that season may have ''literally'' killed Charles Rocket. Before that season he was seen as an up-and-comer whose "''Rocket Report''" newscast segments made him seem like a natural successor to Chevy Chase. But after the series and his dismissal, he got only supporting roles in films like ''Film/DumbAndDumber'' and failed TV pilots. It was enough to pay the bills, but he never became the big star he could have been, and in 2005 he was found dead in a field near his home with his throat cut, apparently a suicide.
104** In his 2019 memoir, Chris Kattan revealed that the true reason his career declined so sharply after he left the show was a severe neck injury he suffered while filming the show. Not only did this seriously interfere with his extremely physical comedy style, but caused an addiction to painkillers and even ended his marriage.
105* CreatorsFavorite: Creator/LaraineNewman named Lina Wertmuller as her favourite character of her own. She described her as a character "which, I think, pleased only me and no one else".
106* TheDanza:
107** The second person to play Special Counsel Robert Mueller after Creator/KateMcKinnon, [[spoiler:Creator/RobertDeNiro]].
108** While obviously a coincidence, season 45 newcomer Bowen Yang is going to be saddled with the role of politician Andrew Yang for a good long while.
109** In 2024 we have newcomer Michael Longfellow as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who even resembles him to a degree.
110* DawsonCasting: Many sketches in which the cast members play teens or children (usually if they're making fun of a live-action kids' show or have a sketch featuring a family with kids or a sketch about kids or teens). Obviously unavoidable, but it has become prevalent in latter-day seasons where most of the cast members currently hired are younger than the show itself (starting with Kenan Thompson, who was born three years after ''SNL'' premiered).
111** One of Creator/AmyPoehler's recurring characters was Kaitlin, who is supposed to be ten years old ([[NotAllowedToGrowUp and remained that age for several years]]).
112* {{Defictionalization}}: Alec Trebek ''loved'' the ''Celebrity Jeopardy'' sketches and used several fake categories in real episodes. These include:
113** "'S' Words" and, in Double Jeopardy!, "Swords" in the May 19, 1999 episode;
114** "Surprise Me, Trebek!", "Therapists", "Things You Shouldn't Put in Your Mouth", "The Number After 2" and "Rhymes With Dog" in the September 5, 2001 episode;
115** "Japan-US Relations" on June 27, 2006 and "Answers That Start With 'Feb"" on November 16, 2006 (based on "Months That Start With 'Feb'");
116** "States That End in 'Hampshire'", "What Colour is Green?", [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama "Current Black Presidents"]], "Sounds That Kitties Make" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Word That Rhymes With Star" on November 23, 2009;
117** "The Pen is Mightier" on May 15, 2015;
118** "States That Begin With California", "Is That a Hat?", "Catch These Men", "A Petite Dejouner", and "'S' Words" on July 8, 2016;
119** "An Album Cover" on July 10, 2019.
120* DuelingShows: Creator/{{ABC}}'s ''Series/{{Fridays}}'', ''Series/{{SCTV}} Network 90'', ''The New Show'', ''House of Buggin'', Creator/TheWB's '' Hype'', FOX's ''Saturday Night Special'', and FOX's ''Series/InLivingColor'' and ''Series/MadTV1995'', to name a few — all of which were canned for one reason or another:
121** ''Fridays'' had been initially panned by critics for being a cruder, less funny carbon copy of ''SNL'', but in its second season it started finding its own niche with elaborate parodies and topical satire (exemplified by "The [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Ronnie]] [[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow Horror Picture Show]]"), while ''SNL'' struggled with its 1980-81 cast. The show has been cited by critics and viewers as the only sketch show that could have easily surpassed ''Saturday Night Live'' in terms of humor and quality had ABC treated it better and/or ''SNL'' was canceled with no chance of coming back and ''Fridays'' {{channel hop}}ped to NBC. Unfortunately, ''Fridays'' ended up suffering from a timeslot change thanks to ''Series/{{Nightline}}'' and a failed attempt at trying to beat ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' in the ratings as a primetime sketch show. It was canceled after its second season[[note]]listed as the third on Wikipedia and the DVD collection[[/note]]. The show did rerun on the USA Network in the late 1980s, but got pulled for reasons unknown and [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes for a while, there were no video or DVD releases of episodes]], though the later success of ''Fridays'' cast members Creator/LarryDavid and Creator/MichaelRichards with ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' boosted its reputation and created some demand for it. As of 2015, ''Fridays'' is available on DVD and Tubi TV thanks to Creator/ShoutFactory -- initially, it was supposed to have all the seasons, but it was changed at the last minute to just sixteen episodes that are considered the best/most memorable. ''Fridays'' sketches (some of which are from Shout Factory, but most are from videotaped airings) are also available on Website/YouTube.
122** ''The New Show'': Once upon a time in the mid-1980s, while Dick Ebersol was struggling to keep his version of ''Saturday Night Live'' afloat after Creator/EddieMurphy left for a movie career and Joe Piscopo left due to exhaustion, Creator/LorneMichaels decided to create a new version of ''SNL'' for NBC. The show included a lot of '70s-era ''SNL'' hosts like Buck Henry and Creator/SteveMartin, but sadly, even with a talented cast at the helm, the show was a failure. It only lasted two months (January 1984 to March 1984) and made Lorne rethink his decision of leaving ''SNL'', prompting an initially shaky, but overall satisfying return to the show in November 1985.
123** ''In Living Color'' was ScrewedByTheNetwork from ExecutiveMeddling over censorship and eventually died when the Wayans siblings left and Creator/JimCarrey pursued a movie career. A revival was planned for 2012, but due to negative test audience reactions and fears it would only last one season, it's been shelved until it can be fixed. As of now, it looks as if an ''In Living Color'' reboot will never happen.
124** ''House of Buggin'', ''Saturday Night Special'', and ''Hype'' weren't received warmly by critics and ended up being canceled as quickly as they premiered.
125** ''Series/MadTV1995'' — 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).
126** ''Series/AlmostLive'' lasted 15 years and kickstarted [[Series/BillNyeTheScienceGuy Bill Nye]]'s television career while also providing early exposure for Creator/JoelMcHale, but got cancelled as ratings dropped heavily in later years, and a new company bought the hosting station in UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}}.
127** The only competition ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' has these days in terms of ratings and quality are: Creator/AdultSwim's Saturday anime line-up, ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''[[note]]which doesn't air on weekends[[/note]], ''The Colbert Report''[[note]]also a weekday-only show[[/note]], Comedy Central's comedian-headlined sketch shows, like ''Inside Amy Schumer'' and ''Series/KeyAndPeele'', and Internet-based comedy troupes (some of which can be found on [=YouTube=]) and humor sites, like Website/CollegeHumor and Website/FunnyOrDie.
128* EnforcedMethodActing:
129** Music/BarbraStreisand's appearance on ''[[https://youtu.be/oiJkANps0Qw Coffee Talk with Linda Richman]]'' was kept secret - Streisand had just made an appearance across the street, and Lorne Michaels saw a golden opportunity. Creator/MikeMyers, {{Music/Madonna}}, and Roseanne all managed to stay in-character when reacting.
130** Stefon's giggly delivery and habit of hiding his face behind his hands was due to Creator/JohnMulaney rewriting jokes between dress rehearsal and broadcast, meaning Creator/BillHader had no idea what he was going to read off the cue cards and would start {{Corpsing}}.
131** Creator/ChrisFarley loved to make his co-stars break character, and it often shows. Best case is the first Matt Foley sketch, as he surprises everyone by throwing himself on a table.
132** Creator/ColinJost and Creator/MichaelChe write offensive jokes for the other to read on "Weekend Update". Neither sees what the other is doing until it's time to present the joke, resulting in genuine discomfort and corpsing as they try to get through the cue cards.
133* ExecutiveMeddling:
134** Norm [=MacDonald's=] dismissal from Weekend Update was this, albeit with Norm not being the intended target. Don Ohlmeyer, NBC's West Coast Executive, demanded that Jim Downey, who wrote ''Weekend Update'' with Norm, be fired due to Downey repeatedly writing the attacks on O.J. Simpson, who was a close friend of Don's. Norm refused to do the segment with another writer and told the executives that if they fired Downey, they would have to fire him too. They called his bluff and removed him from the sketch as well. Interestingly, Don never had any animosity towards Norm himself, with Don forgiving Norm for accidentally launching a PrecisionFStrike live on air (and then ''calling attention to it'') and being perfectly willing to let Norm keep his job as long as he accepted Downey's firing.
135** Season six (1980-1981): The first season without Creator/LorneMichaels. Jean Doumanian was hired as the new showrunner (it would have been Al Franken, but he pissed off Fred Silverman with his "Limo for the Lame-O" segment on Weekend Update, and Creator/HarryShearer even expressed an interest in being showrunner, as he felt the show's current sensibility didn't mesh with his brand of humor), and, with every agonizingly unfunny episode, it became clear that Doumanian was in over her head (though Doumanian claims that she was doing the best she could with a limited budget and NBC staff treating her like crap because she's a woman). Add to the fact that she rejected a lot of potential cast members (Creator/JimCarrey being one of them), relegated Creator/EddieMurphy to background roles (which would be her undoing, as Eddie Murphy's stand-up piece on the Ray Sharkey episode would be the guarantee that he'd be the show's next big star), and was accused for setting up Charles Rocket saying "fuck" at the end of the Charlene Tilton episode (though Rocket himself has stated that it wasn't a set-up and he didn't know he said anything wrong until the backlash), and NBC had to be rushed in to save the show with new blood, knowing full well that they would probably have to give it a mercy kill (they didn't, but back then, they were thinking it and jokes were made about how ''Saturday Night Live'' should be called ''Saturday Night Dead'' due to its drop in quality).
136** Season 11 (1985-1986): Another bad season, only this time, it was Creator/LorneMichaels' fault. After his sketch show ''The New Show'' got canned and learning that NBC was going to cancel ''SNL'' after its 10th season due to low ratings and Dick Ebersol deciding to quit after NBC nixed all the ideas he had planned for his vision of ''SNL'', Michaels swooped in to rebuild his show, with a new cast and new writers. With the exception of Creator/DennisMiller, Jon Lovitz, and Nora Dunn, no one cared much for the new cast (which included such now-famous faces as Creator/JoanCusack, Creator/RobertDowneyJr, Damon Wayans, and Creator/RandyQuaid, along with the first time the show hired homosexual cast members[[note]]Terry Sweeney, an openly gay white man, who was on the show before as one of Jean Doumanian's writers, and Danitra Vance, a black lesbian[[/note]] and the only time the show hired a teenager[[note]]Creator/AnthonyMichaelHall was 17 and already famous as a star of ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'' when he joined the cast, making him the youngest ever cast member.[[/note]]), and, after the bizarre debacle that was the March 1986 episode hosted by George Wendt with Creator/FrancisFordCoppola and musical guest Phillip Glass, NBC rushed in again and decided to shut the show down for good. While the season 11 finale did end with everyone locked in a room with Lorne setting it on fire and saving Jon Lovitz, Lorne begged NBC to give his show another chance, which they did, but only for 13 episodes of season 12 (they later rescinded this after season 12 brought ''SNL'' back from its early 1980s slump). Lorne fired everyone (except for the three aforementioned newcomers who were actually good, along with Al Franken and Creator/AWhitneyBrown), brought in people like Dana Carvey, Creator/PhilHartman, Jan Hooks, Creator/VictoriaJackson, and Creator/KevinNealon, and everything about season 11 was written off as a bad dream.
137** 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 Creator/MorwennaBanks 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.
138** Lorne Michaels forbade the writing staff from attacking Donald Trump as hard as they wanted prior to the 2016 election, not least because he'd actually hosted the show. After he actually became the president, the gloves promptly came off and they proceeded to tear into Trump in every way, shape and form.
139* FakeBrit:
140** Several times of course, but one standout example is a spoof of ''Series/TheGreatBritishBakeoff'' wherein the only real Brit in there is SpecialGuest Creator/EmilyBlunt.
141*** There's a CallBack of sorts in the more recently-recurring baking competition sketch, where Ego Nwodim plays the one English judge.
142** The whole point of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6p0W4ZsLXw "British Movie"]].
143* FollowTheLeader: Creator/NormMacdonald has admitted that "Celebrity Jeopardy" was inspired by the recurring "Half Wits" sketch on ''{{Series/SCTV}}'', but says that he got Martin Short's blessing before debuting it.
144* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny:
145** [[DefiedTrope Defied]]. Improvising is a good way to find yourself banned from the show by Creator/LorneMichaels if you're a guest (unless something really goes wrong and you have to do something to keep the dead air at bay). Just ask Creator/AdrienBrody (who introduced musical guest Sean Paul while dressed as a rudeboy and rambling in a Jamaican accent when he hosted during the penultimate episode of season 28[[note]]2002-2003[[/note]]).
146** Creator/DamonWayans had a rather dull part as a prison guard in a "Mr. Monopoly" sketch (based on the game). He decided to ad-lib and play the character as a gay stereotype (who sounded like his Blaine Edwards character from the "Men on Film" sketches). He was immediately fired by Lorne Michaels, which is why he was available when ''Series/InLivingColor'' premiered.
147** When Creator/BillMurray wrote sketches that Creator/GildaRadner appeared in, he would often write part of the sketch and then simply, "Gilda does something funny".
148* HeyItsThatSound: Various game show skits over the years have recycled sounds, generally ones from whatever they're parodying; some of the ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' skits have utilized the "Fast money board reveal noise" from ''Series/FamilyFeud'', and the "square reveal" noise from '' Classic Series/{{Concentration}}'' (which also aired on NBC and was hosted by Alex Trebek); both of those noises in-turn originated from the short-lived ''Series/TriviaTrap''. One mid-90s skit (not ''Jeopardy'') even recycled "Tuning Up" by Ken Aldin, better known as the 70s theme of ''Series/{{Pyramid}}'', albeit sped-up and high-pitched.
149* HideYourPregnancy:
150** Averted with Creator/AnaGasteyer, Creator/MayaRudolph, and Creator/AmyPoehler who all appeared pregnant in ''SNL'' sketches before going on maternity leave (some of which had their pregnancies written in the sketches, such as the case with Amy Poehler in the "I'm No Angel" PerfumeCommercial parody on the Creator/JoshBrolin[=/=]Music/{{Adele}} episode of Season 34 and a sketch where Ana Gasteyer played Creator/ElizabethHurley, who was also pregnant at the time).
151** Creator/TinaFey, however, didn't appear in any sketches for the first couple episodes of Season 31 because of maternity leave. However, when Tina Fey hosted the 700th episode (on season 36), this trope was zigzagged. Some sketches (like the monologue, "The Little Mermaid Meets bin Laden's Corpse" sketch and the "2012 Presidential Candidates" sketch, where Fey once again appears as her doppelganger UsefulNotes/SarahPalin) had Tina Fey's pregnancy hidden (albeit poorly in the "Little Mermaid Sketch" -- [[SpecialEffectsFailure you can tell she's pregnant because of her large breasts peeking out of the seashell bra and the beginnings of her baby bump can be seen between the seashell bra and her mermaid tail half]]); others (like some of the commercial bumpers and the "Home Pregnancy Video" sketch) had her pregnant for all to see.
152* HostilityOnTheSet: [[HostilityOnTheSet/SaturdayNightLive Has its own page here.]]
153* InMemoriam: SNL often pays tribute to deceased cast members, guest hosts and musical guests. Sometimes, they'll have a photo and a moment of silence (like they did with Charles Rocket[[note]]though the fact that he was recognized at all, given that he was part of a season that most people despised, counted for something[[/note]] and Creator/DonPardo), but other times, they'll take time off from the laughs to say goodbye and do a memorial piece:
154** When Creator/JohnBelushi died in 1982, a rerun of a season seven episode had a monologue from Creator/BrianDoyleMurray, who told the story of how Belushi cared for him when he was just starting out in comedy and saved him from getting hit by a truck (with Belushi taking the hit and '''''not''''' getting injured).
155** Gilda Radner had died the same day of the 1988-89 season finale, so instead of his planned monologue, host Creator/SteveMartin replayed a 1978 sketch featuring himself and Radner.
156** When Creator/GeorgeCarlin died in June 2008, rather than rerun a 2008 episode hosted by Elliot Page, the very first episode of SNL, which was hosted by Carlin, was aired instead.
157** Jan Hooks also received a tribute on October 11, 2014 (the episode hosted by Bill Hader and the 39th anniversary of the show's first episode) with a reprise of a skit she performed with the also deceased Phil Hartman ("Love is a Dream," a Tom Schiller-written short film about an elderly woman who visits a bank vault to wear her old jewelry and is transported into a musical where she dances with a prince who turns out to be the bank's elderly security guard).
158*** The same short was showed in the 25th anniversary special in 2000, as a tribute after the tragic death of Phil Hartman. Jon Lovitz and Jan Hooks presented the skit (visibily grieved), together with the main cast of the Hartman's era (Nora Dunn, Victoria Jackson, Kevin Nealon, Dennis Miller and Mike Myers; Dana Carvey wasn't present).
159** The 40th anniversary special featured a lengthy tribute, presented by Bill Murray with Leon Pendarvis at the piano, to all the deceased ''SNL'' cast and crew members in the show's history (from cast members like Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Phil Hartman, and Jan Hooks, to behind-the-scenes people like Tom Davis, Michael O'Donoghue[[note]]even though Davis and O'Donoghue are considered members of the original cast, just not ones most people would readily remember[[/note]], Dave Wilson, Bernie Brillstein, and Don Pardo). But to keep things from being too depressing, the final tribute was to cast member Jon Lovitz. The cameras then cut to a very alive and confused Lovitz sitting in the audience. A similar gag occurred during Steve Martin's opening monologue. At the end of the segment, Bill Murray give the audience one last death notice that came later to included it properly on the tribute.
160---> '''Bill Murray:''' (in a respectful and solemn manner) [[BaitAndSwitch This just came in from Spain]]. [[RunningGag Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead]].
161** When Music/DavidBowie died during Season 41, Fred Armisen returned to the show for a special tribute segment to the singer, in which Armisen recalled watching Bowie's musical performance in Season 5 in high school. A clip of Bowie singing "The Man Who Sold the World" during that appearance shown immediately afterwards.
162** Music/{{Prince}} died later in Season 41, and instead of a segment during the show like Bowie got, ''SNL'' produced an entire hour-long memorial special featuring his various appearances over the years (and some clips from the recurring sketch, "The Prince Show", which had Fred Armisen as Prince).
163** At the end of Creator/AdamSandler's hosting gig in Season 44, he performed his song "[[Recap/AdamSandlerS5E52Farley Farley]]" from his ''100% Fresh'' special in tribute to Creator/ChrisFarley.
164** In season 45, in the At Home episode, the final segment is a giant eulogy for music director Hal Willner, with appearances from Mulaney, Sandler, Fey, Poehler, Shannon, Rudolph, Armisen and Hader, among other alums.
165** During the Season 47 opener, Creator/ColinJost and Creator/MichaelChe ended Weekend Update by paying tribute to the recently deceased Creator/NormMacdonald before playing a clip show of some of his Weekend Update jokes.
166* IronyAsSheIsCast:
167** Chris Farley, who played Chicago Bears Superfan Todd O'Connor, was actually a fan of the team's longtime rivals the Green Bay Packers.
168** Creator/KateMcKinnon, who usually plays heterosexual women, is a lesbian in real life.
169** Vanessa Bayer, cast as the lead in a RealTrailerFakeMovie about the Christian baker who refused to make a cake for a gay wedding, is actually Jewish.
170* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Zigzagged. Seasons one to five are available uncut and uncensored on DVD, Hulu, and on Peacock, but every season after that[[note]]including season six, but, due to morbid curiosity, Charles Rocket's 2005 suicide, that one time that most NBC affiliates aired the season six episode hosted by Jamie Lee Curtis [while some ignored it in order to air Pope John Paul II's funeral and memorial service], and word that Creator/GilbertGottfried was a cast member on ''SNL'', has become somewhat of an obsession to find to see if that season was as bad as people claimed[[/note]] is a bit of a struggle to legally find. NBC once aired older ''SNL'' episodes after ''Showtime at the Apollo''[[note]]so, in case you found yourself not liking a current episode, you can watch an older one[[/note]] until 2007. Comedy Central and E! aired the 1980s to the early 2000s episodes (as does Creator/VH1 Classic[[note]]though [=VH1=] Classic once had a two-week marathon of select episodes from seasons 39 all the back to the very first season to celebrate the show's 40 years on the air[[/note]], but regular [=VH1=] only airs the late-2000s into the New-Teens episodes). Netflix once had every episode from seasons one to 38, and even then, seasons six to 38 had sketches and musical performances cut for licensing issues, the sketches not being memorable/funny enough to be included, and/or particular performances being too controversial to air. Some other examples of such edits made to these seasons include the complete removal of Charles Barkley's monologue from the beginning of the September 25, 1993 episode and different songs being used on the Celebrity Jeopardy! sketches. Hulu only aired the first five seasons, edited-down versions of seasons 30 to 38, and full episodes of seasons 39 to whatever the current season is. If you want to see an old episode of ''Saturday Night Live'' these days, your best bets are semi-legal tape/DVD trades, torrenting, or watching the collections of memorable sketches on [=YouTube=] and NBC's webpage for ''SNL''.
171** As of October 2020, however, all of ''Saturday Night Live'''s episodes are available for streaming on NBC's Peacock service. However, the episodes from seasons 6 to 38 are the same ones from the Netflix/[=Xfinity=] version where the episodes are cut down to less than an hour. Also, seasons 1 to 46 are free, while the current season (season 47) is only available for those who bought a paid subscription to Peacock (though, for the latter, it shouldn't be too much of a problem to see for those who can catch it on free-to-air TV, cable, or even on Hulu).
172* KilledByRequest: Creator/EddieMurphy got so sick of playing Buckwheat that there was a sketch where he was shot dead. He did resurrect the character when he returned to host in 2019.
173* MakeAWishContribution: The opening monologue of one of Creator/JohnMulaney's episodes partially centers around his experience spending the day with Make-A-Wish kid Elizabeth, including touring around the SNL set.
174* MissingEpisode: There are a few episodes that have only aired once and were either never seen at all (or in full) after that point:
175** The Season 4 episode hosted by Milton Berle was so fraught with cast tension over Berle overrunning the show (which he did, if the Texaco Playhouse cold open is indicative of anything) that Lorne Michaels barred the show from being rerun on TV. The full episode does appear, however, on the Season 4 DVD set and the "''Saturday Night Live'': The 1970s" collection on Netflix.
176** The Season 5 episode hosted by Strother Martin was scheduled to rerun during the summer of 1980, but then Martin died (the fact that the episode contained a sketch with him filming a video will didn't help matters). This episode, too, can be found on the Season 5 DVD set and the "''Saturday Night Live'': The 1970s" collection on Netflix.
177** Season 6 was so poorly received that it's been disowned by all involved (including NBC). Very few 1980-1981 episodes have ever aired on American TV since then, and there will likely never be a DVD release (because of that and music licensing issues). The versions of season six usually shown are clips used for an Creator/EddieMurphy retrospective or a documentary about ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'''s history. Netflix once had season six in their "''Saturday Night Live'': The 1980s" collection that featured episodes from seasons six to fifteen[[note]]covering 1980 to 1989[[/note]], but those were edited to remove poor(er)-performing sketches, the musical performances, and Charles Rocket's infamous "I'd like to know who the fuck did it" line on the episode hosted by Charlene Tilton. Netflix has since removed that collection (and the others). Season six was also shown on [=Xfinity OnDemand=]'s Streampix, which had every episode of ''SNL'' from season one to season 38 (also gone).
178** The Season 7 Halloween episode hosted by Creator/DonaldPleasence (with musical guest Music/{{Fear}}) was banned after its first appearance due to Fear's raucous performance and the dark, disgusting humor of the sketches. They were rather tame compared to what was ''supposed'' to air — a sketch about Nazi soldiers thinking of "good reasons" for killing Jewish people, another sketch in which Donald Pleasence drains his date's blood and serves it as wine [[note]](yet the "Acupuncture" sketch from the Season 38 episode hosted by Kristen Wiig got away with Kate [=McKinnon=]'s character tricking Jason Sudeikis' character into drinking the blood leaking from his back)[[/note]], and a third sketch featuring puppets cannibalizing Creator/JaneFonda. The Donald Pleasance episode, like all of season six, was shown on Netflix's ''Saturday Night Live: The 1980s'' collection.
179** The Season 23 episode hosted by Creator/ChrisFarley (with musical guest Music/TheMightyMightyBosstones) in his final SNL appearance, two months before his untimely death, has never re-aired due to [[HeroicRROD the physical duress Farley experienced in the last months of his life]]. Though the ColdOpen in which Creator/TimMeadows and Creator/ChevyChase vouch for Farley and his last appearance as Matt Foley can be seen on SNL's [=YouTube=] channel, and the [[MemeticMutation memetic]] "ElNinoIsSpanishForTheNino" is also available elsewhere.
180** For reasons unknown, the Season 27 episode hosted by Alec Baldwin (with musical guest POD) never reran after its premiere, though some of the sketches featured can be found on the DVD release of the special ''Saturday Night Live: The Best of Alec Baldwin'' and it is available on Peacock (albeit edited down).
181** Many NBC affiliates refused to air the Season 29 episode hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton – at the time of airing, he was a U.S. Presidential candidate, and affiliates didn't want to break equal-time laws. The episode itself lampooned this with frequent impersonations of other candidates and a "Weekend Update" segment entitled "Jimmy and Tina Make Fun of the Cities that Won't Be Airing ''SNL'' Tonight".
182** The season 30 episode hosted by Kate Winslet (with Eminem as musical guest) has not been seen since it premiered and is not included on Hulu or Peacock (going from the Jude Law/Ashlee Simpson episode to the Liam Neeson/Modest Mouse episode). It's currently not known why the Kate Winslet episode isn't included, though speculation ranges from the episode being so bad that no one wants to see it again to some kind of copyright issue involving Winslet's appearance.
183** A handful of skits/bits have never been re-aired thanks to the negative response from the public or sponsors. Some examples include: Martin Lawrence's infamous monologue about female hygiene (in reruns, the first half of the monologue is seen before it fades into a series of title cards saying that the rest of the monologue is so raunchy that it can never be aired again, it nearly got everyone fired on ''SNL'', and Martin Lawrence is not allowed back on the show), Sinead O'Connor's infamous musical performance where she attacks the Catholic Church, a skit titled "The Attack Of The Masturbating Zombies" (which Creator/ConanOBrien wrote), which many advertisers found so offensive that they yanked their promos from the show, the TV Funhouse cartoon, "Conspiracy Theory Rock" that originally aired on the Julianne Moore episode from season 23 (1997-1998 season)[[note]]"Conspiracy Theory Rock" can be found on many video websites and on the ''SNL'' Best Of... special centered on Rob Smigel's TV Funhouse cartoons in the "Extras" section[[/note]].
184** A Season 44 sketch titled "Dad Christmas," in which two kids spend their first Christmas with their father after a bitter divorce, was [[https://www.fatherly.com/play/nbc-snl-dad-christmas-youtube/ removed by NBC]], presumably due to backlash over negatively stereotyping divorced fathers.
185** A 2017 sketch about a middle school production of ''Theatre/LegallyBlonde'', based on a real and memetic SoBadItsGood production of the show, has been removed from reruns and official SNL social media, possibly to avoid sending negative attention towards the child actors involved in the real show.
186* NeverWorkWithChildrenOrAnimals: Zigzagged. The child actors they sometimes use do slip up at times but can also turn into the high point of the sketches, while anything involving animals will definitely go sideways at some point. "Whiskas R We" sometimes has younger cats that are a little harder to control, and any dogs they bring on will sometimes mess with the props. One sketch about "The Music/DionneWarwick Talk Show" involved Andrew Dismukes as an animal expert bringing in a parrot, who kept cawing loudly before it was introduced, and then started crawling all over Andy once the camera was on it - fortunately the real joke was Dionne singing over them regardless.
187** One digital short in season 36 found a way around this, as it's done in Candid Camera style with host Creator/ZachGalifianakis interviewing a string of kids to employ an assistant.
188* OnSetInjury: Creator/ChevyChase suffered a groin injury doing a pratfall with a podium in the first episode. This caused him to miss the second and third episodes.
189** During the "Samurai Stockbroker" sketch, host Creator/BuckHenry was accidentally hit in the head by John Belushi's katana, causing him to wear a bandage on his head for the rest of the episode.
190* OnlyBarelyRenewed: Having Creator/{{NBC}} exec Dick Ebersol take over as producer was probably the only thing that saved it from getting the ax after season 6. NBC did in fact cancel the show after season 10, before Brandon Tartikoff decided that it was worth another shot if he could talk Lorne Michaels into coming back to produce. The plan worked.
191* TheOtherDarrin:
192** Zigzagged and justified in some cases - impressions of actual people can be passed on to a remaining actor, like Creator/AlecBaldwin famously taking over as Donald Trump from Darrell Hammond, and sometimes depends entirely on the guest host at the time (Creator/MargotRobbie played Ivanka Trump one time, but Creator/ScarlettJohansson's take was so popular she was brought back ''three times''). Original characters tend to be retired when the actor departs since they are very often the actor's own creation, except in special cases, when Melissa [=McCarthy=] got to be Creator/ChrisFarley's Matt Foley for a MilestoneCelebration. Certain other characters don't fall into either category and are subject entirely to availability - after Andy Samberg's take on Batman in one digital short, a more recent episode with Chance the Rapper has Beck Bennet as Bruce Wayne instead.
193** In a case of this being played straight, after Mike Myers left the show, John Goodman took over his role of Chicago Superfan Pat Arnold for a sketch airing after Michael Jordan announced his return to the NBA. The difference in appearance was [[{{Handwave}} handwaved]] by the group claiming Pat had gained weight due to the depression resulting from Jordan's retirement causing him to overeat.
194* ThePeteBest: George Coe, one of the original cast members of the show, who was hired against Lorne Michaels' wishes and was let go after only a few episodes.
195* PlayingAgainstType:
196** Creator/LeslieJones, often saddled with the "loud and horny" characterization, as Oprah Winfrey.
197** In "The Loser," instead of being a weird outcast, Kyle Mooney plays a bully ''towards'' a weird outcast.
198** Mikey Day, usually the OnlySaneMan, plays one of two TooDumbToLive kids in the Science Room sketches.
199* PostScriptSeason:
200** More of a ''mid''-script season if there's such a thing. The infamous and memetic political upheavals of early 2017 led to the SNL crew making a special half-hour Summer Edition of ''Weekend[[note]][[ArtifactTitle Shouldn't it be Mid-Year instead?]][[/note]] Update'' well before the actual premiere of season 43.
201** Seasons 6, 11, and 20 were all slated to be the final seasons for the show due to how disastrous they were and how much they were hated by fans and critics for being weak and humorless (11 and 20 especially, since people complained that Creator/LorneMichaels has lost his touch and ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' has gone bad because it's not like the 1970s episodes most fans remember). All three of these seasons were saved from the chopping block by cast and crew overhauls and, for better or worse, ''SNL'' is still on the air.
202* ProductionPosse: Chances are if a ''SNL'' cast member is working on a movie or television show, one or more other people associated with ''SNL'' will be involved as well. In fact, there have been a number of collaborative duos and groups that have come about because of ''SNL''. Some noteworthy examples are:
203** Dan Aykroyd/John Belushi
204** Chris Farley/David Spade
205** Will Ferrell/David Koechner/Adam [=McKay=]
206** Tina Fey/Amy Poehler
207** Tim Herlihy/Adam Sandler/Rob Schneider/Robert Smigel.
208* PromotedFangirl: Creator/EmmaStone grew up doing Roseanne Roseannadanna for her friends, and got to play the character in the anniversary show.
209* QueerCharacterQueerActor:
210** As an open lesbian, Kate [=McKinnon=] often plays lesbian characters, such as Barbara [=DeDrew=] in the "Whiskers R We" sketches and the ButchLesbian Dre who (alongside Aidy Bryant's Megan) mistakes [[Film/WonderWoman2017 Themyscira]] for an island of lesbians and ends up kissing Creator/GalGadot's Wonder Woman.
211** A Season 46 sketch about the "It Gets Better" project had all the gay characters in the sketch played by gay cast members ([=McKinnon=], Bowen Yang, and Punkie Johnson) and the gay host Dan Levy. During the finale of that same season, those same three cast members (plus the host Creator/AnyaTaylorJoy, who is not an example) played a group of gay characters celebrating (and crying about) LGBT Pride Month.
212** Tennis player Billie Jean King, a lesbian, is played by Creator/KateMcKinnon, who's also a lesbian.
213** Controversial gay Congressman George Santos, is played by gay Creator/BowenYang.
214* RealitySubtext:
215** The season 38 premiere has Fred Armisen as a speaker announcing for Barack Obama (Jay Pharoah), while quipping "wouldn't want his job, am I right?" Fred had been heavily criticized for his own portrayal of Obama, since it was akin to {{blackface}} (though Armisen was never actually put in black make-up when he played Obama. It was just that viewers complained that ''SNL'' had no black male cast members to fill the role, as they didn't hire Creator/JordanPeele or Creator/DonaldGlover, nor did they let Creator/KenanThompson lose enough weight for the role and had to wait until Fred Armisen's final season [season 38] just to switch him out with Jay Pharoah's take on Obama).
216** The first episode of "SNL From Home" has a music video by Pete Davidson, parodying the general music style of Music/{{Drake}} by going on and on about a bad breakup. One has to wonder whether Pete having actually been in a high-profile breakup with Music/ArianaGrande had something to do with it.
217** A ''Weekend Update'' segment has Cecily Strong as Goober the Clown, a clown who had an abortion the day before her 23rd birthday. The character would engage in clown antics while reluctantly sharing her abortion experience. This was actually Cecily going public about her real-life abortion story.
218** Season finales often feature cast members who are leaving the show in sketches about moving on to new things. For example, Kate [=McKinnon=]'s final episode had her recurring character, the perpetually-violated alien abductee Colleen Rafferty, leave Earth to live with the aliens. She turns to the camera and says, "Well, Earth, I love ya. Thanks for letting me stay a while," with the obvious subtext being that "Earth" is code for ''SNL''.
219* RefittedForSequel: The show lucked out with Kamala Harris wearing a white suit at the announcement of Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election which looked nigh-identical to one they'd already made for Melania Trump, allowing Maya Rudolph to look perfect in it for the sketch of their acceptance speech despite the short notice.
220* RoleEndingMisdemeanor:
221** Creator/NoraDunn was fired after boycotting the show following Creator/AndrewDiceClay's 1990 appearance. Creator/JonLovitz discussed her boycott of the show in detail during an episode of the podcast ''The ABC's of SNL'' with director Creator/KevinSmith:
222--->Anyway, it's the second to last episode of the season, and Nora, uh, you know, she caused a lot of trouble and she was very hard to get along with, so [SNL] wasn't going to ask her back, anyway. And it's the [second to] last show, and she goes to the press and says, I'm not doing this show. He's against women, and I'm not doing it. And this is how the press works, and I'm telling you, I'm on the inside of this. They don't know this story. They don't know she's just doing it to get press. It's her last hurrah. They're not asking her back on the show.
223** Comedy writer Katie Rich was fired from ''SNL'' in 2017 after Tweeting a joke that President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump's son Barron would become "the world's first homeschool shooter." Rich later deleted the tweet and apologized, but the backlash from Trump supporters and opposers alike forced Creator/{{NBC}} to fire her. Rich would later return to the show for the ''Weekend Update: Summer Edition'' spin-off.
224** Creator/DamonWayans, tired of the minor roles he was getting, was fired for playing a cop as gay in one sketch without prior approval.
225** Probably the most infamous example - Charles Rocket saying "fuck" in a sketch parodying ''Dallas'' led to not only him being fired, ''but the entire cast and most of the writing staff'', save for a select few, including Eddie Murphy.
226** Shane Gillis was fired just ''one week'' after being chosen as a new cast member for Season 45 (alongside Chloe Fineman and Bowen Yang), when a clip of him making racist and sexist jokes on a podcast a few years earlier was unearthed. Gillis' attempt to defend them as being edgy made the situation worse and Lorne Michaels was ultimately forced by the network to fire him.
227* RoleReprise:
228** While the ''TV Funhouse'' sketches would typically have actors voicing notable cartoon characters of pop culture (such as Disney). They were able to get Creator/TomKenny (''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'') and Creator/JeffBergman (WesternAnimation/BugsBunny) to reprise their roles for the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4taggCYDGUE 2003 sketch]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMq2uLPZe5s "X Presidents"]].
229** When Creator/DanielRadcliffe hosted in 2012, he reprised his role as Film/HarryPotter for a sketch in which Harry is portrayed as a FutureLoser.
230** Host Creator/WilliamShatner played Captain Kirk in the 1986 sketch, "Star Trek V: The Restaurant Enterprise." This was, of course, three years before the actual ''[[Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier Star Trek V]]'' came out.
231** The Christmas episode of season 48, hosted by Creator/SteveMartin and Creator/MartinShort, not only has them both reprise their characters from ''Film/FatherOfTheBride1991'', but brings back Creator/KieranCulkin as well!
232** Creator/AubreyPlaza's first hosting stint in season 48 ultimately leads up to the return of [[Series/ParksAndRecreation April Ludgate]] on ''Weekend Update'' - with the bonus surprise of Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope!
233* RomanceOnTheSet:
234** Creator/BradHall and Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus became the only cast members who married each other (though they'd actually met in college prior to ''SNL'').
235** Creator/GildaRadner had an affair with Creator/BillMurray that ended so badly that they didn't speak to each other when they weren't performing. She also dated his brother Creator/BrianDoyleMurray and Creator/DanAykroyd (though it was over by the time they joined the show). Her friend Judy Levy claimed that Radner found it hard to watch ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'' because it starred so many of her exes (including Creator/HaroldRamis).
236** Aykroyd and Creator/LaraineNewman were an item in the show's early days. Aykroyd also had an affair with Creator/LorneMichaels' then-wife Rosie Shuster.
237** There were also several relationships between ''SNL'' cast/crew and the show's celebrity hosts, such as Creator/EmmaStone and Dave [=McCary=], Creator/ScarlettJohansson and Creator/ColinJost, and Creator/BenAffleck and Lindsay Shookus.
238** Kim Kardashian began dating cast member Pete Davidson shortly after Kim hosted ''SNL'' in 2021. Amusingly, they'd kissed in one of the sketches, playing [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Jasmine and Aladdin]].
239* ScrewedByTheLawyers: In 2019, then-president Donald Trump despised ''SNL'''s parodies of him and considered suing to get them off air. He grudgingly backed out when told that satires are seen as free speech under the First Amendment and that the suit itself would be considered [[FrivolousLawsuit frivolous]].
240* ScullyBox: Leslie Jones of all people needs one, when she plays a basketball player who towers over the already imposing Creator/IdrisElba. A tall order to be sure.
241* SeparatedAtBirthCasting: Creator/NasimPedrad and Creator/JennySlate looked and sounded enough alike that viewers kept mixing them up during their one season together on the show, and they ''did'' end up playing sisters in sketches. It went to the point that it was considered to have been a factor in Slate ultimately being let go from the show after only one season.
242* SimilarlyNamedWorks:
243** ''SNL'' has always been an NBC show, but confusingly and rather bizarrely in its first year (as ''NBC's Saturday Night'' and ''Saturday Night'') it competed with a completely different show on ABC, also named ''Saturday Night Live'' and hosted by Howard Cosell, intended to be a successful SpiritualSuccessor to ''Series/TheEdSullivanShow''. When the ABC version of ''Saturday Night Live'' became a flop, the NBC version took the show's name (and Creator/BillMurray) for their own.
244** A 2014 sketch and [[Film/OfficeChristmasParty a 2016 film]] are both named "Office Christmas Party". Despite the similar name and premise, the fact that both the sketch and film feature Kate [=McKinnon=], and the film also features ''SNL'' cast member Vanessa Bayer, the film is not based on the sketch.
245* StarMakingRole:
246** The show has generated many, ''many'' stars over its long run. Most of those people have DVD sets dedicated to their best performances on the show. To name a few (regular cast members only, not guest hosts): Creator/JimmyFallon, Creator/TinaFey, Creator/ChrisFarley, Creator/WillFerrell, Creator/PhilHartman, Creator/AdamSandler, Creator/RobSchneider, Creator/BillHader, Creator/ChevyChase, Creator/DanAykroyd, Creator/JohnBelushi, Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus, Creator/EddieMurphy, Creator/AmyPoehler, Creator/BillMurray, and Creator/DavidSpade
247** Whether the public agrees or not is debatable, but Creator/ChrisRock feels that SNL is this for him.
248** Creator/SteveMartin is an exception. He was never a member of the regular cast, but hosted often enough to be quite close.
249* ThrowItIn: Being always live leaves a lot of things improvised on the set, often with the actors cracking up. Even though Lorne hates improv and is almost certain to fire/ban you for doing it, he's been known to let it slide in extreme cases.
250** A famous one from the 1970s — Gilda Radner and episode host Candice Bergen are in this sketch that's really a public service announcement for the Right to Stupidity. Bergen accidentally calls Radner "Fern", which is Bergen's character's name. After much cracking up, Gilda flips the sketch around so that way Bergen's character's the stupid one and not her.
251** In a sketch entitled ''Black History Minute'', Creator/EddieMurphy was playing an AngryBlackManStereotype giving a hectoring monologue to the camera. At one point he stumbled over some words, and a couple of audience members tittered. Without breaking character, he addressed the crowd: "So I messed up. Shut up!"
252** In the infamous first Matt Foley sketch with Creator/ChrisFarley, near the end Matt tumbles over and breaks the table. This was purely accidental; Farley tripped and crashed into the table, and it went from there, thankfully managing to continue the sketch uninterrupted. The moment was so memorable though that most later Foley sketches had the character crashing into walls or breaking the furniture.
253** In the "Massive Headwound Harry" sketch, a dog on the set started chewing at Dana Carvey's headwound prosthesis and trying to pull it off.
254** There's the ending to one of the Bennett Brauer (Chris Farley) Weekend Updates, where he was supposed to fly but the wires he was hooked to got caught in the lights, keeping him from being fully lifted. Chris Farley ad-libbed: "Do something, please! [[SelfDeprecation I have a weight problem."]] After a bit of fiddling with the wires, Chris finally took flight as intended.
255** A famous one was a simple costume change for the "More Cowbell" sketch. During rehearsals the cast admitted it wasn't really working out, then for the live performance Will Ferrell changed his shirt to something about two sizes too small and everything just snowballed from there.
256** During a ''[[Film/TheScorpionKing Scorpion King]]'' sketch with [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]], he accidentally skipped several lines. However, having made his name with his ability with [[ProfessionalWrestling a microphone on live TV]], he kept his cool and somehow seamlessly linked his lines back together, then told the audience, "Don't worry, I've got this!"
257** On the episode hosted by Creator/JasonLee, there was a "Falconer" sketch where a landowner (Lee) appears and calls Forte's character (the Falconer) a "dickhead" instead of a "dickweed". While Lee corrects himself, Forte ad-libs that he is neither a dickweed or a dickhead.
258** Bill Hader would later admit that Stefon's odd body language during the character's early appearances was actually the result of Hader having actual panic attacks onstage. In at least one sketch Seth Meyers can be clearly seen saying "Are you okay, buddy?" to Stefon, but ostensibly was also directed to Hader himself.
259** Seth Meyers ripping up Jebidiah Atkinson's (played by Taran Killam) note card on Weekend Update after the latter ended up flubbing a joke about ''A Christmas Carol''.
260** During a "What Up With That" sketch, Sam Jackson dropped two no-no curse words (which he blamed Kenan Thompson for not cutting him off earlier), which Kenan ran with without breaking stride.
261--->'''Thompson''': Well, that's all the time we have! I want to thank my guest, the incredible Samuel L. Jackson!
262--->'''Jackson''': Hey, fuck y-- ''(stops himself)''
263--->'''Thompson''': ''(as Cole)'' HEY!
264--->'''Jackson''': That's bullshit!
265--->'''Thompson''': Come on, now, Sam! ''(beat)'' That costs money!
266** In the March 11, 2017 Scarlett Johansson episode, a sketch featured a device around a (live) dog's neck that translated his thoughts, with Beck Bennett voicing the dog from off-stage. However, midway through the sketch, the dog actually took the prop off of himself, with Scarlett having to put the prop back on. It worked marvelously well, as the dog character was ranting at Scarlett, thus ripping off the device was totally in-character, and Beck rolled with it by ad-libbing the dog as saying "ugh get it off of me!"
267** Naturally a big part of every "Whiskers R We" sketch as Kate [=McKinnon=] and the host have to deal with a bunch of unpredictable cats. The biggest was a hairless cat who suddenly lunged at Tiffany Haddish, seemingly because of her saying "He shaved everything off for a gay circuit party," to which Haddish went into a boxing stance. During another part of the sketch, a kitten nearly escapes from its cage, so Haddish grabs it and remarks, "I got the pussy!" nearly cracking [=McKinnon=] up.
268** In the Season 45 premiere's Inside the Beltway sketch, a wardrobe assistant badly jumped her cue to do a quick change on Aidy Bryant, and even sheepishly looked directly into the camera as she was hurried offstage. Everyone struggled to get through their giggles about it for the rest of the sketch, and Bryant was even still cracking up during the episode's final sketch.
269** During the Science Room sketch with Jason Sudeikis in Season 47, Melissa Villasenor as the mother of the girl assisting Sudeikis mispronounced her name. Sudeikis didn't miss a beat and wrapped the fact that he'd apparently been mispronouncing her name the whole time into his mental breakdown.
270** During a backstage tour of Colin Jost's dressing room during ''Weekend Update'' in Season 47, Sarah Sherman was supposed to show the room had a picture of [[https://twitter.com/sarahsquirm/status/1525888463920369666 her face pasted over a female bodybuilder in a bikini]], to which Jost would point out Sherman clearly photoshopped it. However, Sherman accidentally dropped the picture behind some furniture and was unable pick it back up. She then continued the bit by describing it as "a thing I threw", which caused Jost to start cracking up.
271** Sometimes, Lorne will even let some improv slide in auditions: Bill Hader said he was too nervous during his audition to give it his all, and started doing an impression of a random Italian man he once overheard. Lorne found it hilarious, and Hader developed it into his character Vinny Vedecci.
272
273* {{Typecasting}}: One thing they do a lot is re-deploy an actor in a one-shot role that's similar to one of their regular ones:
274** Terry Sweeney, the first openly gay actor, always got cast doing female impersonations or gay caricatures. Sweeney called this tendency frustrating in a 2017 interview.
275** Creator/BillHader, and later Creator/KenanThompson, as a game show host.
276** Also Bill Hader as a hilariously creepy character.
277** Creator/TaranKillam as a loud and sometimes obnoxious LargeHam.
278** Creator/VanessaBayer often plays {{Genki Girl}}s. This is especially evident in the "J-Pop America Funtime Now" sketches.
279** By the middle of season 44, Mikey Day always played the OnlySaneMan.
280** Creator/LeslieJones almost always played loud, assertive, and often man-crazy women.
281** As one of the younger members of the show, Creator/PeteDavidson tended to play ditzy millennial burnouts during his early career, though he spoke out against this.
282** Creator/BeckBennett tends to play boisterous BumblingDad characters and {{fratbro}}s.
283** Most of Creator/BowenYang's roles make him a theatrical CampGay character.
284** Creator/KateMcKinnon saw most of her ''SNL'' career playing either sardonic old women or impressions of male politicians, and occasionally {{Butch Lesbian}}s.
285* UnfinishedEpisode: The following episodes were scheduled, with announced hosts and musical guests, but never happened for one reason or another
286** Season 6 was troubled for many reasons, but it also had the most canceled episodes of any season. The first, the March 14, 1981 episode with host Creator/RobertGuillaume and musical guest Music/IanDuryAndTheBlockheads, was pulled from the schedule after Jean Doumanian was fired as showrunner to give new producer Dick Ebersol time to retool the show. Only one more episode was completed after that before the season ended early due to the 1981 Writers' Guide strike. This resulted in six episodes being canceled: April 18 (Creator/AlFranken and Tom Davis with the Music/GratefulDead), April 25 (Creator/DanAykroyd with Music/PatBenatar), May 2 (Creator/SteveMartin with Music/NeilYoung), May 9 (Creator/BrookeShields with Music/TomPettyAndTheHeartbreakers), and May 16 (Creator/BuckHenry and Music/REOSpeedwagon). Of these, Guillaume, Aykroyd, and Martin all returned to host, while Petty went on to have seven further musical appearances. Young, who was scheduled to make his first appearance on the show, didn't appear as a musical guest until 1989. Franken and Davis, both former writers and cast members, would both return to the show often, and Franken even had another tenure in the cast, but neither ever got to host the show. The Grateful Dead had been musical guests before but would not appear on the show again. Henry, one of the most prolific hosts of the 70s, would never host again, although he did appear when Creator/TomHanks was inducted into the Five Timers' Club. Shields has yet to host the show, while Dury, Benatar, and REO Speedwagon never got the chance to appear as musical guests.
287** The March 9, 1985 episode was to feature hosts Creator/JohnCandy and Creator/EugeneLevy with musical guests Music/DarylHallAndJohnOates. Candy and Levy even appeared during the "SNL Film Festival" ClipShow that aired the week before to promote their episode. However, the March 9 episode was canceled due to a writers' strike. Candy and Hall & Oates had already hosted and performed on the show before 1985, but Levy has never hosted on the show, and didn't even appear on the show until 2021 when he appeared during the monologue of an episode his son [[Creator/DanielLevy Dan]] hosted.
288** Creator/GildaRadner was set to host the May 14, 1988 episode with musical guest Music/{{U2}}, but the thirteenth season ended early due to a writers' strike. Radner would die of ovarian cancer the following year, before ever having hosted. If she had hosted, she would have been the first female cast member to do so, an honor that would eventually go to Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus, who first hosted in 2006, eighteen years later! U2 did not appear on the show again until 2000.
289** The November 10, 2007 episode was supposed to feature Wrestling/DwayneJohnson as host and Music/AmyWinehouse as musical guest, but it was also cancelled due to a writers' strike. Johnson had hosted SNL before, and would host again after the strike was settled, but Winehouse never got a chance to appear on the show before her death in 2011.
290** Creator/JohnKrasinski was slated to host on March 28, 2020 with Music/DuaLipa as musical guest, but then the COVID-19 outbreak in New York City forced the show to take a production hiatus. Krasinski would host the next season with Music/MachineGunKelly as the musical guest, while Lipa also appeared that season as the music guest in the episode hosted by Creator/KristenWiig.
291** 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 midway through production week. Once the strike ended, Davidson would host the next season's premiere with Music/IceSpice as musical guest.
292* WagTheDirector: When Creator/MacaulayCulkin hosted in 1991, his infamous StageDad Kit forced the show to eschew using cue cards during the sketches because he considered the practice unprofessional.
293* WhatCouldHaveBeen: [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/SaturdayNightLive Has its own page.]]
294* WriteWhatYouKnow:
295** According to Paul Mooney, the famous "Word Association" sketch was inspired by an incident that he had with NBC executives. According to Mooney, he was subjected to an intense job interview before he was allowed to write for the episode.
296** Creator/DavidSpade's "Dick Clark's Receptionist" sketch was based on an incident during the week Creator/PatrickSwayze hosted the show where Spade tried to meet with Swayze to discuss sketch ideas, only for Swayze's assistant to not recognize him and refuse him entry into his dressing room.
297** The "Girl with No Gaydar" sketch was based on an incident following the show's first post-9/11 episode where Creator/RachelDratch flirted with one of the FDNY first responders who attended the show's after party only to discover he was gay at the end of the night.
298** The "Waking Up" sketch was inspired by instances during the ''[[Series/TheLastOfUs2023 Last of Us]]'' shoot of Creator/PedroPascal breaking into a ValleyGirl dialect, emulating hairstylist Coco Ullrich, when he felt the need to lighten the mood in between takes.
299* WriteWhoYouKnow: A lot of ''SNL'''s recurring characters are actually based on people that either the writers or the cast members have encountered in life:
300** Creator/JayPharoah's Principal Frye, the wheezing high school principal of Booker T. Washington High who constantly interrupts assemblies with news of some kind of disaster happening at the school, is actually based on the principal from Pharoah's high school in Chesapeake, Virginia. The only thing that's changed is the name: the principal's name in real life is James while the character Jay Pharoah plays is named Daniel.
301** Creator/BillHader's Stefon character is actually based on two people: a wannabe club promoter John Mulaney (the writer behind the Stefon segments on Weekend Update) met while in New York (and the wannabe club owner's email), and a barista Bill Hader met who actually looked, dressed, and spoke like Stefon.
302** Creator/JuliaSweeney's androgynous Pat character was actually based on a woman Julia saw who looked so much like a man that Sweeney questioned her gender.
303** One of Creator/KristenWiig's characters was "Aunt Linda", who appeared on Weekend Update to review/complain about new movies. Kristen Wiig got the idea for the character from a woman she saw on a airplane, who was very confused by the in-flight movie (''Film/TheMatrix'', in case you were wondering) and very vocal about her confusion.
304** Creator/MikeMyers' recurring sketch ''Coffee Talk With Linda Richman'' was based on his mother-in-law, Linda Richman.
305** Creator/DanaCarvey based Garth Algar (from ''Wayne's World'') on his brother Brad.
306[[/folder]]
307
308[[folder:Trope Trivia]]
309* {{Corpsing}}: Justified as it's a live TV show, so mistakes of all kinds (including actors losing it due to hammy acting or an unscripted mistake) are bound to happen. [[Corpsing/TVShowsQToZ Our page here]] needs a whole folder of the cast losing it.
310** Prevalent when Creator/JimmyFallon became a Weekend Update anchor (which most fans declared was distracting).
311** It also happens ''every time'' Creator/BillHader appears as Stefon on Weekend Update (Website/ThatOtherWiki and most late-night talk show interviews even claim that Creator/BillHader has ''never'' got through a Stefon segment -- both in dress rehearsal and on the live show -- without cracking up [[note]]Though this is an exaggeration, as there are actually four segments in which Creator/BillHader has played Stefon and not cracked up once -- the first sketch that introduced Stefon as the estranged brother of a Disney screenwriter, a Weekend Update segment that had Stefon, Bobby Moynihan as Snooki from ''Series/JerseyShore'', and Fred Armisen as Governor David Paterson singing "O, Christmas Tree," another Weekend Update segment with Creator/SethMeyers announcing to the audience that he's going on summer vacation with Stefon, and in the monologue of the Creator/MayaRudolph episode, where Stefon appears as a background singer for Creator/MayaRudolph. Still, the four times Hader hasn't cracked up compared to the 13 times he did, as of his final appearance on May 18, 2013, is not a good track record[[/note]]), though, unlike Jimmy Fallon's cracking up [[note]] which is usually blamed on Fallon's lack of professionalism, according to his detractors[[/note]], there's a reason why it happens to Creator/BillHader. According to Website/ThatOtherWiki and an interview on ''The Late Show with David Letterman'', Creator/JohnMulaney (one of the show writers) changes some of the lines without Creator/BillHader's knowledge and Hader is actually reacting to what he's reading.
312** An example from the fourth season: During one "Weekend Update" segment, Creator/BillMurray reported the death of the horse who played Series/MisterEd. He followed that up with a live interview with Ed's "widow": a live, rather uncooperative horse (voiced by Creator/GildaRadner). Right after this hilarious moment, the camera cut to Jane Curtin, who immediately burst out laughing and was barely able to say the segment's closing line.
313** The first "Debbie Downer" sketch, in early 2004 with Lindsay Lohan, was arguably made memorable by the corpsing. A flubbed line by Rachel Dratch and the sketch's constant use of the "[[LosingHorns wah-wah]]" as the camera zooms in on her steadily crumbling face was enough to send every member of the sketch into hysterics (except for Fred Armisen who was still clearly struggling), with the worst culprit being Horatio Sanz, who was eventually doing nothing but laughing hysterically by the end of the sketch and at one point uses the Mickey Mouse waffle on his plate to wipe the tears of laughter from his eyes.
314** One of the few times Phil Hartman lost it was as Frankenstein, disagreeing with Tarzan and Tonto on whether "fire - bad!"
315** It still happened on occasion, but corpsing was seriously frowned on in the early years of the show. It was seen as part of the "old-fashioned" comedy exemplified by ''Series/TheCarolBurnettShow'' that the early creators wanted to avoid.
316** Perhaps one of the more obvious examples was in the "Dr. Beaman's Office" sketch where, sometime around the moment when Dr. Poop came in, Molly Shannon (playing the baby's mother) had a hard time keeping a straight face, and this spread to Will Ferrell (playing Dr. Beaman), who had to put his hands over his face to compose himself when he delivered the line, "The truth is... we misplaced your baby." In the next cut, Molly Shannon is smiling wide instead of being horrified, and Chris Parnell (the baby's father) doesn't look too upset either.
317** Chris Farley loved to cause this on the other actors, sometimes by [[TrashTheSet throwing himself on the scenery]]! One outstanding case is the original Matt Foley sketch, it's clear both David Spade and host Christina Applegate are badly hiding their laughter.
318*** Jay Mohr has stated that Farley would essentially make a game out of getting his co-stars to crack, to the point that if he was in a sketch and knew the camera wasn't on him he would simply cross his eyes while looking directly at the person the scene was focused on, which was enough to do it in most circumstances.
319** Another example is Taran Killam's character Jebidiah Atkinson who reviews speeches(along with Christmas specials.) Both times he has appeared Seth Meyers tries to keep a straight face but he fails. In his first appearance he flubbed a Pearl Harbor speech joke. He along with Seth failed at keeping smiles off their faces. In his second appearance he missed a sentence for a joke about ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', and Seth ended up dying of laughter.
320** In a [=DeMarco=] Brothers sketch with Music/BonJovi, both Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora are struggling to keep a straight face the whole way, culminating in Bon Jovi erupting into laughter when Chris Parnell and Chris Kattan break out EightiesHair wigs to imitate the band.
321** In the classic "Space: The Infinity Frontier with Harry Caray" sketch with Will Ferrell and Jeff Goldblum, Goldblum increasingly starts to break as Ferrell/Caray gets more loopy ("It's a simple question, would you eat the moon if it were made of ribs?!...Just say yes and we'll move on!"). Finally Goldblum cracks up as Ferrell!Caray remarks about not getting Mad Cow Disease; the camera stays focused on Ferrell while Goldblum comes unglued to applause.
322** Acknowledged in a Digital Short that debuted during the 40th Anniversary special. Andy Samburg and Adam Sandler sing about the numerous times the SNL cast broke character. Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz got the most mentions.
323** It's particularly evident whenever Creator/RyanGosling hosts - pre-recorded digital shorts like "Santa Baby" and "Papyrus" have Ryan turning in fine performances as befits a known screen idol, but during the live parts he's damn near losing it in every other sketch.
324** The rather famous "Love-ahs" sketch with Will Ferrell, Rachel Dratch, Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore had everyone barely holding it together throughout. The sheer awkwardness of the premise made the character breaking that much funnier, and Farrel admitted that in the hot tub he would occasionally caress Fallon's leg under the water, only exacerbating the situation. At several points the audience openly applauds with laughter.
325** In the "Career Day" sketch, Pete Davidson begins laughing almost immediately after Adam Driver (as Abraham H. Parnassus) begins talking to him and can barely hold it together through the rest of the sketch. Melissa Villaseñor mostly stays in character but breaks on her final line. Adam Driver plays it ''completely straight'' without a single flinch.
326** Music/{{Adele}} appears in the 2020 season, in a sketch about an ad for tourism in Africa, revealed eventually to be touting the potential of hooking up with black guys. It's really the audience reaction rather than the punchline that causes Adele to melt down uncontrollably.
327
328** Farley's co-stars would often be in stitches whenever he was in character. On the first Matt Foley sketch, David Spade spent most of the time with his hand over his mouth.
329** A constant feature of Creator/RachelDratch[='s=] sketches is that ''nobody'', not even her, can keep a straight face around Debbie.
330** A big part of Stefon's act is laughing out of character, made all the more hilarious by his generally oblivious in-character personality. [[note]] Parts of the corpsing seem to be due to [[{{Troll}} the teleprompter being different than what he rehearsed]] -- something that Creator/JohnMulaney revealed that he did on purpose due to how funny it usually is when someone breaks character.[[/note]]
331** 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.
332* TropeMaker: SNL had one of the first and most memorable examples of the UsefulNotes/NineHundredNumber, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_the_Lobster "Larry the Lobster"]].
333[[/folder]]
334
335[[folder:Casting Trivia]]
336* '''Creator/TinaFey''': the first female head writer on ''SNL''. She holds the record for the longest running Weekend Update anchorwoman on SNL (though Creator/SethMeyers broke the overall record held by Creator/DennisMiller and Fey was on maternity leave for a few episodes, she is still considered the longest-running female Weekend Update anchor).
337* '''Creator/HarryShearer''': the only cast member to be such for two non-consecutive seasons (1979-80 [[note]] season 5[[/note]] and 1984-85 [[note]] season 10[[/note]]), making him the UsefulNotes/GroverCleveland of ''SNL''. Also the only cast member to be a regular cast member on another long-running American comedy show that heavily influenced modern pop culture, is considered a goldmine of modern satire and memorable catchphrases, memes, and comic moments, and whose humor and quality has been called into question in every year it's run (specifically the recent episodes vs. the older ones) — ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''[[note]](Phil Hartman, while a memorable and endearing cast member of both ''SNL'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', doesn't count since he wasn't credited as a regular on ''The Simpsons''.)[[/note]]
338* '''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/MadTV1995'' 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.
339* '''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).[[note]]When Creator/ChrisFarley hosted on October 25, 1997, Creator/TimMeadows jokingly suggested that he should host the show, instead. Given the poor state of Farley's health at that time (he died 2 months later), they probably should've let Meadows fill in as host.[[/note]] 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).
340* '''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 Creator/SeanConnery 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).
341* '''Creator/JoanCusack''' (from the 1985-1986 season) and '''Creator/KristenWiig''' (who was on show from 2005 to 2012) are the only female cast members to be nominated for [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Academy Awards]]; Cusack, twice (for Best Supporting Actress in ''Film/WorkingGirl'' and ''In & Out''), and Wiig, once (for Best Original Screenplay, as the co-writer of ''Film/{{Bridesmaids}}'').
342* '''Creator/JasonSudeikis''' (2005-2013) and '''Creator/PaulBrittain''' (2010-2012): Both are nephews to two sitcom actors who have hosted the show more than once. Jason Sudeikis's uncle is George Wendt (Norm from ''Cheers''), who first hosted during the 1985-1986 season [[note]]on a bizarre, fourth wall-breaking episode that had Francis Ford Coppola trying to fix the show and a musical performance by Phillip Glass[[/note]] and made frequent appearances in the 1990s as one of Bob Swerski's "Super Fans"; Paul Brittain is the nephew of Bob Newhart, who first hosted during the 1979-1980 season [[note]]The fifth season and the last season featuring the remnants of the original cast -- [[AndZoidberg and Harry Shearer]] before he became a cast member on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''[[/note]] and hosted again during the notoriously awful 20th season. Sudeikis would later return to host for the first time in Season 47.
343* '''Creator/AlFranken''': The first -- and so far only -- ''SNL'' cast member to be elected U.S. Senator (and, like most Senators that the show has mocked during its tenure, had to resign in disgrace over sexual misconduct allegations).
344* '''Creator/JohnBelushi''', '''Creator/GildaRadner''', '''Creator/DanAykroyd''', '''Michael O Donoghue''', '''Laraine Newman''', '''Creator/ChevyChase''', '''Creator/JaneCurtin''','''Garrett Morris''' and '''George Coe''': The original Not Ready For Prime Time Players, a.k.a. the debut cast on October 11, 1975. When the show premiered the sketch comedy was only one part of the larger whole, and the cast was billed all at once as a group in the opening credits. They would soon be regarded as a unique collection of comic talent and today are still looked at as one of the best casts (the Hartman-Carvey era from roughly 1986-1993 is another contender). After Chase became the first departure early in the 1976-77 season, he was replaced by '''Creator/BillMurray''', who became one of the biggest stars the show has ever created.
345* '''Creator/MichaelMcKean''', the oldest male to be hired as a regular cast member (he was 46 years old when he first joined the cast near the end of the 19th season). While George Coe was technically older by a few days, he only appeared in two episodes and was forced upon the show by NBC rather than actually hired by Lorne Michaels. [=McKean=] is also the only ''Saturday Night Live'' cast member to host '''''and''''' be a musical guest before joining the show.
346* '''Creator/BillMurray''' and '''Creator/BrianDoyleMurray''', '''Creator/DanAykroyd''' and '''Peter Aykroyd''', and '''Creator/JohnBelushi''' and '''Creator/JamesBelushi''' are the only three sets of brothers to both be in the cast. In the case of the Murray brothers, the younger of the two was hired first. Brian Doyle-Murray originally was only hired as a writer, but became a featured player during the fifth season, making he and Bill the only brothers who were cast members at the same time. He then went back to being a writer only for the sixth season, but rejoined the cast (again as a featured player) for the seventh season. John and Jim Belushi were the only two brothers who were both repertory players, but in fairness, during the time Jim Belushi joined the show, there were no featured players. He joined the cast a couple of years after his older brother's death.
347* '''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 18 when hired (''SNL'' has had cast members who were over 18, but under 21, such as '''Robert Downey, Jr.''', '''Eddie Murphy''', and '''Pete Davidson''').
348* '''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 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.
349* '''Creator/JeffRichards''', the first cast member who was also a ''[=MADtv=]'' cast member (Richards was on ''[=MADtv=]'' from 2000-01, then left for ''SNL'' and stayed on there from 2001 to the middle of the 2003-04 season).
350** As of 2010, another former ''[=MADtv=]'' cast member has been hired on ''SNL'' — '''Taran Killam''', one in a long string of feature players who were on ''[=MADtv=]'' for one to two seasons and ended up getting [[ScrewedByTheNetwork fired by the FOX Network for "not working out," never mind that Killam was brought in mid-season, only appeared in four episodes out of 25 (but was credited for 13), and barely had any memorable moments]], except for that one music video sketch where he plays Alex Band from The Calling being accused of sounding like Scott Stapp (Will Sasso) and Eddie Vedder (Michael [=MacDonald=]).
351*** Killam is also the second ''SNL'' cast member who got his start on a Nickelodeon sketch show (for Killam, that would be ''Series/AllThat'''s spin-off, ''The Amanda Show'').
352* '''Creator/BillyCrystal''', one of two cast members who hosted prior to being cast on the show (the other was [=McKean=], who also holds the distinction of being the only cast member to host and be a musical guest before becoming a cast member).
353* '''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 joked when hosting that he auditioned to be on ''SNL''. He had not actually p auditioned.[[/note]].
354** On the other side, Creator/MichaelChe is the only cast member so far who had ''previously'' served as a correspondent on ''Series/TheDailyShow''. In fact, he left ''The Daily Show'' to join ''SNL'' no long after having joined the former show, making him have one of the shortest tenures for a correspondent.
355* '''Creator/TonyRosato''', '''Creator/PamelaStephenson''', '''Morwenna Banks''', '''Horatio Sanz''', '''Nasim Pedrad''', '''Sasheer Zamata''', and '''Bowen Yang''' are the only cast members to be born outside of North America[[note]]"North America" meaning the United States, Canada, and Mexico. ''SNL'' has had a lot of American- and Canadian-born cast members. Noël Wells from the season 39 cast has Mexican heritage, but she's American-born, as opposed to being originally from Mexico and moving to America[[/note]] (Rosato was born in Italy before his parents emigrated to Canada, Stephenson was born in New Zealand and is now an Australian citizen, Banks was originally from England and moved back there after getting fired from ''SNL'', Sanz was born in Chile, Nasim Pedrad is Iranian-born, Sasheer Zamata was born to African-American parents in Okinawa, Japan[[note]]her father was in the military and her family moved around a lot[[/note]], and Bowen Yang was born in Queensland, Australia to Chinese immigrants who then moved to Quebec and then to Colorado).
356** '''Tony Rosato''' and '''Robin Duke''' are also the first former cast members of ''{{Series/SCTV}}'' to be on ''Saturday Night Live''[[note]]it would have been Catherine O'Hara, but there is a long-standing rumor that she quit after Michael O'Donoghue lambasted the season six cast and writers for running the show into the ground, when really she quit because she felt more at home on ''SCTV''[[/note]], though the ''{{Series/SCTV}}'' cast member who crossed over to ''SNL'' most people would remember is '''Martin Short''', as he brought his Ed Grimley character from ''{{Series/SCTV}}'' to ''SNL''. Short is also the only cast member whose recurring character has his own Saturday morning cartoon: ''The Completely Mental Misadventures Of Ed Grimley''[[note]]which ran from October to December of 1988. It was one of many scripted shows that was affected by the 1988 Writers' Guild strike[[/note]] and, as of December 2012, is the only Dick Ebersol-era cast member to host three times.
357* '''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 cast member 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.
358* '''Creator/ChristopherGuest''' (from the 1984-1985 season -- season 10): Is the only ''SNL'' cast member who is a member of British nobility (his real title is, "Christopher Haden-Guest, 5th Baron Haden-Guest," or "Lord Haden-Guest" for short).
359* '''Creator/BradHall''' and '''Creator/JuliaLouisDreyfus''': The only ''SNL'' cast members to be married to each other. Hall was on the show from 1982 to 1984 (spanning seasons eight and nine, though he was fired from his stint as Weekend Update anchor and replaced with whoever was the episode host at the time[[note]]originally, it was going to be Tim Kazurinsky, but Kazurinsky was friends with Hall and didn't want to betray him[[/note]]) while his wife stayed on until season ten, when everyone was fired and NBC had plans to cancel the show until Creator/LorneMichaels decided to return.
360* '''Creator/RichHall''' (no relation to Brad or Anthony Michael): The only cast member from ''Series/{{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.
361* '''Noël Wells''': Was the first Hispanic female cast member (Cecily Strong was thought to be the first Hispanic cast member due to her [[AmbiguouslyBrown slightly brown complexion and exotic looks]]), the third Hispanic cast member overall (after Horatio Sanz and Fred Armisen), the second one after Fred Armisen to not be a full-blooded Hispanic, and the second cast member to have ancestry from a Middle Eastern country (Wells is part Tunisian[[note]]Tunisia is a North African country and most world maps include North African countries like Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt as part of the Middle East along with the central Asian countries that you always hear about on the news, like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates[[/note]] and Nasim Pedrad is Iranian).
362* '''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 has surpassed 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.
363* '''Creator/CecilyStrong''' (2012-2022): The longest-running female cast member in the show's history at 212 episodes, having surpassed her fellow castmate Kate [=McKinnon=], with said episode being her last as a cast member. She had briefly been an anchor on ''Weekend Update'', but was replaced by Michael Che, partly to focus on doing sketches.
364* '''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).
365** Other 1990s-born cast members include one-season wonders, '''Luke Null''' and '''Lauren Holt''', and current (as of the 2021-2022 season) cast member, '''Bowen Yang'''. As of the 2021-2022 season, the show's newest 1990s born cast members are '''Andrew Dismukes''' (who was one of the show's writers) and '''Sarah Sherman'''. Dismukes has now beaten Pete Davidson as the youngest male current cast member (Dismukes was born in 1995, making him two years younger than Pete) while Sherman (born in 1992/1993) has beaten Chloe Fineman, Ego Nwodim, and Lauren Holt (along with Aidy Bryant and Melissa Villaseñor) as the youngest female current cast member, though Nwodim is still the youngest African-American cast member and Villaseñor is the youngest Latina cast member).
366* '''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]]:
367** '''Denny Dillon''', from the show's notoriously awful sixth season (from 1980 to 1981), is the show's first LGBTQ+ cast member overall and the first lesbian cast member[[note]]though she wasn't fully out of the closet when she was hired. Her friends and some cast members knew of her sexual preference, but she didn't come out until years after her time on the show[[/note]]. Dillon is also the show's shortest female cast member at 4'11", the only lesbian cast member who never worked under Lorne Michaels as a cast member, and is one in a handful of cast members who have appeared on ''Saturday Night Live'' in some capacity under all three showrunners[[note]](Dillon cameoed in a few of Lorne Michaels' earlier episodes, was a cast member for Jean Doumanian and was kept on the show when Dick Ebersol was called in to produce the season six finale episode)[[/note]], joining Eddie Murphy (who started out as a Jean Doumanian cast member, became a major star in the Dick Ebersol episodes[[note]]even going as far as hosting an episode while still an active cast member[[/note]], and appeared on two Lorne Michaels-produced episodes: the 40th anniversary special and the season 45 Christmas episode with Lizzo as musical guest), Creator/YvonneHudson (was an uncredited bit player during Lorne Michaels' fifth season, was a feature player for Jean Doumanian[[note]]the first African-American female to do so[[/note]], and then was relegated back to bit roles for Dick Ebersol before disappearing completely from the public eye), and Bill Murray (was cast by Lorne Michaels when Chevy Chase left the show, hosted a Jean Doumanian episode[[note]]where he visibly shunned all of Jean's cast members, except for Eddie Murphy[[/note]], hosted a Dick Ebersol episode (the season seven Christmas episode), and hosted some Lorne Michaels-produced episodes (one in 1987, one in 1993, and one in 1999, with some cameo appearances in 1994, 2008, 2016, and 2018).
368** '''Creator/TerrySweeney''', from the 1985-1986 season[[note]]which was bad because of the cast and writing, but, unlike Jean Doumanian's cast, there was some humor to be had and its Weekend Update was considered that season's saving grace[[/note]] (though Terry Sweeney got his start as a writer for Jean Doumanian back in the early 1980s) is the first openly gay cast member hired, as well as the show's first homosexual male cast member, and the first openly gay actor to ever appear on American television[[note]]this was back in the 1980s, when, if you were a man, being open about your homosexuality was considered a career killer -- especially since the mid-1980s was when everyone worried about the AIDS epidemic and the political climate was more conservative[[/note]]. Sweeney's lover was another ''SNL'' writer named Lanier Laney, and the two are the show's first (and, so far, only) known same-sex couple and the only ''SNL'' writer to cross over to ''[=MADtv=]'' (Sweeney and Laney wrote for ''[=MADtv=]'' during its third season, then went on to create the short-lived WB sketch show ''Hype'')[[note]]It should be noted that, despite the same surname, Terry Sweeney is not related to 1990s cast member Creator/JuliaSweeney[[/note]].
369** '''Danitra Vance''', also from the 1985-1986 season, was the show's only lesbian of color, not to mention the show's first female African-American repertory player (as opposed to being a feature player and never being promoted, like Yvonne Hudson), the only ''SNL'' cast member with a learning disability (Vance was dyslexic, though Vance's acting and ad-libbing covered it up for the most part), and the only deceased African-American cast member as of 2020 (Vance died of breast cancer in 1994). It should also be noted that Terry Sweeney and Danitra Vance being put in the same cast was the first time ''Saturday Night Live'' had two LGBTQ+ cast members in the same cast (and the first time they would be interracial. There wouldn't be another case of this until 2019 with Kate [=McKinnon=] and Bowen Yang [white lesbian and Chinese gay male], and again in late 2020 with Kate [=McKinnon=], Bowen Yang, and Punkie Johnson [white lesbian, Chinese gay male, and black lesbian], the latter of which is also the first time in ''SNL'' history to have more than one or two LGBTQ+ cast members)
370** '''Creator/JaneaneGarofalo''' came out as asexual in 2019, 24 years after her departure from SNL. During her brief tenure on the series, she played the sort of female roles of the kind that would have been given to Jan Hooks or Nora Dunn in previous years.
371** 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/MadTV1995'''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.
372** '''John Milhiser''': ''SNL'''s second openly gay white male cast member, who, like Terry Sweeney before him, only lasted a season (and, unlike Terry Sweeney, wasn't cross-dressed in any of his roles[[note]]in fact, Milhiser didn't have that much screen time at all, due to the big cast the show had in its 39th season and fans complaining that ''SNL'' did not hire a black female cast member and didn't notice or care that they also hired an openly gay male for the first time since 1985 and a Latina and Tunisian cast member in Noel Wells[[/note]]).
373** The most recent gay male cast member the show hired is '''Bowen Yang''', who was initially hired as a writer on the show in season 44 (2018-2019 season). Yang is the first non-white gay male cast member (and one of only two LGBTQ+ cast members who isn't a white person, joining Danitra Vance) and the show's first Chinese-American cast member (though '''''not''''' the first Asian-American cast member, as Rob Schneider[[note]]who is half-Filipino[[/note]], Fred Armisen[[note]]who is a quarter Korean on his father's side, though he mistakenly thought he was Japanese until he appeared on the PBS show, ''Finding Your Roots'' and discovered that his paternal grandfather hid his true ethnicity to escape persecution and discrimination against Koreans when the Japanese annexed South Korea[[/note]], and even Nasim Pedrad[[note]]though that may be debatable, as Pedrad is from Iran and most people don't know or care to count Middle Eastern countries as part of Asia, even though it is geographically correct[[/note]] have come before him).
374** '''Punkie Johnson''', a stand-up comedian, is the latest LGBTQ cast member hired for the 2020-2021 season. Not only is she the seventh LGBTQ+ cast member on the show, she's also the first one since 1985 to be a black lesbian after Danitra Vance, the third non-white LGBTQ+ cast member (after Danitra Vance and Bowen Yang), and the first black lesbian to be open (Vance, much like Denny Dillon, was a lesbian, but it wasn't made public until her 1994 obituary stated that she was survived by a widow named Jones Miller).
375** '''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.
376* '''Creator/MichaelChe''': The first African-American Weekend Update anchor as of 2014. His pairing with Colin Jost will make this the second time ''SNL'' has had a same-sex Weekend Update team (after Creator/TinaFey and Creator/AmyPoehler), the second time ''SNL'' has had an interracial Weekend Update team (the first was the temporary hiring of Horatio Sanz with Amy Poehler while Tina Fey was on maternity leave for most of the 2005-2006 season), and the first time the Weekend Update team consisted of two male castmembers instead of one man[[note]] As seen with Creator/ChevyChase, Charles Rocket, Brad Hall, Christopher Guest, Creator/DennisMiller, Kevin Nealon, Creator/NormMacdonald, Colin Quinn, or Creator/SethMeyers.[[/note]] or one man and one woman [[note]] As seen with Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd[=/=]Creator/BillMurray, Charles Rocket and Gail Matthius, Brian Doyle-Murray with Christine Ebersole/Mary Gross, Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon, Amy Poehler and Horatio Sanz/Seth Meyers, and Cecily Strong and Seth Meyers/Colin Jost.[[/note]].
377
378* The "Five-Timers Club" is a distinction attributed to celebrity guests who have hosted the show a minimum of five times, first recognized by Creator/TomHanks during his fifth episode as host in 1990. (His fellow Five-Timers at that point were Creator/SteveMartin and Creator/ElliottGould. [[note]]Music/PaulSimon is also often included in sketches on the topic, but he's not technically a full member as he's only ''hosted'' four times.[[/note]]) For club members who have exceeded twelve or more hosting appearances, there is also the ''more'' exclusive "Platinum Lounge", as introduced in Creator/AlecBaldwin's twelfth episode. (As of 2020, Baldwin has racked up the episodes with a staggering ''seventeen''.) A handful of Five-Timers are also former cast members.
379
380** Creator/AlecBaldwin ('''17''')
381** Creator/SteveMartin (16)
382** Creator/JohnGoodman (13)
383** Creator/BuckHenry (10)[[note]]Died in 2020, with his last hosting appearance being on May 24, 1980.[[/note]]
384** Creator/TomHanks (10)
385** Creator/ChevyChase (8)[[note]]After his last hosting appearance on February 15, 1997, he's been banned from hosting again due to his abrasive behavior towards the cast and crew.[[/note]]
386** Creator/ChristopherWalken (7)
387** Creator/DrewBarrymore (6)
388** Creator/DannyDeVito (6)
389** Creator/ElliottGould (6)
390** Creator/TinaFey (6)
391** Creator/ScarlettJohansson (6)
392** Music/JustinTimberlake (6)
393** Music/{{Sting}} (6)
394** Creator/BenAffleck (5)
395** Creator/CandiceBergen (5)
396** Creator/WillFerrell (5)
397** Creator/JonahHill (5)
398** Creator/DwayneJohnson (5)
399** Creator/MelissaMcCarthy (5)
400** Creator/JohnMulaney (5)
401** Creator/BillMurray (5)
402** Creator/PaulRudd (5)
403** Creator/WoodyHarrelson (5)
404
405* 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, 2010 show.
406[[/folder]]

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