History Series / SaturdayNightLive

''Saturday Night Live'' is a ground-breaking Creator/{{NBC}} SketchComedy VarietyShow, broadcast live from New York City in what had been, until its premiere in 1975, [[ItWillNeverCatchOn TV's "graveyard shift" slot]]. According to Website/{{Wikipedia}}, Lorne Michaels initially created it at the request of the network's then-president and CEO Herbert Schlosser as a replacement for reruns of ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJohnnyCarson,'' which ran in the Saturday late-night slot previously. Creator/JohnnyCarson himself decided to end the practice when he made the decision to reserve his rerun shows for weekdays when he was unable to record a new show himself, and didn't want to bother with getting a guest host.

->''"It was like the Franchise/XMen school for comedians, y'know? All these guys with superpowers, together!"''

''Saturday Night Live'' is a ground-breaking Creator/{{NBC}} SketchComedy VarietyShow, broadcast live from New York City in what had been, until its premiere in 1975, [[ItWillNeverCatchOn TV's "graveyard shift" slot]]. According to Website/{{Wikipedia}}, Lorne Michaels initially created it at the request of the network's then-president and CEO Herbert Schlosser as a replacement for reruns of ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJohnnyCarson,'' which ran in the Saturday late-night slot previously. Johnny Carson himself decided to end the practice when he made the decision to reserve his rerun shows for weekdays when he was unable to record a new show himself, and didn't want to bother with getting a guest host.

''Saturday Night Live'' is a ground-breaking Creator/{{NBC}} SketchComedy VarietyShow, broadcast live from New York City in what had been, until its premiere in 1975, [[ItWillNeverCatchOn TV's "graveyard shift" slot]]. According to Website/{{Wikipedia}}, Lorne Michaels initially created it at the request of the network's then-president and CEO Herbert Schlosser as a scheduling replacement for reruns of ''Series/TheTonightShowStarringJohnnyCarson'' (which had previously aired in the slot before being retracted at the request of Creator/JohnnyCarson himself, who wanted the repeat episodes to be saved for weekdays and aired whenever he was ill or chose to take a vacation in lieu of having to hire a guest host).

Often shortened to ''SNL'' for ease of reference, the show was specifically designed by its creator and executive producer, Creator/LorneMichaels (who was once a writer on ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn''), as a showcase for young and edgy talent as a direct reaction to the older comedians who then dominated prime time but were fundamentally clueless about the tastes, styles, and preoccupations of younger Americans circa 1975. Rotating celebrity hosts and musical guests added to the "fingers on the pulse of pop culture" vibe the show strived for. During its early years, ''SNL'' reveled in a feeling of being just shy of completely out of control, and pushed the boundaries of television far beyond what anyone had ever seen before. By design the show's regular cast is continually shifting, with veterans departing for solo careers and young performers being recruited regularly.

* Creator/KenanThompson [[note]]The first cast member to be born after ''SNL''[='s=] 1975 premiere, as well as the longest-tenured cast member, having been with the show since 2003.[[/note]] (2003-)

* Chloe Troast

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[[folder:Tropes #–G]]
* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast:
** In the April 8, 2000 episode hosted by Creator/ChristopherWalken, there was the "More Cowbell" sketch which satirized Music/BlueOysterCult's recording of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" set in 1976.
** In the Season 47 episode 18 on April 16, 2022, there was [[https://youtu.be/EvUCEGcOCf0 a skit]] about Music/TheBlackEyedPeas making the songs "I Gotta Feeling" and "Boom Boom Pow". It was made in 2022 but set in 2008, both on April 16.
* AbhorrentAdmirer:
** Kristen Wiig as Dooneese Maharelle, a regular on the Lawrence Welk show and strangely deformed ''and'' deranged, usually going for the male singers by... umm... grabbing their mikes.
--->"I want your cannoli now!"
** The various girlfriends / co-workers of Barbara [=DeDrew=] at the "Whiskers R We" pet shelter all seem to be ''waaaay'' more into her than she is into them.
** Michelle, the reporter on the "Around the Town" beat, is clearly very attracted to the various women she interviews, but her socially awkward, desperate and inappropriate flirting style ''really'' puts them off. And it's not like they were exactly drooling over her to begin with.
** The RunningGag of Leslie Jones hitting on Colin Jost in ''Weekend Update'', primarily from Leslie being as subtle about it as a car crash.
* AbortedArc: Season 44 has Michael Che explaining that he negotiated his contract [[NWordPrivileges to allow him to use the N-word 4 times that season]], and then does it 1 time. By the end of season 44 it's never come up again.
* AbsurdlyLongLimousine: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh8Fet_YMEk This sketch]] has one full of so many occupants that they can all fit behind each window, as the whole vehicle slowly advances through a drivethru and brings every single one in front of the order window.
* AccidentalAthlete: "Waikiki Hockey" from the [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague Wayne Gretzky]]/Fine Young Cannibals episode of season 14.
* AccidentalMisnaming:
** When Leslie Jones apparently thought Creator/MargotRobbie was Kate Upton.
--->'''Leslie''': (aside) I've done far worse; I used to call Creator/KateMcKinnon Kate Middleton for a year.
** Creator/KateMcKinnon as geriatric actress Debette Goldry, who's simply too old to learn how to pronounce names like Creator/LupitaNyongo (which gets mangled into Little Peter Nono).
** When Creator/JohnMulaney hosted in 2018, announcer Darrell Hammond twice pronounced his name as John ''Mulvaney''.
** When Creator/SaoirseRonan hosted, her opening monologue was about how often people do this to her, with cast members calling her "Cersei," "sushi," "sore cheese," and "inertia."
%%* ActingUnnatural: One of the challenges in the digital short [[http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/snl-digital-short-extreme-challenge/787261/ Extreme Challenge]].
* ActorAllusion:
** The writers enjoy pulling whatever material they can from the pasts of their guest hosts, such as having a ''Series/ThePartridgeFamily'' sketch for Susan Dey (back when she was much more well known for ''Series/LALaw''), putting Music/JanetJackson back in her old role in ''Series/GoodTimes'', making a backhanded reference to Music/BrunoMars' Hawaiian heritage, and revealing that Music/{{Drake}} was on ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'' under his real name Aubrey Graham (which was something Drake was trying to keep under wraps for the longest time).
** The Creator/HelenMirren episode has a sketch about a strip club, where the announcer is about to knock off for the day -- the colleague filling in for him is musical guest Music/DaveGrohl, who walks in declaring that [[WaxingLyrical "this guy is the best! The best!"]]
** The Lawrence Welk show at the end of season 37 has an Italian singer, played by John Hamm, becoming the first ever guy to return Doonese (Kristen Wiig)'s advances, alluding to their roles in ''Film/{{Bridesmaids}}''.
** The Music/JustinTimberlake episode of season 38 reunites Creator/SteveMartin, Creator/ChevyChase and Creator/MartinShort -- yes, the Film/ThreeAmigos. And Martin Short is the only one still enthusiastic about that old movie, which actually mirrors the Amigos' team dynamics.
** Creator/MartinFreeman did a ''Film/TheHobbit'' parody of ''Series/TheOfficeUK'', having played Tim in the latter.
** A promo for the March 11, 2017 episode starring Creator/ScarlettJohansson featured Beck Bennett in the promos. Beck played the boyfriend of Scarlett's character in Sing who later dumped her and you can tell she's still bitter about it.
** "Office Christmas Party" has Creator/AmyAdams as bespectacled ShrinkingViolet "Becky from Payroll" who later breaks out some superhuman singing pipes. It's basically [[Film/ManOfSteel Lois Lane]] ClarkKenting!
** ''Weekend Update'' in the Creator/LouisCK episode points out how UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump was one of the few people defending Bill O'Reilly after his allegations of sexual misconduct. Naturally, the next sketch has Creator/AlecBaldwin playing Bill.
** One season 41 episode has Creator/BrieLarson [[Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld as a member of an overly subversive garage band that even dabbles in action moviemaking.]]
** A rather convoluted one in the episode with Creator/DakotaJohnson, where she plays a young girl being dropped off at the station by her father, played by Taran Killiam in a flannel shirt and moustache, looking ''not'' like someone from a Dakota role, but the father from ''{{Literature/Twilight}}'' instead, from which ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' was derived.
** When Creator/RichardDreyfuss hosted, there was, naturally, a ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' reference.
** References to Kenan Thompson's time on Nickelodeon and ''Film/GoodBurger'' are practically OnceASeason.
** The episode with Creator/ChrisPratt has a sketch with Chris and Taran Killam as toys come to life, with musical guest Music/ArianaGrande putting in an appearance as another living toy. Given that she's a Nickelodeon alumnus, this sort of outlandish environment isn't new to her.
** One sketch from the Creator/TiffanyHaddish episode has Tiffany dressed as a ''literal'' last black unicorn (the name of her book).
** Musical guest Music/MileyCyrus puts in an additional appearance in ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' sketch in season 43, as a contestant alongside celebrity contestant Alex Moffat as Creator/ChrisHemsworth. She starts hitting on him, he says that he's married, and her next question is "[[Creator/LiamHemsworth do you have a brother?]]"
** One ''Weekend Update'' has a guest appearance by Ivana Trump, who's been milking her "relationship" with Donald even more following the election, even calling herself "the first lady". Both Ivana and actual First Lady Melania are played by Cecily Strong.
** In the ChristmasEpisode in which Creator/HughLaurie appeared, there was a sketch about a family where all the members were extremely crabby. Hugh Laurie was very obviously doing his ''Series/{{House}}'' voice for this sketch.
** Creator/SamRockwell's ColdOpen dance number reuses a few steps from the one in ''Film/IronMan2''.
** Creator/NataliePortman as [[Series/StrangerThings Eleven]] makes more sense if you know that [[Film/TheProfessional her own breakout role]] was an early but similar CreepyChild[=/=]LittleMissBadass. A more direct example would be Natalie as [[Film/{{Jackie}} Jaqueline Bouvier Kennedy]] in the "First Ladies of Presidents Past" sketch.
** An indirect one when Creator/ChadwickBoseman mentions that he's "played every black character in history except Rachel Dolezal -- although playing a white woman playing a black woman would be prime OscarBait." One of Chadwick's biggest MCU co-stars is Creator/RobertDowneyJr, who did something ''very'' similar in ''Film/TropicThunder'', and got nominated to boot.
** Debette Golddry (Kate [=McKinnon=]) brings up to Creator/SandraOh (SpecialGuest Creator/{{Awkwafina}}) that the "Rosebud" from ''Film/CitizenKane'' actually refers to her "wethole". Awkwafina shouldn't be that surprised considering she famously made a rap track about it.
** Due to the #timesup movement, Jonah Hill becomes the only remaining male in the Five Timers' Club, and when he says he wants the jacket, all the remaining female members immediately think he said "to jack it", alluding to a certain scene from ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet''.
** The Creator/MattDamon episode:
*** There's a sketch about really old Christmas tree decorations deliberately placed out of sight, and Matt is an old "For Your Consideration" freebie promoting ''Film/GoodWillHunting''.
*** Later on there's a slew-of-impressions sketch where Matt plays Creator/ChrisHemsworth. [[Film/ThorRagnarok He's actually been in a Chris Hemsworth movie... playing]] Creator/TomHiddleston.
*** Scoring the trifecta, Matt also plays [[Film/BehindTheCandelabra a pianist who left his ex-wife (Cecily) for a man.]]
** In the Creator/JamesMcAvoy episode, [[Film/SnakesOnAPlane Kenan as a guy who has to help stop a plane from crashing after the pilot is downed.]]
** The Creator/DonCheadle episode has a sketch where Don gets into a fight with a drunk redneck, who tells his buddy to put on his "fightin' song" on the jukebox, mirroring a major scene from Don's MCU debut, ''Film/IronMan2''.
** One sketch in season 45 with Creator/JenniferLopez is about a cheap commercial for fancy hoop earrings of all sorts -- J-Lo actually made hoop earrings popular back in the day.
** In the first ColdOpen after Joe Biden's presidential win over Donald Trump, Creator/JimCarrey's version of Biden declares Trump a "loser" [[https://twitter.com/David_Leavitt/status/1325312778819792905 in the same tone of voice]] as his character from ''Film/AceVenturaPetDetective.''
** Played for laughs in the episode with Creator/AustinButler of ''Film/{{Elvis2022}}'' fame -- there's an obligatory Elvis sketch, but it's actually Sarah Sherman as an ElvisImpersonator performing for a retirement home, while Austin is in the audience, ''in drag as an old woman.''
* AdamWesting:
** It's not uncommon for the host to do a sketch in which he or she exaggerates how the public views him or her (cf. Creator/LindsayLohan playing herself as a convict on a season 37 episode, Creator/TomHanks playing a moronic version of himself on ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'', Music/JustinTimberlake playing a fictional ancestor of himself who predicts that his future child will be a boy band singer, break out into a solo career, team up with Andy Samberg to make music videos, and, most importantly, have sex with Music/BritneySpears and deny it up and down, Kelly Ripa attributing her perky personality to a cocaine-laced hair dye in a fake commercial from season 29, etc).
** Tiffany Haddish got to work her goofy dances into her sketches more than once -- a spoof of ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' even has Tiffany as a character with nothing but goofy dances for special moves.
* ADateWithRosiePalms:
** One Celebrity Family Feud has the survey question "things you do when you're bored". Aidy Bryant as {{Music/Adele}} merely answers with a cheeky giggle and a "y'know..."
--->'''Steve Harvey:''' Oh you bet I do... Show me fiddlin' with your gibblets! (buzzed)
** The Jason Momoa/Mumford & Sons episode has a sketch where Elves on a Shelf come together and share updates on the kids they watch. One elf isn't having a good time because his kid, a 13-year-old-boy, is...exploring his body in a way that can't be described as naughty or nice. One of the items on his list is some very soft socks.
* AirQuotes:
** Creator/ChrisFarley's "Weekend Update" character Bennett Brauer uses air quotes for most of his segment. In one memorable episode he does so many air quotes he actually takes off. Then the wires holding him up get tangled.
--->'''Bennett Brauer:''' Thought you'd seen the last of old Bennett, perhaps? Thought the network bigwigs would have sent Bennett and his negative "Q rating" on a slow boat China? Well.. maybe I don't "look the part." I'm not "svelte."I don't "look comfortable on camera,"I'm not "sobby". I don't "understand what's going on in the news." I'm not "likeable" I don't "get along with people," when I go to work, I don't "make eye contact." I guess I don't "fit the mold." I don't "wear the latest clothes" or, even ones that don't "reek!" I don't "change my underwear," I'm not "buff." I don't have "firm breasts" I don't "exercise." And when I do sweat, I don't "shower." I'm not "spic-and-span" I don't "clean the area between my crotch and legs.". But, for the time being, I guess the network "enforcers" are opting for my approach, until Joe Consumer tells them he'd rather get his two cents from commentators who don't "make babies cry" and don't "drink maple syrup straight from the bottle" and don't ''[as he makes the quotes sign with his fingers, wires pull him in the air to create the illusion that he's made the gesture enough times to make him airborne]'' "leave old, dried-up deodorant cakes under their arm for weeks at a time" and, uh.. I'm flying. I'm flying! I'm flying! ''[the wires get caught in the lights atop the Update set, as Chris Farley hangs little more than three feet above the floor]'' Holy Schnikes!
** From a more recent Weekend Update, Colin Jost:
--->'''Colin''': Disney recently announced the first Latina Disney Princess. Oh, it's fine for them to say it, but when ''I'' call a girl a "Latina Princess", I'm told that it's "creepy" and I should "leave the quinceañera".\\
'''Michael''': How many quinceañeras have you been in?
* AdmiringThePoster:
** A sketch had a teenage boy's posters come to life to help him through some tough math homework. Most of the characters on his posters have good motivational advice, and he seems to be hearing them out at first, but then he gets distracted by a pin-up poster, who does nothing but talk about all the [[EroticEating hot dogs]] she can eat. He ends up failing his test because he just drew a bunch of hot dogs on the paper.
** In the music video "First Got Horny 2 U," a teenage Kate is shown making out with (and seemingly humping) a poster of [[Music/{{Hanson}} Taylor Hanson]] because he looks like a pretty girl.
* TheAlcoholic:
** Carol (Aidy Bryant) in "Office Christmas Party".
---> "Somebody control Carol from New Media!"
** Creator/KristenStewart in a sketch about a college drinking support group (as in, they don't support ''drinking'' per se):
---> "You ever pass out and wake up with a dog tagging chip in your neck and you're like 'whuuut?' "
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YnlXPNG_fs The Drunkest Contestant on "The Bachelor".]] Says it all, really.
* AlienAmongUs:
** "The Film/{{Coneheads}}", who always answered questions with "We come from France!".
%%** Creator/BillHader's Greg in "Game Time with Randy and Greg".
%%* AllCheeringAllTheTime: The Spartan Cheerleaders
* AllGaysLoveTheater: In the "Crucible Cast Party" sketch, one of the actresses brags about how all the boys at the high school theater cast party want to get with her... ignorant to the fact that they're all flirting with each other.
* AllJustADream:
** To make people forget about the disjointed lousiness of Season 11 (1985-86) and to start fresh with a new and better cast -- and to spoof what ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' had just done over at CBS to negate ''its'' badly-received 1985-86 season -- ''SNL'' used this trope by having Music/{{Madonna}} (who hosted the Season 11 premiere) announce during the cold opening of Season 12 premiere that Season 11 was all "a dream...a horrible, horrible dream." While this would be met with contempt over the writers pulling something so cliched, the fact that the first episode had a newer, funnier cast made up for it.
** The end of the Season 20 (1994-95 season) episode hosted by Bob Newhart was revealed to be this, mimicking the ending to ''Series/{{Newhart}}'', complete with Suzanne Pleshette.
* AllMenArePerverts:
** The Lara Flynn Boyle sketch that sent up ''Literature/TheScarletLetter'', where, just as the men are reprimanding Hester Prynne for her scarlet "A", Boyle's character wanders in with a scarlet "BJ" sewn into her clothing. The men become delighted.
** On ''Weekend Update'', Amy Poehler delivers a lengthy and hilarious editorial against the then current fad of female celebrities flashing their genitals during publicity events. At the end she asks Seth Meyers if he has anything to add. His only comment is "Keep up the good work, ladies."
** Darrell Hammond as Creator/SeanConnery on Celebrity Jeopardy. Hammond's Connery loves to antagonize Will Ferrell's Trebek with increasingly bawdy tales of his exploits [[YourMom with the latter's mother]].
--->'''Ferrell/Trebek''': For your information, my mother is in a nursing home in Alberta, Canada.
--->'''Hammond/Connery''': Oh, she was ''nursing it'' alright!
%% ** Creator/ChristopherWalken as The Continental ZCE
%% ** Chris Parnell as Merv the Perv ZCE
* AllMythsAreTrue: One recurring constant of the SNL sketchverse -- of special note, the premise of Kenan's "Sumpn' Claus" relies on SantaClaus being real, while Kenan's also played a mall Santa ''and the real Santa!''
* AllPeriodsArePMS: There's a fake commercial for a drug that helps women through the downsides of the menstrual cycle by forcibly constraining them from 12 times a year to just one day. Unfortunately the end result has the patients going ''literally'' AxCrazy (as in, Tina Fey going after all her colleagues ''with an axe!'')
* AllWomenAreLustful:
** One iconic moment from Weekend Update involved Kristen Wiig as a "flirting expert", leading up to a moment that spawned a famous animated gif as she hiked up both legs and started shuffling towards Seth Meyers.
** From a more recent Weekend Update:
--->'''Cecily Strong''': A man in Ireland fell off his bike in an accident and became erect for five weeks. ''I know what I'm getting my boyfriend for Valentine's day.'' (inset shows a mountain bike)
* AmbiguousGender: The "It's Pat" sketches revolved around characters trying to guess at Pat's gender.
* AmicableExes: Season 44 has Cecily and SpecialGuest Creator/MattDamon as an old-school lounge act (Cecily in particular sounds like Liza Minnelli), who claim to have broken up a while back, but still deliver an airtight performance in between their SnarkToSnarkCombat.
%%* AmusingAlien: "The Film/{{Coneheads}}", again.
* AmusingInjuries:
** Dana Carvey's "Massive Headwound Harry" (until [[spoiler:a dog was shown chewing off the head wound prosthetic on Carvey's head]]) and the recurring sketch, "Appalachian Emergency Room" (where rednecks come into a backwoods doctor's office and tell the receptionist how they got injured).
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUjf1lVOGOo "Basketball Scene"]] has two background actors (Jimmy Fallon and Mikey Day) try to play basketball, and during multiple takes, they hit themselves in the face with the ball, fail to dunk the ball and face-plant the ground, and accidentally hit one of the film crew off-camera.
* AmusinglyShortList:
** There was a RunningGag on the Colin Jost/Michael Che era of Weekend Update where they present a list that's implied to be lengthy, only to have a small number of items on it. We then cut back to them to find them in the middle of something that should have been finished before the list was supposed to end.
** In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ssl7abAEhs Mike Pence Impeachment Strategy]] cold open, Mike Pompeo says that fleeing the country is an option. There's a "whole list" of countries that would be happy to have them: "North Korea, Saudi Arabia, end of list".
* AnachronismStew: Kristen Wiig's opening monologue about the first few Thanksgivings is a mishmash of American cultural icons, from Columbus (who's apparently Korean) to Betsy Ross sewing the first napkin for FDR.
* AnArmAndALeg: Anderson Cooper (Alex Moffat) at the hands (and teeth!) of Kellyanne Conway (Kate Mckinnon), referencing the fate of [[spoiler:[[{{Film/It2017}} Georgie]].]]
* AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle: "Office Christmas Party":
-->"This is getting out of hand / We love that people are having fun / But do us a favor and just be safe, guys."
* AnimalIsTheNewMan: The show had a series of sketches called "Bear City" in which a meteor strikes an American city, driving the human population underground and allowing the bears to rise up and fill the roles formerly filled by humans. The sketches are notable in that the humor is driven entirely through action as the bears cannot talk.
* TheAnnouncer:
** Don Pardo, who announced the first season back in 1975 and had been holding the job well into his 90s. Up until his death in 2014, his announcements had been prerecorded from his home.
** For Season 7, Pardo was replaced by Mel Brandt, reportedly at the insistence of Michael O'Donoghue, who'd been re-hired as a writer/producer for the show by incoming producer Dick Ebersol. By the end of the season, O'Donoghue had been fired, and Pardo was brought back. For the December 1981 episodes hosted by Creator/TimCurry and Creator/BillMurray, however, Brandt was replaced with Bill Hanrahan.
** With Don Pardo's death, former cast member Darrell Hammond is now hired as Pardo's replacement.
* AnthropomorphicFood: The ''Baking Championship'' series of sketches has the host’s cake turn out so poorly that it ''somehow'' comes to life.
* ApatheticTeacher: One sketch has a bunch of high school students seemingly trick their teacher (Creator/DavidHydePierce) into thinking the lyrics to various popular rock songs are original poems they wrote for an assignment. After they are dismissed, it's revealed he knew all along and he leaves to smoke marijuana with another teacher.
%%* AntiRoleModel: The whole point of the Creator/NataliePortman rap (and its sequel!)
* ArgentinaIsNaziland: Season 44 covers Donald Trump attending the G20 summit in Argentina:
--> "I love Argentina! [[ComicallyMissingThePoint There's a lot of old German guys who really get what I'm saying there!]]"
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking:
** The categories on Sprockets' ''Das Ist Jeopardy'' are "Pain", "Fear", "Art", "Inert Gasses", "Countries That Are Weak", and "Things That Begin With 'P'"
** In Film/TheGodfather in group therapy sketch, Vito Corleone talks of all the bad things that have happened to him: MobWar, HauledBeforeASenateSubCommittee, the death of his son Sonny, and the ASPCA is still after him for that horse's head stunt.
** In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAhF8tPqafQ one sketch]] from the Dec. 17, 2016 episode, when Hillary Clinton shows a [[LongList list of reasons]] to a member of the Electoral College to not vote for Trump, the last reason is "He met with Music/KanyeWest this week."
** Kate Mckinnon as Debette Goldry, screen starlet from the black and white days, on [[RippedFromTheHeadlines the Harvey Weinstein scandal]]:
--->"Everything old is new again. Producers are abusing starlets, there's Nazis marching in the streets; suddenly nude pantyhose is on trend. I've never been more at home! When's polio coming back, this'll be fun!"
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5GN90UiImo In "The Rock Obama" cold opening]], the Republican senators and speaker face the wrath of the Rock Obama after the trio wanted to "meet a world leader whose people actually respect him," accuse him of botching the situation in the Middle East, claim they understand foreign policy better than him, and note his March Madness bracket got totally busted.
* TheArtifact:
** "Live from New York, It's Saturday Night!" comes from the fact that the show ''was'' actually called ''NBC's Saturday Night'' and not ''Saturday Night Live'' during its first season, because of that aforementioned short lived Howard Cosell show on Creator/{{ABC}}.
** The show's 90-minute running time. Originally, ''SNL'' was a replacement for ''Tonight Show'' reruns, which was a 90-minute show at the time. If the show were to premiere today, it would probably be limited to around an hour like NBC's other late night offerings.
* ArtisticLicenseSports: Guilty of this in a 2013 sketch featuring host Melissa [=McCarthy=] as Sheila Kelly, the aggressively abusive womens' basketball coach at fictional NCAA Division III school Middle Delaware State (parodying former Rutgers mens' coach Mike Rice). In an interview clip, the school's athletic director (played by cast member-at-the-time Tim Robinson[[note]]Tim Robinson is now a writer for the show[[/note]]) tries to defend her behavior by pointing out that the players are receiving a free education via athletic scholarships. Division III institutions are prohibited from giving out athletic scholarships (in fact, that's the main distinction between Division III and the other two divisions.)
* AscendedMeme:
** [[invoked]]The whole point of the 100th Digital Short is cramming in every MemeticMutation permeated by previous Music/TheLonelyIsland digital shorts (and cramming the ascended memes of Will Ferrell's most popular sketches and plugging his three "Best Of" [=DVDs=]).
** There have been several cases where a RealLife political figure was so reminiscent of a comedian, there was a groundswell of demand that the person needed to play the figure in an ''SNL'' sketch. In 2008, everyone compared UsefulNotes/SarahPalin to Creator/TinaFey, so she returned to the show for the role. After countless jokes likening UsefulNotes/BernieSanders to Creator/LarryDavid in 2016, David made a surprise appearance as Sanders and played the role several more times. In 2020, during the post-election controversy, a voting machine IT contractor named Melissa Carone made wild, unsubstantiated claims about vote fraud and testified in front of a committee in the Michigan state House of Representatives. Carone's overly-exaggerated, theatrical mannerisms and ValleyGirl-type voice made the video go viral. Most people commented that at the very least she seemed like an ''SNL'' character, and many specifically noted a heavy similarity to Creator/CecilyStrong's Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a Party, so on the next show Strong did an impression of Carone.
* AsianCleaverFever: Exaggerated and parodied in the "Samurai Delicatessen" sketches, which feature John Belushi as a samurai running the counter of a New York deli. Sketches feature the samurai angrily chopping up meat for sandwiches using his katana.
* AsiansEatPets: When Creator/LucyLiu hosted, her monologue took a crack at several Asian stereotypes. At one point, she serves the cast members her recipe for cocker spaniel. The cast members are disgusted...except for Creator/HoratioSanz.
* AsideGlance: The look Kristen Wiig gives the camera in 2020's Christmas Morning is telling and devastating.
* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The Japanese-sounding gibberish that John Belushi would spout during his "samurai" sketches.
* AssShove:
** Season 39 starts with a sketch about UsefulNotes/BarackObama (Jay Pharaoh) bringing in some members of the public to better explain Obamacare, except ''none of them'' have any idea how it works, and an actual doctor (Kate Mckinnon) is clearly going through a mental breakdown -- not over Obamacare but over having to remove one too many things from people's rectums.
---> "Thank you, doctor. Something we should keep in our minds... [[FreudianSlip or butts...]]"
** There's a TakeThat on the whole selfie stick thing, the Hands Free Selfie Stick. Says it all, really.
--->"When you're ready to take a picture, just clench!"
** From Season 43, Razz P Berry (Creator/DonaldGlover) gets back at his girlfriend for cheating on him by stuffing all the jewellery he bought for her ''up his own butt.'' That's not even the weirdest thing he did. Oh, and he followed the wrong woman.
* AtomicFBomb: When Music/{{Adele}} got to host, she owned up to being a SirSwearsALot in the monologue, but one sketch goes instead in this direction when she plays a vengeful ghost who needs someone to settle her UnfinishedBusiness -- and ends up with Pete Davidson's Chad. [[spoiler:Not because of his general incompetence -- but because he ends up KilledOffForReal.]]
-->'''Adele:''' Oh for F**K'S SAKE!!
* AttackOfThePoliticalAd: Most of their political sketches are exaggerated versions of common attack ads that appear during elections.
* AttentiveShadeLowering: The 1991 skit "Schmitt's Gay Beer" has a variation; Chris Farley flips up the lenses on his sunglasses with a dazed expression to gawk at a pool-going man.
* TheBackstageSketch: These happen occasionally, and tend to show the host preparing in his/her dressing room, cast members interacting with each other or Lorne Michaels, etc. Usually these are used as cold openings.
* BadBoss: One sketch involved guest star Creator/PierceBrosnan as a prospective employee who has second thoughts when his potential boss, Mr. Tarkanian (played by Will Ferrell), is a complete monster to his underlings. Mr. Tarkanian even ''murders'' an employee right in front of him.
* BadFuture: When Alec Baldwin is shown the future of 2011, he finds the term Baldwin is synonymous with crap, after his hosting sucked so bad. Realizing what an important responsibility hosting is, Alec asks to be taken back to the present, but discovers he is still in the present.
* BadSanta:
** Kenan as "Sumpn' Claus", who knows if you've been naughty enough to get yourself in trouble and does the nice thing by bailing you out with cash. Apparently he'd been booted from the North Pole due to... indiscretions with Mrs Claus. As for where the cash really comes from? [[NonAnswer Well we don't need to be talkin' about]] [[TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily that...]]
-->You sweatin' Santa's mad at you? What, you thought you were friends? [[WaxingLyrical He sees you when you're sleeping!]] ''That's weird!''
** The episode with the return of Creator/EddieMurphy is about a polar bear attack on Santa's workshop, linked directly to land development forcing said bears out of their natural habitat as well as shoddy fencing, all pinned on the big man himself.
-->Hashtag #santaknew!
** In 2020, a sketch has Santa receive letters from a manic fan who's a parody of "Stan" by Music/{{Eminem}}, down to driving in the rain with his girlfriend in the trunk. Santa just brushes him off.
* BaitAndSwitch:
** One ''Weekend Update'' pays tribute to Creator/BarbaraWalters as she retires from daytime tv by showing her iconic moments from tv, which are all really from past SNL sketches where Barbara was played by Gilda Radner, Rachel Dratch, Nasim Pedrad etc. Then Cecily announces Barbara Walters as a ''Weekend Update'' guest for that week... ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8chSHH96SY and it's the real Barbara Walters!]]''
** One sketch is about an elderly black inmate played by Kenan at his parole hearing -- you half expect him to be wrongfully incarcerated for all of the 40 years he's been in there, but it turns out the hearing is to move him to death row ''[[ImAHumanitarian for killing and eating another inmate.]]''
** A subtle case in the Weekend Update Summer Edition of 2017:
--->'''Michael''': "The opioid crisis began when doctors were allowed to prescribe more than they were required to. I had trouble sleeping once -- the doctor gave me a bottle of 100 Vicodins even though I only required 3. It was because of this that I became addicted to ''selling Vicodin.''"
** Mikey Day plays a man just extradited out of North Korea, and the US military puts him up at a hotel where the receptionist (SpecialGuest Kumail Nanjani) keeps bringing up the Stargazer Lounge in every other line. Considering the situation you half expect it to be SpySpeak, or even a trap with North K agents already in the place... it's really because the receptionist does double duty as lounge singer.
** There's a sketch about a WildTeenParty in season 45, with all the potential for shenanigans like someone rolling a blunt, the presence of beer and [[InstantSeduction this girl telling the guy "let's chill in your room"]]... but the real joke is a teacher (host Creator/WillFerrell) who invited himself to the party, just because he really, ''[[MoodWhiplash really]]'' didn't want to drink alone.
* BaitAndSwitchComparison: From one ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' sketch:
-->'''Sean Connery:''' "What's the difference between you and a mallard with a cold? One's a sick duck... [[SubvertedTrope I can't remember how it ends]] but [[YourMom your mother's a whore.]]"
* BallsGag: One of "The Delicious Dish" sketches has a guest named Pete Schweddy, who specializes in things like rum balls, popcorn balls, etc. It consists entirely of lines about "Schweddy balls," balls in mouths, and every other innuendo the writers could think of.
* BasicInstinctLegsCrossingParody:
** Sharon Stone hosted around the time ''Film/BasicInstinct'' was released and parodied her leg crossing in her opening monologue and we see the reactions of Creator/ChrisFarley, Creator/LorneMichaels and the ''SNL'' writers. From the same episode, there was a parody of the interrogation scene with [[AmbiguousGender Pat]] in the seat and did the leg crossing.
** When ''Film/BasicInstinct2'' was released, SNL also did a mock trailer sketch that revolved entirely around the interrogation scene, hyping "more hair pie", and subtitling it ''The Return of the Beaver''.
* BatterUp: In "The Joe Pesci Show" sketches, Pesci regularly finds some little thing to get angry about (in parody of ''Film/{{GoodFellas}}'') that ends with him pulling a baseball bat out from behind his desk and attacking his guest with it.
* BeatWithoutABut:
** During a ''Weekend Update'' bit, Michael Che seemingly begins to defend Creator/VinDiesel's poorly-received music career: "And look, I know a lot of people are making fun of him, and saying it's terrible, and he should stick to acting..." He stops there and goes on to the next joke.
** In the Season 47 Music/BillieEilish episode, a commercial for a HellHotel ends with the spokeswomen reciting the slogan, "We may not be the Ritz-Carlton..." and then just waving.
* BerserkButton: From "Natalie's Rap 2":
-->'''Beck''': I have to ask, have you seen the new ''Franchise/StarWars'' movies?\\
'''Natalie''': No...\\
'''Beck''': Oh, they're really good. They're better than...\\
'''Natalie''': (TranquilFury on) [[Film/ThePhantomMenace Better]] [[Film/AttackOfTheClones than]] [[Film/RevengeOfTheSith what?]]\\
'''Beck''': [[OhCrap ...sh*t.]]
* BeyondTheImpossible: The celebrities who play ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' are so bad that by the end of the first round, five-digit negative scores are the norm. Keep in mind, the sketches were mostly done before the clue values were doubled on the actual show at a time when such a feat could not be done.
%%* BigNo:
%%-->'''JOHN BELUSHI''': "But NOOOO! NOOOO!"
* BilingualBonus:
** In Season 20's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLVmybhXqtU Japanese Game Show]]" sketch, Creator/MikeMyers and the other actors playing the Japanese characters (host Creator/AlecBaldwin, Creator/JaneaneGarofalo, and Laura Kightlinger) are actually speaking Japanese (albeit with some of the pronunciation off due to them not being native speakers). The game's first question is "How many keys are on a piano?" with Creator/ChrisFarley's character correctly guessing "88" in Japanese.
** One sketch is set in an airport, where the boarding staff calls specifically for "Brazilian and Italian travelers pushing and shoving while understanding intermittent English". Among the gaggle of noisy boarders is Nasim Pedrad, who's actually yelling in ''Persian''.
** According to Laura Ingraham (Kate [=McKinnon=]), ''The Ingraham Angle'' is rerun on Telemundo (a South American network) as "La Madre del Diablo".
* BilingualDialogue: The episode with Creator/JasonMomoa has a sketch spoofing ''Series/GameOfThrones'', where Jason as Khal Drogo gets several lines in Dothraki. Even Brienne of Tarth (Heidi Gardner) can somehow understand him.
* BitingTheHandHumor:
** It seems like ''Weekend Update'' is the only segment with any license to do this:
--->'''Vanessa Bayer''': Billy Bush said some very naughty things and he's getting a few million dollars ''from this network!''\\
'''Colin Jost''': Trump will serve as executive producer of ''Celebrity Apprentice'' while remaining in office as President. It's a potential conflict of interests and highly illegal move -- only on NBC!
** From 1979 to 1981, the slogan for NBC was "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsxW06anUPo Proud as a Peacock]]", used to put a positive spin on the network's dismal third place in the Nielsen ratings. But none of the shows that were produced during that time period succeeded, and NBC's problems continued. In response, there was a feeling of embarrassment as it was clear that NBC was not as proud as the slogan suggested, and in true ''Saturday Night Live'' fashion, the crew of ''SNL'' lampooned the network's slogan as "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN9wJ75DjdA We're Loud]]" to vent their frustration, which did not sit well with network head Fred Silverman, who was responsible for the network's problems and demanded that the parody be purged, which it never was (the quality was not that great anyway).
** The very same thing happened again for the 1981-82 season, the network's slogan was changed to "Our Pride is Showing", but problems persisted, and again, it was parodied on ''SNL'', this time as "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7XlPV5Hyqs Our Age is Showing]]".
* BlackComedyBurst:
** For a show like ''SNL'' that prides itself in being funny without being mean, sometimes they will delve into dark humor to make their point (or to get a rise out of the audience). On a documentary special about ''SNL'' in the 2000s, Horatio Sanz has said that if a joke in a sketch made the audience groan in disgust, then the writers did a good job.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzOrj3LiT38 The Couples Quiz sketch]] piles on the ToiletHumor with host Creator/JonahHill accused of clogging the toilet -- the real reason the host is so irate is because the building is a historical landmark, and any plumbing work has to be cleared with a preservation board. The reason the building is landmarked? Film/TheBlackDahlia was found in the parking lot.
* {{Blackmail}}:
** The ending of "Teacher Snow Day".
--->'''Student''': Oh I'm totally passing chemistry now. (takes out his camera phone and starts snapping)
** The Creator/AlecBaldwin episode in 2017 has Alec implying that he got the recurring Donald Trump role by being "in the back seat of a car when Lorne Michaels ran over an orange stand".
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSBpvh4y_lU The Dundee sisters]] (Kate, Cecily and host Creator/AmyAdams). [[spoiler:Likely justified as they're really three raccoons in human form, working with a general outline of what humans are like.]]
* BloodyHilarious:
** In a Season 4 sketch, Creator/DanAykroyd plays famous TV chef Creator/JuliaChild -- who accidentally cuts "the dickens out of my finger!" and proceeds to bleed to death.
** The season 38 sketch on the episode hosted by Kristen Wiig about an acupuncture session gone horribly wrong used this to particularly chilling effect.
** From the season 41 finale, a parody of ''Film/DeadPoetsSociety'' where [[spoiler:the part where everyone stands on their tables has one guy who stands up under the ceiling fan...]]
** The Season 43 episode hosted by James Franco has a sketch about a gift wrapper who slices his finger and gets blood everywhere while further mutilating himself.
* BodyHorror:
%%** Massive Headwound Harry.
** Kate McKinnon as Debette Goldry, a now-geriatric movie star from older, harsher times, reveals that she once had to make ends meet by ''selling her ribs''.
--->''(hefting her actual breasts)'' "These are my ''lungs''!"
%%* BoldlyComing: Creator/DonaldGlover as [[Film/{{Solo}} young Lando Calrissian]] (which turns out to be canon!)
* BookEnds: The episode after UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump won the 2016 election opened with [[Creator/KateMcKinnon Kate McKinnon's]] Hillary Clinton singing and playing [[Music/LeonardCohen "Hallelujah"]] on a piano in an uncharacteristically somber moment for the show. After Trump lost the 2020 election, the cold open included [[Creator/AlecBaldwin Alec Baldwin's]] Trump comically singing a funeral dirge version of [[Music/TheVillagePeople "Macho Man"]], again on a piano.
* BoringBroadcaster: The "Delicious Dish" sketches, a send-up of dull public radio shows.
* BottomlessMagazines: The dueling pistols from "The Duel" which misfire and keep going off ''way more times than flintlock pistols logically should.''
* {{Bouncer}}: In the penultimate Season 46 episode Creator/KenanThompson and Creator/KeeganMichaelKey play bouncers for the theater on ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' who beat up Statler and Waldorf for heckling.
* BrainBleach: From ''Weekend Update Summer Edition'':
-->'''Colin''': A 10-year-old boy in Louisiana is being honored for saving his mother's life when she prematurely went into labor and he helped to deliver his baby brother. Doctors say the baby is healthy, but it is unlikely the son and his mother ''will ever make eye contact again.''
* BrainlessBeauty:
%%** Cecily Strong's Weekend Update character "The Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started A Conversation With At a Party".
** A Cecily character, a former porn star who does commercials with a friend (played by Vanessa Bayer) after her career in the industry. Initially, she just can't remember her name. In a later skit, she seems to have forgotten the very ''concept'' of names.
--->'''Vanessa's character''': Hi, I'm Brookie.\\
'''[[DumbBlonde Cecily's character]]''': And you can, too.
* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: A spoof MTV bumper from the broadcast with John Cena:
-->"At 6, it's ''Series/TeenMom''. At 7, it's ''Series/TeenWolf''. And at 8, it's ''Teen Wolf Mom''.
* BreakingTheFourthWall:
** The Lawrence Welk sketch at the end of season 37 has surprise guest Creator/JohnHamm as an Italian singer, attempting the accent and heaping all the stereotypes about what he's been eating like cannolis, before briefly dropping it and going "you all get that I'm Italian, right?"
** In a ''Series/StrangerThings'' sketch from the Natalie Portman/Dua Lipa episode, several other creations like Eleven show off their powers and drawbacks. Kenan plays the last one, who always knows the perfect way to end a sketch.
** During the 2020-21 season, KateMcKinnon debuted a new character on Weekend Update, "Dr. Weknowdis." The segment inevitably ends with Colin addressing Kate directly and her popping out of character.
* BreakingTheGlassCeiling: Parodied during the Baseball Strike of 1994 and 1995. They had a series of shorts shot as a documentary on Replacement Baseball. (To those who don't remember, that was when the teams brought in new players to replace the striking ones.) One short shows the breaking of the color barrier... a few minutes after they started hiring players. The gender barrier fell a few minutes later.
* BreastAttack: Creator/JenniferAniston's opening monologue involves her and Creator/MollyShannon starting a fight by attacking each other's boobs, in a promotion/lampooning of Film/FightClub, which Creator/BradPitt, Aniston's boyfriend at the time, had the lead role in.
* BrickJoke:
** The first episode had as part of "Weekend Update" a joke-free segment in which Laraine Newman reports to Chevy Chase about a series of 38 serial murders at the Blaine Hotel. At the end of "Weekend Update", announcer Don Pardo says "Guests of 'Saturday Night' stay at the fabulous Blaine Hotel!"
** The Season 37 finale was hosted by none other than [[Music/TheRollingSTonesBand Mick Jagger]], who mentions that he'd been in contact with a restaurant that named itself after a Stones classic, ''Ruby Tuesday''. It's also Kristen Wiig's last week on the show, so they end the episode by serenading her with -- you guessed it -- ''Ruby Tuesday''.
** The cold open of Season 42's Alec Baldwin episode has Press Secretary Sean Spicer (Melissa [=McCarthy=]) tell the press that President Donald Trump will take the appeals court that stopped his travel ban to ''The People's Court''. A later sketch has Trump (Baldwin) on ''The People's Court'' doing just that.
** Also from season 42, the RunningGag of Leslie Jones and Kyle Mooney's "blossoming relationship" [[SerialEscalation led to Leslie spending too much time at work with Colin Jost, causing Kyle to descend into depression and jealousy and shooting Colin in both legs.]] At the end of the episode, Colin appears ''on crutches''.
** When Music/TheWeeknd appeared in season 41, Weekend Update did a deliberate CutawayGag titled "The Weeknd Update", just showing what The Weeknd is doing in the green room and that's it. When he comes back for the premiere of season 42, they do it again. Then he returned again for season 45, airing during the coronavirus outbreak... ''and they do it again!''
--->'''The Weeknd''': I feel good. ({{beat}}, [[BlackComedy then suddenly coughs]])
** Season 42 made a RunningGag out of casting a Grim Reaper type as Steve Bannon -- one ColdOpen in season 43 spoofs ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', and when the ghost of Christmas yet to Come appears, Donald Trump assumes it's Steve Bannon. [[spoiler:It's Hilary Clinton under the hood.]]
** Creator/JohnMulaney's monologue in season 43 has him mentioning one of his primary inspirations, Creator/PatrickStewart, who got to host once and inexplicably went all Shakespearan when announcing the musical guest -- Music/SaltNPepa -- as "[[SuddenlyShouting Salt 'n' PEPA!!]]" Later in that episode, John introduces the musical guest Jack White in the exact same fashion.
** The episode with Music/JenniferLopez has a sketch about a cheap commercial for hoop earrings, which J-Lo mentions that you have to take off before you get into a fight. One week later, the ColdOpen covers the Democratic candidates' debate and ends with a surprise appearance from Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump, who'd been backstage hearing them badmouthing him like it was a reality show -- cue Donald storming on stage ''while taking his hoop earrings off.''
* BritishStuffiness: Parodied in the Season 45 sketch "The War in Words: William and Lydia", where a [=WW2=] RAF fighter pilot (Mikey Day) writes heartfelt letters to his wife at home (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), and she replies with letters that consist of one word. It gets more and more surreal as she cuts off most of her hair and shows up in the background of a newsreel featuring Hitler.
-->'''Lydia''': [''writing''] Dear William. Oh, I see? So when you talk to some French whore, it's "It was nothing, move on." But when I go to a party where there happens to be a man, it's "I demand an explanation"? \\
'''William''': [''reading her letter''] YES BECAUSE IT'S HITLER!\\
'''Lydia''': [''writing''] I am only glad your father is not alive to see what a hypocrite you've become. Love, Lydia.\\
'''William''': [''writing''] Darling Lydia, Has my father passed away?! This is the first I'm hearing of this! How did he go? Also, still rabidly curious about the Hitler of it all. Answers, please, William.
* BroadcastLive: From New York. Through the April 8, 2017 show, only the Eastern and Central time zones actually ''see'' it live; other U.S. time zones get it on tape delay. Starting April 15, the Mountain and Pacific time zones will get it live as well.
* BrokenRecord: Will Ferrell's character in the "Wake Up and Smile" sketch undergoes this when the teleprompter is on the fritz. "I understand you've got some cooking tips for us, Diane. I understand you've got some cooking tips for us, Diane. I understand you've got some cooking tips for us, Diane." (etc)
* TheBusCameBack: In the Season 47 episode hosted by Paul Rudd near the end of 2021, Tina Fey returned as an anchor for ''Weekend Update'' for the first time since 2006, filling in for Colin Jost who was absent for the episode.
* ButtMonkey:
** Mr. Bill, the adorable little Claymation man who always dies a horrible death.
** The Colin Jost/Michael Che era of Weekend Update has Jost filling this role, thanks to Che frequently doing jokes that make Jost look bad as well as guests frequently causing him to suffer some kind of embarrassment, such as Jeanine Pirro vomiting wine on him.
* CallBack:
** In the Creator/DonRickles episode, the character he was playing chewed out Joe Piscopo for slapping him in an earlier sketch.
** In the Kevin Hart episode there's a filmed ParodyCommercial for the Z-Shirt. Hart's character asks "Is it an A-Shirt? Is it a B-Shirt?" etc., much to the annoyance of his on-air friend played by Tim Robinson. Later in the episode Robinson is playing a mourner at his mother's funeral who is saying a few words about the departed when Hart jumps in: "Is it an X-Shirt? Is it a Y-Shirt?"
** The "Leslie Wants to Play Trump" sketch from Season 42's Alec Baldwin episode continues with the Leslie Jones/Kyle Mooney relationship from the "Love and Leslie" sketch in the Dave Chappelle episode earlier that season.
** Natalie Portman's appearance in season 43 includes a followup to the popular "Natalie's Rap" from her previous appearance ''12 years ago.'' Complete with surprise appearance by Andy Samberg!
--->'''Beck:''' [[LampshadeHanging So, basically the same, but with updated references.]]
** Bobby Moynihan plays an overdramatic dancing cat from ''Theatre/{{Cats}}'' in the Season 34 "Save Broadway" sketch, and in a Season 42 "Whiskers R We" sketch, he wears the same costume and keeps spinning (though in this case, he isn't an actual actor or cat, just a "crazy person").
** ''Weekend Update'' in season 47 referenced the case of [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome missing white women getting way more attention than others]], with Ego Nwodim as a black woman who's been missing for 10 years. Apparently the media back then deliberately used a less flattering photo of her -- which just happened to be Ego as a [[Film/{{Us}} Tethered]] from a past sketch.
** During the ending credits of Creator/MacaulayCulkin's hosting gig in Season 17, he and his brother Creator/{{Kieran|Culkin}} were both lifted up in the air by the cast members. When Kieran hosted the show himself 30 years later, he was once again lifted up by the cast members when the credits started rolling.
** One unique to season 48 involves Creator/PedroPascal as a teacher complaining that the students are making fancam content about him online, and he shows an example with him in a music video without his consent. The song used is "Big Boy" with Creator/KekePalmer and Music/{{SZA}}, from an episode before the midseason break.
* CameraAbuse: Occurs in a several sketches (not always intentionally). During Jim Breuer's tenure, ''The Creator/JoePesci Show'' segments would always conclude with Joe or one of his guests confronting the cameraman and "breaking" the camera lens.
* CannotConveySarcasm: Angela Merkel, on one of the Weekend Updates, tries a little too hard.
-->'''Jost:''' I have to ask: are you worried at all about the rise of nationalism in America and Europe?\\
'''Merkel:''' ''(rolling eyes)'' [=NaaaaAAAOOooo=]! ''Nationalism'' in Europe? ''(snort)'' What could go wro-o-ong? ''({{Beat}})'' Sorry, that was ze first German attempt at sarcasm. I'll work on it.
* CannotKeepASecret: Kristen Wiig as the Surprise Lady. She will resort to ''self harm.''
* CaptainErsatz:
** The recurring "talking posters" sketch headlined by Pete Davidson and guest Creator/EmmaStone involves posters with characters that are bootlegs of known ones, like Kenan and newcomer Ego Nwodim as not-Film/{{Black Panther|2018}} and Okoye.
** Bowen Yang is actually StraightGay, but gets saddled with AlwaysCamp roles that combined with his nasal voice make him look like SNL's Creator/KenJeong.
** The game show sketch from the episode with Creator/JennaOrtega involves a regular teacher and students pitted against the not-ComicBook/XMen, with Mikey Day as "Professor Xander", and their school crest being part of a double helix that just happens to look like an X.
* CardboardBoxOfUnemployment:
** This [[https://www.recode.net/2018/1/28/16942350/will-ferrell-saturday-night-live-snl-clip-next-deodorant-ad-timesup-metoo-harassment skit]] that first aired during the January 27, 2018 show featured Creator/WillFerrell as an office worker advertising a deodorant for men "who are feeling the heat because their time's up" (i.e. men who have been outed as harassers and abusers by the "Me Too" movement). As the fake commercial comes to a close, Ferrell's character marches into the office elevator with a bankers box (laden with a plant, a cup of pencils, and various other office paraphernalia) in his arms and announces that he's been fired.
---> '''Office Woman''': You're disgusting.\\
'''Office Man''': But my pits aren't!\\
'''Office Man''' (to another elevator passenger): [[NarratingTheObvious I got fired]].
** The following season covers the firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions with Kate [=McKinnon=] as Jeff revealing that he already has a box prepared for it.
--->"It's the same one I was born in!"
* CasanovaWannabe: A good amount of recurring characters are sleazy men trying to get laid and failing. Some examples include: Chris Parnell's "Merv the Perv" (and his brother, Irv, played by episode host Johnny Knoxville), Creator/ChristopherWalken's "The Continental" (mixed in with HandsomeLech), The Roxbury Guys (Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan), and The Wild and Crazy Guys (Creator/DanAykroyd and Steve Martin).
* CastingGag:
** The cold open from the 2018 John Mulaney episode had Creator/RobertDeNiro as Robert Mueller interrogating Creator/BenStiller as Michael Cohen in a take-off on their 2000 film ''Film/MeetTheParents''.
** The first surprise guest of 2020 is Creator/JonLovitz in the role of Alan Dershowitz, who goes into a seizure and is briefly clinically dead, whereupon he goes to hell and meets Satan, who's played by Kate [=McKinnon=] here. It's also one of Jon's recurring roles during his tenure.
* {{Catapult}}: The laser cats from... "Laser Cats" are a variant. While the cats aren't being launched, they are themselves guns.
* CatchPhrase: The most enduring one is, of course, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", but it was the biggest single meme generator in the pre-Internet days of entertainment. Even today in the age of the Internet, it still generates memes and catchphrases and has adapted well to the era where most people find their humor online rather than on TV.
* CelebritiesHangOutInHeaven: The ''Behind the Music'' on Rock and Roll Heaven. Val Kilmer even reprises his role as [[Music/TheDoors Jim Morrison]] in ''Film/{{The Doors|1991}}''.
* CelebrityParadox: A lot of sketches have the celebrity host, musical guest, or special guest star meeting a cast member's take on that celebrity.
** Jimmy Fallon playing Music/MickJagger's reflection on the Creator/HughJackman episode from Season 27.
** The real Governor UsefulNotes/DavidPaterson confronted Fred Armisen's take on him in one sketch to speak out against the cheap shots about him being legally blind.
** Steve Forbes participated in "Forbes on Forbes" (with Mark [=McKinney=] as Steve Forbes) whose lampshade was so thin it falls just short of BetterThanABareBulb.
** The short-lived but still funny "Joe Pesci Show" ended with the real Creator/JoePesci and Creator/RobertDeNiro beating the snot out of Jim Breuer and Colin Quinn respectively for their parodies of them.
** Another "Pesci" skit had Creator/JimCarrey playing Creator/JimmyStewart, while Mark [=McKinney=] played … Jim Carrey. Sure enough, Jimmy Stewart was nothing but disgusted and irritated with Jim Carrey's antics.
** The ''Miley Cyrus Show'' sketches where Music/MileyCyrus herself (the week's host) played Music/JustinBieber to Vanessa Bayer's Miley, then the episode with Bieber as host playing a Miley Cyrus fan club runner who takes potshots at Justin as he's being "interviewed" by Bayer as Miley. In a 2013 episode featuring Miley as host, filmed not long after her controversial performance at that year's MTV Video Music Awards, the episode would begin with a sketch where "old Miley" (played by Bayer) time travels backstage at the VMA's to warn Cyrus not to perform. The duo would sing a verse from "I Miss You" from ''Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus'' at the end of the sketch.
** In a recurring Weekend Update segment called "In the Cage with Nicolas Cage", in which Nicolas Cage (Andy Samberg) discusses new movies with their stars, he ends up talking to... Nicolas Cage. This is explained as the result of CloningBlues.
** In the early '90's, the show sometimes imitated the political talk show ''Series/TheMcLaughlinGroup''. For Halloween 1991, Dana Carvey as usual was playing John, when he gets "killed" and replaced by the real John [=McLaughlin=].
** In one musical performance in TheSeventies, Creator/JohnBelushi impersonated Joe Cocker singing "Feelin' Alright" next to the real Joe Cocker.
** There was an early 90s sketch about former child starts gone wrong that featured, among others, Creator/DavidSpade as Creator/MichaelJFox … and Michael J. Fox (who was the episode's host) as Danny Bonaduce.
** The last time Will Ferrell played Alex Trebek on a "Celebrity Jeopardy!" sketch as a regular cast member, the real Alex comes out and stands next to him.
** For the "What Up With That?" sketches, one of the recurring guests is Creator/BillHader as [[Music/FleetwoodMac Lindsey Buckingham]]. During one sketch, Music/PaulSimon brings the real Lindsey Buckingham on set with him, to which the show host exclaims, "I didn't know there was TWO Lindsey Buckinghams!"
** After Creator/TinaFey returned to the show for what would be her famous portrayal of UsefulNotes/SarahPalin, it didn't take long for the real Palin to appear alongside her in an episode … and Fey's ''Series/ThirtyRock'' co-star Creator/AlecBaldwin confuses Palin for Fey.[[note]]Though Fey made a conscious decision to beat a hasty retreat when Palin appeared onstage, as Fey actually wanted to avoid the "celebrity appears next to his impersonator" trope.[[/note]] There was also a previous example regarding Fey as Palin that ''wasn't'' the usual "celebrity appears next to his impersonator" when Fey's Palin appeared alongside [[UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton Hillary Clinton]] (Creator/AmyPoehler); when Clinton starts to complain that she scratched and crawled for her political career while Palin being handpicked to be the Republican vice-presidential nominee instantly shot her into national stardom, she also scolds Palin being found charming with "your Tina Fey glasses!"
* CheekCopy: A fake commercial advertises the Xerox 790 Assjet, a copier designed exclusively to solve the problems resulting from copying your ass with a normal machine.
* ClassicallyTrainedExtra: One sketch about the making of an episode of ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'' has Pete Davidson as a British thespian who's saddled with the role of cadaver in a morgue -- and insists on ''not'' remaining still, either letting out weird whale sounds or just convulsing as the dead body is supposedly expelling gases at the time.
-->'''Pete:''' I lived in a morgue for three months...\\
'''Director:''' ''Why?!''
* CharacterAsHimself: Featured cast member Don Novello would often be introduced in the opening as Father Guido Sarducci.
* CharacterizingSittingPose: In one sketch in season 1 episode 8 (host Creator/CandaceBergen), Creator/ChevyChase plays an elf. During the sketch, he repeatedly crouches on a sofa and a table in an odd manner to show his elf nature. After his father is revealed to also be an elf, the father crouches on the couch too.
* ChurchOfHappyology: A Season 40 sketch parodied Scientology's 1990 "We Stand Tall" music video by producing a music video by the fictional church of Neurotology, which believes aliens live inside people's minds and charges $20,000 to scan people's minds. Said video was supposedly [[{{Retraux}} filmed in 1990]], but has been updated to note how many of the people singing in the video have since left the church, gone missing, gone insane, died, or otherwise suffered under the church. Most audaciously, one of the members left Neurotology to join Scientology!
* ClipShow: Because the positive COVID-19 cases within the show's cast and crew threw things for a loop, the Paul Rudd-hosted episode in Seson 47 was this. The only live sketch was the episode's edition on ''wekend Update'', but with Creator/TinaFey filling in for Colin Jost.
* {{Cliffhanger}}: Season 11 ended with a sketch in which [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams Yankees]] manager Billy Martin set fire to the studio while onscreen titles wondered which cast members would return. Originally, the cliffhanger was never going to be resolved, as NBC pushed Lorne Michaels to cancel ''SNL'' due to low ratings. When Lorne convinced the higher-ups that he can do better with a better cast (including some cast members from Season 11 who proved to be stand-outs in a mediocre season), the cliffhanger -- and everything about Season 11 -- was written off as a bad dream during the Season 12 premiere, parodying what ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' did to undo an unpopular season just weeks before.
* ClothesForChristmasCringe: One sketch features a family on Christmas morning and the father, son, and daughter excitedly showing off all their new, expensive gifts. Meanwhile, the mother (host Creator/KristenWiig), who obviously bought all of those gifts herself, miserably reveals she received a bathrobe and nothing else, not even any stocking stuffers.
* ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: When ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' sketches are uploaded to the show's official Website/YouTube account, all instances the "Think!" music are replaced with generic cues. It's especially grating during Final Jeopardy! due to Alex's commentary being silenced or jumbled.
* ColdOpen: Nearly every episode (including anniversary specials and clip shows) have these. Most are political (usually a special message from the U.S. President or a government official/leader from another country, or a special press conference as aired on a cable news network), some focus on recurring characters, few are one-shots that have to do with a current event, and a handful of them take place backstage before the show starts.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The Creator/JonahHill episode in 2016 has one sketch about a murder mystery that basically homages ''TabletopGame/{{Cluedo}}'', with exactly six suspects, half male half female, all wearing different colors.
* ComicallyIneptHealing: The sketches about "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodoric_of_York,_Medieval_Barber Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber]]'' (played by Creator/SteveMartin). He would order his patients to undergo bloodletting or some other medieval quackery, usually resulting in their disability or death.
* TheComicallySerious: Lorne Michaels' on-air personality is not only famous for how dry he acts, but also for the fact he has almost never lost his composure (he only did once, on the first time Creator/HughLaurie hosted on season 32, and ''that'' was because of a botched cue that happened off-screen).
* ComicallySmallBribe: In one early episode, Lorne Michaels came on to offer Music/TheBeatles a check for $3,000 to reunite on the show (a few episodes later, he offers to "sweeten the pot" to $3200). Music/JohnLennon and Music/PaulMcCartney, who both happened to be in New York that night and saw the bit on TV, nearly went down to the studio for a surprise visit. Turned into a RunningGag — whenever an ex-Beatles member later appeared on the show as a musical guest, they would usually be shown trying to extract the promised cash from Lorne. (Music/GeorgeHarrison: "$750 is pretty chintzy.")
--> '''Michaels''': If you want to give Ringo less, it's up to you.
* CommercialBreakCliffhanger: Parodied in the "Super Showcase" sketch, which starts off with the host (Creator/BillHader) saying that the contestant (Vanessa Bayer) answered "beef" before commercials, and reveals the right answer -- "nine". We never learn just ''what'' the question could have been.
* CommutingOnABus: Numerous former cast members have returned to the show, either to host or to guest star in sketches.
* CompensatingForSomething:
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrp3Gxbich4 "guy who just bought a boat" that Colin Jost interviews on a Weekend Update]] explicitly says between ridiculous Connecticut slang that he has a small penis.
** Also from Weekend Update:
--->'''Cecily''': Plans were announced this week for the world's first Ferrari hotel to open in Spain in 2016, in the new [=FerrariLand=] theme park. It's the only theme park where your penis must be ''this small'' to ride the rides.
* CompetingProductPotshot:
** The show ran a sketch during Toyota's unintended acceleration controversy showing a couple getting into their Prius...and then hurtling down the road uncontrollably. The commercial ends with the Ford logo and the announcer saying "Ford. We make hybrids too."
** [[https://youtu.be/kwCQDbzBerI Another sketch]] parodied a Pizza Hut ad in which [[ProductSwitcherooAd the high-end Italian spaghetti the customers were eating turns out to be from Pizza Hut]]. In the sketch, the customers freak out over being lied to, and in the end, [[CommercialSwitcheroo it turns out to be an ad for Domino's]], with the tagline "At least we're not liars."
* CompletelyOffTopicReport: Gilda Radner had two characters for whom this was their entire schtick, both commentators on "Weekend Update". One was Emily Litella, who, being hard of hearing as well as a bit naive, always misunderstood the topic she was supposed to be speaking about (too much violence on television, for instance) and ends up discussing a different topic (too much ''violins'' on television). When told of her mistake, she would the drop the topic entirely, ending with her CatchPhrase "Never mind." The other character, Roseanne Roseannadana, would always veer from the original subject and into some embarrassing, graphically disgusting personal anecdote. When told what that had to do with the original topic, she responded with her own CatchPhrase, "It's always something."
* ContinuityNod: Creator/BillHader's Stefon character first appeared in 2008 in skit where he and his brother (played by Creator/BenAffleck) try to pitch a movie. Fast forward to a 2013 Weekend Update sketch where Seth Meyers breaks up Stefon's marriage to Anderson Cooper and convinces Stefon to run away with him. Affleck returns as Stefon's brother encouraging him to follow his heart.
* ContinuityPorn: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIwGLWAsgrQ The 100th SNL Digital Short]] is wall-to-wall references from previous Digital Shorts.
* ContraceptionDeception: Discussed. Back when Pete Davidson was dating Music/ArianaGrande, he joked about replacing her birth control with sugar pills because he was so afraid she would leave him.
* ContraltoOfDanger:
** Creator/KateMcKinnon's voice can dance across several vocal registers including this, which also seems to be Cecily Strong's default voice. Both of them can sing too.
** Leslie Jones can channel her naturally deep voice into this for the role of Oprah Winfrey.
* ControlFreak: Jimmy Fallon as [[Music/TheBeeGees Barry "Effing" Gibb]], who is both this and a HairTriggerTemper who gets enraged at everything, including his guests. Well, except for his brother Robin.
* CountryMatters: The most glaring example to date would be Fred Armisen as British punk rocker Ian Rubbish, responsible for the rebellious punk hit "C**t in a Crown".
* CoveredInGunge: Considering that everyone has to get cleaned up by the next sketch, they do this ''way'' too often.
** The episode with Creator/CharlizeTheron had a spoof of 60s beach movies, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSlQ-_bnU94 Bikini Beach Party]], which involved a beached whale that's slowly inflating with methane gas. No prizes for guessing what happens to the two "teens" hoping to use it as MakeoutPoint.
** The game show "Just Desserts" is blatantly rigged to ensure that every PieInTheFace goes into just one person's face -- Creator/MelissaMcCarthy.
** Creator/JamesFranco in the "Gift Wrapping" sketch not only 'cuts' himself way too many times, but gushes ''gallons'' of fake blood all over Leslie Jones.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWiG3LirUDk One sketch]] in 2022 was about how the use of slime on Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} (via ''Series/YouCantDoThatOnTelevision'') got started, so obviously this was going to happen eventually -- after showing how failed versions of sliming went, from huge green lumps being dropped on the actors to ''shotgun blasts'' of slime in their faces.
* CrazyPrepared: The point of the [[http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/tom-brokaw-pre-tapes/n10894 Tom Brokaw pre-tapes sketch.]] Brokaw is recording death notices for President UsefulNotes/GeraldFord for every possible cause of death, including zombie UsefulNotes/RichardNixon strangling him!
* CreepyUncle: Creator/BuckHenry's "Uncle Roy" character from the earliest seasons.
* {{Crossover}}: A minor case with the season 39 premiere, which starts with Barack Obama bringing in some civilians to better explain Obamacare -- one of them is unannounced SpecialGuest Aaron Paul, fully in character as Jesse Pinkman, explaining how the lack of Obamacare led to the very premise of ''Series/BreakingBad''.
* CueCardPause:
** RecurringCharacter Tim Calhoun, a senator who runs for president. He's got his speeches on index cards but for some reason only part of a sentence is on a given card. For example (during the Mark Foley sex scandal, where Foley had sent sexually explicit text messages to underage congressional pages):
--->'''Tim Calhoun:''' I have touched many pages in my life... because I am a voracious reader... of child pornography... studies. Illustrated studies.
** During Weekend Updates in the Colin Jose/Michael Che era, they've had "Supercentenarian Mort Fallen" (Mikey Day) on as a guest. He reads what sounds like upbeat news about what his cohorts are up to, only to turn it into bad news, usually about the person's death.
--->'''Colin:''' Are there any headlines you got there about ''living'' supercentenarians?\\
'''Mort:''' Oh yeah. Lifelong bachelor 111-year-old Mel Thomas became the country's oldest newlywed last week when he married 99-year-old Ethel Birmingham...\\
'''Colin:''' Cradle-robber, right?\\
'''Mort:''' ...on her deathbed.\\
'''Colin:''' [[LampshadeHanging Don't pause.]]
* CurseCutShort: When Seann William Scott hosted, the host on stage sketchwas talking about the semen in the beer joke in ''Film/AmericanPie''. He claims to have a lot of family who have been actors and all the sketches are based on the same joke. One of the pieces is a silent movie where Horatio Sanz's character ruined the beer. Seann dry heaves and clearly mouths "motherfu-" before a word card claims he's saying "darn you!"
* CurtainCall: Each individual episode ends like a theatre show with the entire cast and any guest stars (and musicians in the guest band) gathering on the stage, with the ending theme music playing.
* DarkLordOnLifeSupport: Invoked with Creator/AdamDriver as malevolant oil baron Abraham H Parnassus, who claims he was born premature in a time period where medical technology simply couldn't deal with it, and his treatment involved putting him in a steel pot until he was old enough to crawl out, and despite living to a ripe old age, needs a cane. Worth noting is that Adam's best known role is a [[Franchise/StarWars Sith Lord]], and grandson of the TropeCodifier.
* DarkParody:
** In "You're a Champion, [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Charlie Brown]]", after Charlie Brown falls on his back as usual, he gets seriously injured on his head and dies. All Linus and Franklin can do is despair and yell at Lucy that it's her fault.
** In "Clark Kent", Superman is so incompetent that everyone else in the Daily Planet is so sick of having him around that they convince him to (accidentally) kill someone by pretending the person was a super-villain so he'd go to jail and be out of the way.
** From the tail end of 2020 comes "Stu", a parody of [[Music/{{Enimen}] "Stan"]] that somehow manages to get even darker than the source material with a CruelTwistEnding. [[spoiler:The long-suffering wife played by Music/{{Dido}} originally (and Kate [=McKinnon=] here) had managed to secure a [=PS5=] well ahead of time as a surprise gift, but]] the rest of the video plays out just like the original, up to Stu driving in the rain (but on a fifth of eggnog instead of vodka).
* DarkerAndEdgier:
** Parodied in "Grouch", a movie trailer for a ''Film/{{Joker|2019}}''-style origin in which a well-meaning garbageman (Creator/DavidHarbour) is gradually driven by the depravities of ''Series/SesameStreet'' to become Oscar the Grouch.
** Invoked in "Mario Kart Trailer", where Nintendo decides to [[FollowTheLeader follow in the footsteps]] of ''Series/TheLastOfUs2023'' for its adaptation of the decidedly unserious ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' franchise and cast Creator/PedroPascal as Mario, a grizzled ex-kart driver tasked with driving Princess Peach through a post-apocalyptic Mushroom Kingdom.
* DeadlineNews: The "North Pole News Report" from the episode hosted by Creator/EddieMurphy, which starts with a elf reporter (Mikey Day) on the scene at Santa's Workshop, trying to get to the cause of a sudden fire, with Eddie revealing that there were fatalities that weren't fire-related. It ends with Mikey being attacked by the real cause, a polar bear.
* DealWithTheDevil:
** In the first TV Funhouse "Anatominals" short, Creator/LorneMichaels views the skit and is disgusted what the show has sunk to, and calls up Satan to get out of his contract of keeping the show running if he gets his soul. After getting a glimpse of what Lorne's life would be like without ''SNL'' (he provides foreign aid), he rescinds his offer and lets Satan keep his soul after all.
** A ''People's Court'' parody had a hairdresser take the devil (Creator/JonLovitz) to court for violating their contract.
** One sketch centers around a struggling musician (Music/GarthBrooks) agreeing to sell his soul to the devil (Creator/WillFerrell) in exchange for a hit song that will make him a star. However, it quickly turns out the devil has no musical talent whatsoever so the musician backs out of the deal.
** When Creator/JasonSudeikis hosted in Season 47, he reprised his Devil character on ''Weekend Update'' and revealed that Creator/ColinJost made a deal with him to marry Creator/ScarlettJohansson.
* DeconstructiveParody:
** Most of their TV show or movie parodies rip apart the logistics behind certain plotholes, tropes (as in "cliched plot devices," some of which can be found on this website), and character traits. Case in point: [[http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/the-avengers/1424374/ The Avengers sketch]], with Creator/JeremyRenner as Hawkeye. The parody centered on why an archer who doesn't have any superpowers would need to be in a superhero group (especially one that has a super soldier, a radioactive monster, and a Norse god) and what would happen if he ran out of ammo.
** The recurring sketch "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood" was one for "Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood" by taking the latter show's format and placing it in a crime ridden inner city neighborhood rather than small town suburbia.
** The "You're A Champion, Charlie Brown" sketch from the Season 24 episode hosted by Creator/BrendanFraser gives a realistic and depressing spin on the old "Lucy pulls the football away from Charlie Brown" gag, in that Charlie Brown ends up with a severe head wound and the sketch ends with Lucy, Linus, and Franklin sobbing as Charlie Brown lays dying.
** "Friendos" from season 43 deconstructs the BoastfulRap, with Kenan, Chris Redd and SpecialGuest Creator/DonaldGlover as a send-up of Music/{{Migos}}, who have been trying to [[ConspicuousConsumption out-pimp]] each other for so long that they have to attend group therapy.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance:
** Creator/KateMcKinnon as Debette Goldry, a now-geriatric screen diva from the 1940s, recounts her experiences in the era of filmmaking from before political correctness, which are much more jarring than she makes them sound. Basically it sounds like women on the set were little more than [[CastingCouch glamorised sex slaves,]] ''aand categorised under Inventory.''
** The Creator/ChadwickBoseman episode features him portraying [[Film/BlackPanther2018 King T'Challa]] competing on "Black Jeopardy" and highlighting the cultural and life differences between Wakandans and African-Americans.
--->'''Darnell:''' You send your smart-ass child here ’cause she think she grown\\
'''T'Challa:''' What is to one of our free universities where she can apply her intelligence, and perhaps one day become a great scientist.\\
'''Darnell:''' Okay. Well, the answer we was looking for was “out my damn house.” But you know what, I’m going to give it to you, T’Challa. Y’all must have no mean streets in Wakanda.
** Zigzagged in the Creator/EddieMurphy episode, where Eddie resurrected a whole string of his past characters (over 30 years ago!), showing how they don't really line up with today's values anymore -- until it's revealed that Mr Robinson's neighborhood has changed without him, and even ChivalrousPervert Velvet Jones has taken a different approach to his usual self-help books for unabashed sluts (just updating the packaging really).
* DemotedToExtra:
** George Coe, who was in his mid-forties, was hired to be one of the original Not Ready For Primetime Players in 1975, and was billed along with the rest of them. The idea was for him to play the "older male" part in sketches, but that was deemed to be unnecessary and Coe was dropped from the regular cast after only three episodes. However, he continued to get occasional guest parts through 1976.
** Yvonne Hudson was the first black woman to be an ''SNL'' cast member, though she was credited as a featured player. (A black female repertory player wouldn't be seen until Danitra Vance was hired in 1985, and even still, it would be a while before ''SNL'' would have a black female cast member who lasted more than a season [Ellen Cleghorne] and who became popular outside of ''SNL'' [Creator/MayaRudolph and, hopefully, Sasheer Zamata[[note]]Leslie Jones was already an established stand-up comic before being hired as a writer and a cast member, but she has become more famous now than she did before she was hired thanks to her Weekend Update commentary[[/note]]].) Sadly, it was during the disastrous 1980-81 season. She was fired along with everyone in that cast except for Joe Piscopo and Creator/EddieMurphy, but she continued to appear as an extra periodically through 1984 and has faded to obscurity. Not even hardcore ''SNL'' fans know what happened to her, except for the fact that she's still alive somewhere.
** Happened to Creator/DavidSpade during Season 21. Lorne Michaels kept him on the show after firing most of the Season 20 cast and writers so there would be some consistency as the new cast members and writers settled in. However, Spade's screen time was drastically reduced and he made few appearances outside of his regular "Spade in America" segment. He would leave the show after the season once the new group became acclimated.
** Michael Patrick O'Brien was a cast member during the 39th season (along with then-newcomers Kyle Mooney, Beck Bennett, Brooks Wheelan, John Milhiser, and Noel Wells, with Sasheer Zamata and Colin Jost added later). When Lorne Michaels made extensive changes to this overloaded cast, Milhiser, Wells, and Wheelan were fired, Bennett, Mooney, Zamata, and Jost were kept on as cast members, and Mike O'Brien (as he's credited) went back to work as a writer (with occasional appearances in his short films and in sketches that have large crowds and audiences).
* DepravedKidsShowHost: Mr. Hands in the Mr. Bill Show. Also, everyone on "Happy Smile Patrol" and Mr. Robinson (Eddie Murphy) on "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood".
* DestinationDefenestration: After smashing a chair on Chris Parnell's head 12 years ago, Creator/NataliePortman returns to one-up it by flinging Beck Bennett through a window. At least it was on the ground floor. And that backdrop probably softened the impact a little.
* DidntSeeThatComing: In one of the "High School Theatre" sketches, at one point one of the female students (played by Elizabeth Banks) demands that one of the parents in the audience guess what gender she is. The performers are clearly trying to make a point about transgenderism, fluidity and preconceived notions of gender -- but the parent, having long ago clocked [[SoapboxSadie exactly what kind of show this is]] and [[{{Anvilicious}} having seen the intended point coming a mile off]], calmly guesses that she's actually a boy. Having clearly not anticipated this response, the girl is forced to pathetically ask the parent to change his answer to "girl"; sure enough, upon his doing so, she smugly declares "Wrong! I'm a ''boy''!"
* {{Dissimile}}: According to Creator/AnnaKendrick, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zdcNWdCGEs "each dong is like a snowflake... except that it's a dong".]]
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Some of ''SNL'''s sketches play this for humor. The infamous "Schweddy Balls" sketch, the "Colonel Angus" and "Cork Soakers" sketches are some famous examples. The "Ambiguously Gay Duo" was basically this trope personified.
* DoggedNiceGuy: One recurring sketch is about aspiring online star Janelle (Sasheer Zamata) who ropes in her good friend Teddy (Kyle Mooney) when making her online dance tutorials. Teddy's clearly got the whole [[Series/DoctorWho Rory]] thing going for him, content to just sit in the back and watch... [[RagingStiffie and maybe borrow one of her pillows at certain times.]]
-->'''Dad (Creator/ChrisRock):''' What have I told you about bringing boys into your room?!\\
'''Janelle:''' [[InnocentlyInsensitive He's not a boy, he's just Teddy!]]
* DoomyDoomsOfDoom: Ed Grimley would often say, "I'm as doomed as doomed can be."
* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale:
** The Tiger Woods press conference sketch on the episode hosted by Blake Lively (who played Tiger Woods' ex-wife Elin Nordegren). Coincidentally, the musical guest for that episode (Rihanna) is the same Rihanna who was beaten up by her now ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown (who would later be the musical guest for the season 36 episode hosted by Creator/RussellBrand.
** The many sketches where Fred Armisen plays a character who ends up getting beaten by a woman (the Annuale commercial from season 33 had him getting kicked in the groin and punched in the face by Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig punched Fred during the mosh pit riot on the "Death Metal ''Series/TheGoldenGirls'' Theme" ''SNL'' Digital Short, and the "Flags of the World" Digital Short had Nasim Pedrad hit Fred in the head with a "[[AllPeriodsArePMS Girlfriend on the Rag]] Flag.")
** In his one season on the show, Creator/ChrisElliott appeared in a sketch that was about a rape prevention class. Elliott's character is the "rapist" in the sketch, and the women students take turns kicking him in the nuts.
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: Played for laughs in the "Teacher Trial" sketches which involve a teacher (Cecily Strong) on trial for having a sexual relationship with her student (Pete Davidson), who clearly enjoyed the encounter. The boy's father, friends, classmates, and everyone at the trial, especially the judge, is impressed with the boy for pulling it off. The only one who's disgusted is his mother, who was the one who pressed charges in the first place.
* DrivesLikeCrazy: A rather notable example with Toonces, a cat who somehow is able to drive. It always ends with him and his passengers going off a cliff.
** "Hitchhiker", an earlier segment from Season 8 features a young man getting picked up by a woman with a voracious sexual appetite all while she's driving. Predictibly, they also end up going over a cliff the moment she climaxes (the very same footage of the car going over the cliff would be [[StockFootage recycled]] into the Toonces sketches).
* DrivingStick: A sketch from Season 47 parodied heist films with a scenario of a heist team boosting an expensive Lamborghini. The wheelman was [[https://youtu.be/P3VRK8au3dU stymied by the car's manual transmission]].
* DropTheCow: Zigzagged. Some seasons (and episodes within seasons) will have overly long sketches; others will have sketches that know when to stop (or come up too short).
* DumbBlonde: All of the characters in "The Californians" (with the exception of the housekeeper and supposed TokenMinority played by Vanessa Bayer) are mandatorily blonde (including the ''actual'' token minority played by Kenan Thompson). They also have the collective IQ of Bill Hader's toolbelt.
* EarlyBirdCameo: A handful of cast members appeared on the show before they became full-fledged cast members (featured and repertory). Among them:
** Denny Dillon: Performed a stand-up routine on the Creator/RobReiner episode (season 1). Despite unsuccessfully auditioning for the show in 1975, Dillon was chosen for the 1980-81 cast.
** Ann Risley: Had a small speaking role in a pre-taped sketch called "Mobile Shrink" during season 2's Dick Cavett episode. Like Denny Dillon, Ann would be chosen for the 1980-81 cast.
** Yvonne Hudson: Before she became a credited featured player during the 1980-81 season, Yvonne often appeared in season 4 and 5 sketches that needed a black actress [[note]]Lorne Michaels didn't have a black female cast member in his cast until 1985, when he hired Danitra Vance[[/note]]. Her most prominent role was during season 5, as a co-host (with Garrett Morris) of the talk show "Bad Clams," where a pair of black talk show hosts feed Lucille Ball (Gilda Radner) bad clams until she gets sick.
** Terry Sweeney: Originally hired as a writer for the 1980-81 season, five years before he was hired as a castmember by Creator/LorneMichaels. He makes one on-screen appearance that season, in the cold opening of the Sally Kellerman/Jimmy Cliff episode where UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan (played by Charles Rocket) celebrates his 70th birthday.
** Rob Riggle: Appeared on the Donald Trump/Toots and the Maytals episode (from season 29) in a pretaped commercial parody called ''Fear Factor Junior''. Riggle played the father of a child who had to eat the maggots off a plate of eggs Benedict or risk watching his parents divorce.
** Creator/TinaFey: Back when she was the first female head writer of ''SNL'' [[note]](which, back then, was considered groundbreaking as ''SNL'' has always had men as head writers; there '''were''' women writers -- including Jean Doumanian during her disastrous tenure as executive producer, but no woman before Tina Fey was a head writer)[[/note]], Fey appeared in some sketches as an uncredited extra and even had a celebrity impersonation ([[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Willey Kathleen Willey]]) before she became a cast member/Weekend Update anchor in Season 26.
** Jason Sudeikis: Had a lot of bit roles in seasons 29 and 30 (the years when he was a writer) until he was hired as a cast member near the end of Season 30.
** Billy Crystal: As mentioned in the intro, Billy Crystal is one of two cast members who hosted the show before being hired (the other being Michael [=McKean=]). Crystal was originally supposed to be a guest performer on the 1975 premiere, but was passed up in favor of Andy Kaufman.
** Phil Hartman: On the Season 11 episode hosted by Pee-Wee Herman, Hartman made an uncredited appearance as a Pilgrim in the "Pee-Wee Herman Thanksgiving Special" sketch (which he also wrote). A year later, Hartman would be part of the cast that would make ''SNL'' fans forget about Season 11's informed lousiness and launch a second GoldenAge for the show.
** Leslie Jones: Before becoming a cast member in Season 40, Jones was a writer who made a controversial appearance on "Weekend Update" the previous season.
** Bowen Yang: another writer who got a cameo as Kim Jong Un in season 44 before getting added to the lineup one year later.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** When ''Saturday Night Live'' premiered (as ''NBC's Saturday Night''), it was much more of a VarietyShow, despite that Creator/LorneMichaels wanted the show to be a subverted version of the kind of variety shows they had back in the late 1960s into the 1970s. The first few episodes had multiple musical guests and other performers (Creator/AndyKaufman the most notable of these), with the Not Ready For Prime Time Players only one part of the larger whole. The second episode (October 18, 1975) had no sketch comedy at all other than Weekend Update; the whole rest of the show was given to host/musical guest Paul Simon and other musical acts. Before the first season was finished, the sketch comedy part of the show came to dominate -- thanks, in no small part, to the episode hosted by Creator/RichardPryor, which also established ''SNL'' as the comedy that wasn't afraid of tackling edgy issues with humor.
** With few exceptions, Chevy Chase opened each episode with his signature pratfall and then announced the show. The only exceptions were the first episode, in which he didn't fall, the Richard Pryor episode, in which Garrett Morris imitated Chase's fall and opening, and the Ron Nessen episode, in which President Ford himself (on tape) delivered the opening after Chase's fall. After Chase left the show, the fall left with him and now anyone could announce the show.
** The infamous sixth season (1980-81) included a specific case of RealLife Early Installment Weirdness in the form of cast member Creator/GilbertGottfried. Watch clips of Gottfried from that season and you will see that he doesn't squint, has a full head of black hair, and (most jarring of all) didn't have his trademark loud, obnoxious voice (it does crop up sometimes, but mostly Gottfried was soft-spoken).
** When Film/TheBluesBrothers made their debut on January 17, 1976, they were dressed as bees (the "Killer Bees" were a recurring first season sketch).
** During the first few years, it wasn't uncommon for the same person to host more than one episode a season. It still happened occasionally during the Dick Ebersol era, but stopped after Lorne Michaels returned to the show in 1985.
** In the first "Celebrity Jeopardy" skit, Sean Connery doesn't insult Alex Trebek like he does in future skits; he doesn't even use a single DoubleEntendre or YourMom insult. The closest he comes to his future characterization is mistaking the category "S words" for swords. He also didn't appear in the following two skits, only becoming a regular character in the fourth one. The first sketch also featured categories and questions that would actually be plausible for a real game of ''{{Series/Jeopardy}}''. In later sketches, it's a joke that the game has been dumbed down to the point of absurdity, and the celebrities still can't handle it.
** The first "Bill Swerski's Superfans" skit actually had Bill Swerski (Joe Mantegna) appear as the host, none of the characters suffered from their later trademark heart attacks, and the absurdity of the group's predictions was [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] when an oddsmaker (Kevin Nealon) tells them that a game between Mike Ditka by himself and the New York Giants would be a blowout in favor of the Giants.
** The titular couple in "The Couple That Should Be Divorced" were originally identified as "Sally and Dan Harrison" before their names were changed to "The Needlers". Interestingly, the skits as the Needlers indicate that their first names are still Sally and Dan.
** For a couple months, the show portrayed Kellyanne Conway as a guilt-ridden broken shell over her role in Donald Trump becoming president. After it became clear that she wasn't going away any time soon, was still an avid Trump supporter, and was going to have a role in the then-upcoming Trump administratin, they switched gears as announced with a spoof of "Roxie" from ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'' the day after the inauguration.
** The show changed its portrayal of both UsefulNotes/HillaryClinton and UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump drastically over the course of the campaign. In early skits Trump, while still portrayed as a bully, was established as fairly intelligent and a DeadpanSnarker, before evolving into StupidEvil. Clinton, on the other hand, started out as power hungry with NoSocialSkills, before becoming the OnlySaneMan in the face of Trump's lunacy.
* EarWorm: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIdXxDARU_0 "Party at My Parents' House"]]. One of the Union soldiers (Creator/JimmyFallon) feels the traditional tune they're singing isn't interesting enough and interrupts with lyrics about a teen party. Soon, everyone's singing it.
-->'''Fallon''': Sorry, I added it. I felt like it needed a fat, catchy hook that people can sing along with. It's good, right?\\
'''Mikey Day''': Yeah, I mean it's already stuck in my head!\\
'''Alex Moffat''': ''[nods enthusiastically]''
* EasterEpisode: In one sketch, Hanukkah Harry and the Prophet Elijah end up saving Easter when the Easter Bunny gets sick, much like Harry did in "The Night Hanukkah Harry SavedChristmas."
* ElectrifiedBathtub: In the Season 46 Creator/MayaRudolph episode, Maya struggles to remember her time on SNL due to all the times she's dropped her toaster into the bath. "What can I say? I like hot baths and I like hot toast."
* ElmuhFuddSyndwome: Creator/GildaRadner plays this up with Baba Wawa, her parody of Boston-bred newswoman Barbara Walters.
* EmasculatedCuckold: Parodied in a pre-taped sketch starring Creator/MichaelBJordan as insurance mascot Jake from State Farm, whose policies are ''so'' satisfying that he's become an interloper in a suburban couple's marriage. He's always around, acts as a father figure to the kids, and even sleeps in the same bedroom as the wife. The husband is reduced to a paranoid, drunken wreck sobbing about the state of his marriage... [[spoiler:until rival insurance mascots Doug and [=LiMu Emu=] from Liberty Mutual show up to help him.]]
* EroticAsphyxiation: Concerning the death of Jeffrey Epstein in prison, "everyone"'s conspiracy theories about various parties who must've been behind it are said to be put forward as "anything but" what Michael Che considers the "obvious" answer of... breaking his own neck while trying to get off on choking himself.
* EskimosArentReal: One of the Bill Brasky sketches has a barfly state that "The character of UsefulNotes/JohnnyAppleseed was based on Brasky." This may not be intentional, since Johnny Appleseed is so mythologized that it'd be easy even in real life to assume he's just a fictional folk hero.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Pete Davidson had this with his very first appearance on ''Weekend Update'' in 2014, in which he established his casual, tolerant, millennial persona by cheerfully admitting that he would go down on a guy for a million dollars, and justified this (as a straight man) in terms of simple economics:
-->'''Michael Che''': So you're saying you would go down on a guy for a million dollars?
-->'''Pete Davidson''': Of ''course'' I would! A million dollars is a steal! I hope he starts at a million. I would do for, like, three thousand, if I had to be honest with myself. [...] People would be like "Pete! You must be gay!" And I'm like, "No, I'm a businessman, okay?" Look, if you're gay it's fine. Me and my friends are just trying to make money. If you won't go down on a guy for a million dollars, you obviously don't care about your family. When I was in high school three years ago, my opinion was different. Whenever I played that game, and my friends asked me if I'd go down on a guy for a million dollars, I'd be like "No. Gross." And I meant that, because times were different. I lived with my mom, at the time, you know? I had food, clothes, I had a TV in my room, I didn't need to go down on a guy. My mom was already doing that. But now I live on my own, you know, so I think two times a year is an acceptable amount of times to go down on a guy. It makes complete sense. Once in the summer, so you have a great summer, you go to Six Flags and bring your entire family, get the flash pass, and once right before Christmas so the whole family eats. I actually think that's quite noble. Just think of how proud you'll be at Thanksgiving dinner when your grandpa's saying grace, and he's like "We'd like to thank Pete's mouth for this wonderful feast." Some people would be like "Hey Pete, won't you have to go to therapy?" And I'm like "Yeah! But guess who can afford therapy now." [''smirks'']
* EstablishingShot: Most sketches that don't have a theme song use one (and sometimes show the same establishing shot at the end of sketch as well).
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** Season 42's finale has a mad scientist competition competing for most evil invention in the world. Host Dwayne Johnson's character, Roy, enters the contest with a child-molesting robot, which [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil disgusts everyone else there]].
--->'''Baroness Antarctica:''' ''(outraged)'' Oh, ''my god!''\\
'''Roy:''' What's wrong?\\
'''Baroness Antarctica:''' "What's ''wrong''"?! My most evil idea was a blizzard in July!\\
'''Roy:''' Right. Well, I went in a ''slightly'' different direction with the assignment.
** The ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' 40th Anniversary special has a Video Daily Double about Bill Cosby making a mixed drink. Sean Connery, who terrorizes Trebek with one-liners about his sexuality and YourMom jokes, is disgusted by it.
--->'''Sean Connery''': That was BAD, Trebek!
** Whenever Jason Sudeikis's Devil shows up on ''Weekend Update'', there is at least one thing that disgusts him, such as the Penn State child sex abuse scandal.
* EvenTheGirlsWantHer:
** The Creator/CameronDiaz opening monologue has several SNL actors ''of both genders'' as obvious plants in the audience just to gush over her. Special mention must be made of Beck Bennet and Aidy Bryant as [[RefugeInAudacity a man who's already gotten his wife's approval to hit on Cameron -- and not necessarily for a threesome.]]
** The Music/ArianaGrande episode of 2016 starts out with Cecily unwittingly revealing that she snuck into Ariana's dressing room to sniff all her clothes.
** The alien abduction sketches usually lead to LipstickLesbian Kate Mckinnon finding some excuse to get really, ''really'' close to Creator/RyanGosling.
** In a similar vein, the season 48 episode with Creator/MichaelBJordan leads up to ButchLesbian Punkie Johnson pawing him on at least 2 occasions.
* EveryoneHasStandards: During the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H_MAY9ZK6c Best Buy Firing]]" sketch, Beth is called a flaming trash-pile by Dana and Niff, but she thanks them for not making fun of her adult braces.
-->'''Niff''': C'mon Beth, I mean, we're not ''monsters''.
* ExoticEquipment:
** Season 43. Natalie Portman reveals that [[Film/ThePhantomMenace Jar Jar Binks]] has ''17 dicks.''
** All but stated by name in a sketch with Creator/DonaldGlover as young Lando Calrissian.
--->I love the surprise when the clothes come off, and I'm like "oh, that's your ''that''?"
* ExtraDigits: A parody commercial advertising a finger removal cream for people with extra fingers.
%%* ExtremeCloseUp: The TropeNamer of this is the Wayne's World segment.
* ExtremelyEasyExam: Played for laughs in the "Celebrity ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}''" sketches, where "Final Jeopardy!" always consists of Alex Trebek (Creator/WillFerrell), sick of the celebrities, telling them to write down something simple, [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption only to see them bungle that, too]].
-->'''Trebek''': Okay, let's just move on to "Final Jeopardy!". And the category is... You know what? I tell you what, just write a number. Any number, any number and you win.
* EyeScream: ''Weekend Update Summer Edition'' brings back Cecily as Carol Anne, who claims that staring into the eclipse of 2017 the week before left her right eye blind. The other one's okay because "it's glass."
* EyelashFluttering: The skit "The Lawyer" from season 42 stars host Creator/LouisCK as a lawyer with surprisingly big eyelashes who uses his unlikely attribute to charm his way out of a case by fluttering his lashes at everyone he talks to.
* FairyGodmother: The Wishin' Boot, subject of a country song, brings things to a person in their time of need. Given that it appears to be sentient and it has an evil twin, it borders on CrystalDragonJesus.
* FakeGuestStar: Beginning in Season 42, Creator/AlecBaldwin has being impersonating Creator/DonaldTrump in nearly every episode despite not being an official cast member.
* FakeHairDrama: A parody commercial was about avoiding this trope by using a pubic hair transplant instead.
* FakeOrgasm: The sketch "Katz's Deli" is set in the location where the famous scene from ''Film/WhenHarryMetSally'' was filmed. Four women are sitting at the same table from the movie, and they start to take turns "playing the Meg Ryan part." When it comes time for "Rhonda's" (played by Leslie Jones) turn, her fake orgasm consists of monologuing an entire oddly specific sexual encounter involving her "brother's husband" in a public bathroom, among a few bizarre details, which puzzles her friends.
* FanDisservice:
** The Love-ahs, a middle-aged couple played by Creator/RachelDratch and Creator/WillFerrell, regularly disturb other characters and the viewer with public displays of affection, which may include plates of spiced meat, and explicit [[PurpleProse purple-prose-laden]] details about their...''lovemaking''.
** Creator/KristenWiig's character Shana was a buxom, breathy-voiced {{Expy}} of Creator/MarilynMonroe, whose appearance at a party would be hotly anticipated by all the male characters, who would ignore the only other female character. When Shana showed up, she would behave like a stereotypical BrainlessBeauty, except that she would invariably start to behave in shatteringly unsexy ways (delivering an incredibly long belch or fart, accidentally defecating, telling a story about how she went ducking for apples but mistakenly ate cow manure instead). All of the men except one would be completely turned off.
** During Season 42, Margot Robbie plays a hot librarian that students are lusting after... until she starts doing horrific things like letting her hair fall out, taking out her teeth, showing embarrassing tattoos, and murdering a woman.
** Resident hottie Cecily Strong gets to dress up as [[WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}} Princess Jasmine]] in "recreation" of the iconic magic carpet flight... and then she starts getting hit by stuff.
---> "[[AnachronismStew I think that airplane just emptied its toilet on us!]]"
** Cecily parodies the online appearance of judge Jeannine Pirro, which went memetic because she was clearly drunk at the time, but goes a few steps further with the Zoom signal getting messed up and Cecily going through unannounced costume changes, looking increasingly skimpy as well -- except it's still Jeannine Pirro going further OffTheRails.
** A post-9/11 sketch had Creator/WillFerrell going into a business meeting wearing a red-white-and-blue thong.
* {{Fanservice}}:
** The Kellyanne Conway musical number parodying "Roxie" from ''Film/{{Chicago}}'' has Kate [=McKinnon=] singing in a short flapper dress and playing up the BlondeRepublicanSexKitten act.
** Cecily Strong as tech savvy shopper Jill Davenport appears on ''Weekend Update'', then skips clear over that subject by flirting with Colin Jost, taking off her jacket and everything.
--->"Oh my god you can totally see down my shirt and everything..."
** One sketch from the John Cena episode is about Aidy Bryant as a bookstore employee who briefly shows her bra. Then again, she's with John Cena.
** One episode hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler had them showing their "Dope Squad" (in a parody of the music video of Music/TaylorSwift's "Bad Blood"), and much like the music video, the sketch featured them in a lot of CostumePorn. One such outfit was what could be best described as a [[PrettyInMink mink coat]] that flashed their [[StockingFiller fishnet-covered]] legs. Tina also gets to [[GirlsWithGuns pose with a long gun]], while also showcasing her legs.
** Creator/NasimPedrad as Creator/KimKardashian had the frame-fitting fashion and TheTease attitude of the original down to a T. Pretty much every sketch involving Pedrad's Kardashian uploaded on Website/YouTube will have a comment saying something to the tune that she looks just as sexy as the original, if not more.
** The Ronda Rousey episode has a spoof of those "Bachelor" shows, with Ronda and all the SNL ladies in dresses showing at least some cleavage. Even musical guest Music/SelenaGomez joins in with a CleavageWindow dress!
** Creator/LindsayLohan's first episode hosting features a ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' sketch in which all the male Hogwarts students are stunned at how hot Hermione got during the summer. Lohan wears a low-cut sweater and at one point uses a giant magnifying glass positioned just right for the cameras.
** Creator/SarahMichelleGellar's second episode hosting features a pre-recorded commercial parody sketch for ''Holding Your Own Boobs Magazine''. Gellar is shown topless, using only her hands to cover her breasts, as she does an infomercial-style pitch for the magazine.
* FeedbackRule: Creator/WillFerrell & Ana Gasteyer's recurring sketch about middle school music teachers Marty Culp & Bobbie Moyhan-Culp, who are there to do a gig by playing popular music in a classical style, always begins with mic feedback. "Ooh, we got a real hot mic here."
* FiveSecondForeshadowing: Season 44. Host Creator/JohnMulaney plays the one white guy at a predominantly African-American wedding reception that gets dragged into a complex dance routine, and for some reason when the DJ calls out for everyone to take out their church fans, John somehow has one already. Turns out he already knows some of the folks here, including one from church.
* FormerlyFat: All the testimonials of the "Ride the Snake" weight loss method, but Jimmy Tango (presently with the build of Creator/JimCarrey) more than anyone, whose hysterical paeans to his own radical weight-loss method seem to stem from days when people would "stuff a letter into my mouth" if he wore a blue suit and yawned.
* FrazettaMan: The "Bioflex" commercial introduces a home workout system, consisting of a vicious genetically-engineered apeman that the hapless customer is forced to fight (read: get beaten senseless by).
* FromBadToWorse: The Chucky Lee Bird 'Greatest Hits' album [[{{Infomercial}} infomercial]] where the singer seems to be doing innocuous '50s-style rock and roll love songs but then each subsequent song played reduces the age of the various females that Chucky is singing about from 17 through 12. Then the summary of tracks listed mix in sexual predator behavior (with the song titles implying that the singer openly knows his pedophilia behavior is illegal and wrong) along with a love song that describes love for an 11 year old. Then it gets bad for the male host where not only he admits that the singer is the host's grandfather (and tries to use that as an excuse to keep the infomercial going), but also revealing that Chucky Lee Bird actually made these pedophila songs in the 1980s (possibly implying he's still alive and getting residuals for his pedophilia songs, and is not in prison) when the behavior should have been noticed and reported.
* FromTheMouthsOfBabes:
** ''Weekend Update'' guest and child actor Lauren Parsons will talk about the news she's been hearing from grown-ups... who probably should have watched what they said around minors, even if they look as old as Vanessa Bayer.
--->'''Michael Che''': "Do you even know ''what'' 'sexual harassment' means?"\\
'''Lauren''': "Oh yes. [...] (UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump) told the stewardess she looked nice... ''And then put both hands up her skirt!''"
** One season 43 ColdOpen pulls this off with ''actual kids'', all of whom have been educated by their parents on current events a little too thoroughly.
--->(slight stutter) [[RippedFromTheHeadlines "I want an NBC... an embassy that's still in Tel Aviv!"]]
* FunHatingConfiscatingAdult: Cheri Oteri's recurring character Rita [=DelVecchio=], who would tell kids "I keep it now! It's mine now!" when their football/novelty flying disc/etc. would land on her lawn or porch.
* FuneralCut: In a season 45 episode, A wife makes a disgusting "salad" overnight, which her husband and kids predictably hate. After they leave her, she attempts to eat the entire salad by herself, resulting in the scene cutting to her grave.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: "Basketball Scene" has two supporting actors trying to play basketball and ruining takes in the background while the stars talk in the foreground.
* FunWithAcronyms:
** Al Sharpton (played by Kenan) is under the impression that Japan has a KKK -- Karate, Karaoke and Kaiju. Then again this is a guy who keeps pronouncing MSNBC "Ms. NBC -- NBC for women, I guess."
** There's a parody commercial about a cheaper alternative to Angie's List (kind of an online Yellow Pages where you find handymen) called Aron's List... then it's revealed that it stands for '''A'''merican '''R'''egistry '''O'''f '''N'''on-violent '''S'''ex-Offendors.
--->'''Vanessa''': What about janitors?\\
'''Bobby''': (creepy smile) There are literally thousands of us!\\
'''Vanessa''': Even dog walkers?\\
'''Jay''': (KubrickStare on) [[BestialityIsDepraved I'll do it.]]
** The Charles Barkley episode from Season 43 has him selling a product called '''N'''ed's '''R'''oach '''A'''way, which exterminates bad roaches by using good roaches carrying tiny AR-15s.
* GagDub: One ColdOpen has Music/JayZ (Jay Pharoah) and Solange Knowles (Sasheer Zamata) explaining what the CCTV footage of them getting into a fight was really about, by [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfH_hPgau-M layering the "actual audio" over it.]]
-->'''Solange:''' ''Oh my god there's a spider on you!''
* GayBestFriend: Parodied and inverted. A gay man laments that his female friends are draining, so he does his own unwinding with a Straight Male Friend, a heterosexual gamer jock who has no expectations about emotional effort, attachment or spending money.
* GallowsHumor: Immortalized in the first episode following the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York. Mayor Rudolph Guiliani said in a press conference that one of the first orders of business was to get Saturday Night Live back on the air, he appeared in person along with actual members of the relief team clearing away debris and rescuing stranded individuals, explaining how the show was a New York institution and continuing business as usual is the best way to keep the terrorists from winning. Lorne Michaels queried, "But can we be funny?" and his reply was "[[SelfDeprecation Why start now?]]"
* GameShowGoofballs: Game shows featuring less-than-brilliant contestants have often been a cource for comedy during SNL's long run.
** The best-known example is the recurring "Celebrity Jeopardy" sketch where an exasperated Alex Trebek (Creator/WillFerrell) has to regularly contend with celebrity contestants who are either blissfully ignorant, self-absorbed, or -- in the case of Sean Connery (Creator/DarrellHammond) -- belligerent and antagonistic. The categories start off normal, but quickly turn into childish and blatantly easy stuff like "Colors That End In 'Urple'" and "Drummers Named 'Ringo'", and categories with no clues whatsoever like "Automatic Points" and "I Have a Chardonnay" (the latter additionally [[INeedAFreakingDrink allowing Trebek to have a glass of wine]]).
** In [[https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/should-you-chime-in-on-this/2941773 "Should You Chime In On This?"]], the contestants are uninformed loudmouths who are asked to refrain from adding their opinions on a given topic. Despite the promise of prize money, they prove themselves incapable of keeping their thoughts to themselves.
---> '''Host:''' We bring out three idiots and give them hot button-issues, and ask them, "should you chime in on this?" The answer should always be "no".
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d-EyX5r_lk&list=LLFoApTVDCvc3zZZNk-CUs1Q&index=1485 "Where'd Your Money Go?"]] is a game show where professional athletes, "the world's most ignorant millionaires", are asked if they should pursue a series of ludicrous financial ventures. Once again, the host spells out that the answer should always be "no" -- and once again he is completely ignored by the contestants.
** The recurring sketch "What's Wrong With This Picture?" brings some very strange, sometimes perverse contestants on to find a logical problem with a cartoon image. The puzzles are easy enough for a child to solve, but the contestants completely misunderstand the exercise. (The first sketch justifies the poor choice of contestants by noting they were the only ones available "at 2 P.M. on a weekday.") For example, an image depicts a woman looking in a mirror, with the obvious mistake being that she wears a belt and her reflection does not. The contestants' guesses for what's wrong with the picture include "She's 4 years old and the boobies grew too fast," "Her twin's in that fish tank and she can't get out," and "She just did blackface and got away with it."
* {{Gasshole}}:
** One sketch has Alec Baldwin as a high school coach pushing Mikey Day to break the class sit-up record... which inadvertently leads to toots and parps with every rep, ending with a long drawn out peep.
** One sketch set in the golden age of Hollywood has Vanessa Bayer as a screen diva struggling to do one scene despite her own uncontrollable tooting and parping (there's even a [[ToiletHumor squelch]]). The scene ends with SpecialGuest Creator/DwayneJohnson holding her in a tight embrace (heavily implied to be squeezing out the last of it!)
** In the 2009 January Jones episode, Creator/GraceKelly (Jones) can't stop farting while shooting ''Film/RearWindow''.
** In the 1993 Kevin Kline episode, Kline plays an Italian actor who repeatedly farts while wooing an American tourist.
* GeniusBruiser: Dwayne Johnson's recurring character Koko Watchout, a wrestler who may have missed the point of wrestling -- instead of trashing his longtime opponent Trashyard Mutt (Bobby Moynihan) in the ring, he opts for overly elaborate plots and schemes to ''destroy Mutt's personal life'' at a level approaching {{Gaslighting}}.
* GermanicDepressives: When Angela Merkel comes on Weekend Update, her dialogue is heavy on this.
-->'''Angela Merkel:''' ''(regarding getting TIME Magazine's 2015 Person of the Year and making a lot of goofy faces)'' I am trying to celebrate, but my body is rejecting it.
* GiftShake: In a December 2022 Sketch titled "Jennifer Coolidge is Impressed by Christmas Stuff", Chloe Fineman as Coolidge is impressed with holiday staples like lights and carols. At one point she shakes a gift, guessing from the sound that it contains an antique doll with one eye. She is correct.
* {{Gorn}}: "The Duel", from the episode with Creator/SandraOh, is about two 19th century gentlemen about to duel with pistols for the favor of Sandra -- until the guns keep misfiring, going wide, ricocheting and ''tearing through Sandra'', who maintains a calm front even as the pellets ''blast her fingers off and rip through her shinbones!''
* GotMeDoingIt: On the first ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' sketch, this happens to Alex Trebek after getting so exasperated with Sean Connery and Burt Reynolds referring to the "'S' Words" category as "Swords".
-->'''Alex:''' We're not doing "Swords"!
* GretzkyHasTheBall: Done in a sketch where the Wishmakers Foundation grants a child's desire to be a sports commentator at a professional game (football the first game, basketball the 2nd). The only football term he knows is "That'll move the chains!" and basketball, "Nothing but the bottom of the net!" This eventually gets taken to a hilarious extreme when the other commentators lets him take over to make up for complaining about the supposed disease (the kid said he had O.C.D. when asked, but this really stood for "Overwhelming Corpse Disease") and eventually begins shouting various sports terms and maneuvers all in the same sentence ending with "NOTHING BUT THE BOTTOM OF THE NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!" and then dies onscreen.
* GroinAttack: "By the Balls", a sketch where Katie Holmes repeatedly grabs Will Ferrell's crotch to interrogate him.
* GunmanWithThreeNames:
** From season 39, the (fictional) documentary ''Killer Files'' features SerialKiller Mark Allen Henry (SpecialGuest Creator/JimParsons).
** The Boxer from Every Boxing Movie (played by [[spoiler:Creator/MattDamon]]) is named Tommy Series/RayDonovan, likely for the intimidation factor.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes H–M]]
* HairTriggerTemper:
** How Barry Gibb (played by Jimmy Fallon) is portrayed in "The Barry Gibb Talk Show". One such example:
--->'''Cruz Bustamante''': I'm a real big fan! When I was growing up, I thought you guys were the greatest band around!\\
'''Barry Gibb''': Oh yeah, huh? You thought we, you thought we ''were'' the greatest? You hear that, Robin? We ''were''! ''WERE''!! Huh? Don't you ''EVER'' talk to me like that ''AGAIN''!! ''I'M BARRY GIBB''!!
** Joe Pesci (Jim Breuer) in "The Joe Pesci Show" sketches, where he'd usually fly off the handle over some little thing a la ''Film/GoodFellas''.
* HalloweenSongs:
** In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT1FmeEbJgA Spooky Song]]", a pair of teenagers try to hook up in a graveyard during Halloween Night, only for four ghosts to appear and sing about how they each died. One of the ghosts insists on night sharing his story (played by Chance the Rapper), only for the others to make him divulge in order to return to their graves. [[spoiler:He reveals that [[UndignifiedDeath he electrocuted himself to death with a lightning rod up his ass because batteries no longer did it for him]]]].
** In the sketch "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfB3gFrbthM Graveyard Songs]]", a pair of visitors (Sasheer Zamata and Pete Davidson) wander into a graveyard at night on Halloween, only for the grim reaper statue, a tree and two headbust gravestones to come alive and start singing a jolly halloween tune (the titular Graveyard Song). Unfortunately for them, a [[ThoseTwoGuys pair of ghosts]] named Paul and Phil (played by (Jim Carrey and Taran Killam) try singing along, but their lyrics derail the song's intent and they spoil the riddle the singers had for the couple.
* HandOrObjectUnderwear: Host Sarah Michelle Gellar did a pre-taped commercial parody for "Holding Your Own Boobs Magazine" spoofing handbra-style topless poses in magazines. In the spirit of the magazine, Gellar herself was actually topless for the duration of the sketch, using only her hands to cover her breasts
* HappilyMarried: Stefon and [[spoiler:Seth Meyers]] get married in Stefon's last appearance after years of buildup.
%%* HeadbuttOfLove: When Angel, the Girlfriend of the Boxer in Every Boxing Movie Ever, finally appears on ''Weekend Update'' alongside the titular boxer (Creator/MattDamon).
* HehHehYouSaidX: A RunningGag in the Chad sketches is that someone will confide something very serious in Chad, only for him to snicker because they said something that could sound vaguely dirty.
-->'''Creator/JenniferLopez:''' I'm in love with Alex...Rodriguez. A-Rod.
-->'''Chad:''' Heh heh. Rod.
-->'''Jennifer Lopez:''' What more could a girl want? He was [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams a Yankee!]]
-->'''Chad:''' He heh. Yank.
* HeroesLoveDogs: Cecily Strong can be seen cuddling her dog, Lucy, in the opening credits. One sketch has her as a bipolar European diva with a PreciousPuppy, which she sends running off and then running back to her hands on cue.
* HighlyVisibleNinja: Shanice Goodwin: Ninja, as played by Leslie Jones, may have the proper black suit, but ends up stumbling around and creating a much bigger din than SpecialGuest Creator/ScarlettJohansson, the much smaller-sized ninja ''in white''.
* HippieTeacher:
** Vanessa Bayer as Miss Meadows during the Music/MileyCyrus episode in season 39, throwing in several {{Verbal Tic}}s like it's a field test for Dawn Lazarus.
** Creator/CharlizeTheron in season 39 plays a modernized take on this trope -- by modernized we mean out of the 80s for a change, a HellBentForLeather biker chick with an [[SmokingIsCool e-cig instead of weed.]]
* HonestJohnsDealership: Ned and Fed Jones, a pair of drugged-out street hustlers (played by 1985-86 cast members Damon Wayans and Anthony Michael Hall) who sold everything stolen, including pocketbooks (with ID), bikes, 1980s-style home computers, radios, and 1980s-style cable TV hook-ups.
* HulkingOut:
** One of Creator/DwayneJohnson's contributions -- when Barack Obama (Jay Pharoah)'s patience is tested by negotiations with the Republicans for the last time, his temper breaks and causes him to transform into ''The Rock Obama!''
** The Creator/IdrisElba episode parodies this with "The Impossible Hulk." Rather than turn into a terrifying beast when he gets stressed out, Idris turns into an entitled middle-aged white woman who won't leave until she gets her way.
* HulkSpeak: The team-ups of Tarzan (Kevin Nealon), Tonto (Creator/JonLovitz), and Frankenstein's monster (Phil Hartman)! One sketch revealed the monster had a completely articulate EvilTwin played by Creator/MelGibson.
* HumanoidAbomination: Kate Mckinnon's take on Kellyanne Conway. One famous sketch has her surviving a fall out the window that breaks all her limbs just by ''fixing them back.'' A followup sketch implies that [[{{Film/It2017}} Deadlights]] are involved.
* {{Hypocrite}}: In one of the "Woodbridge High School Experimental Theatre" sketches, one of the scenes the students perform involves a girl delivering a eulogy to her dead mother, delivering a message about how you should cherish your parents before its too late. This is not appreciated by her ''actual'' mother, very much alive and in the audience, who disgruntledly points out that despite the pious and self-righteous tone of the eulogy her daughter is actually a "total bitch" to her on a daily basis.
* HypotheticalFightDebate: In the recurring sketch "Bill Swerski's Superfans", the Chicago natives sit around discussing who would win things, with the answer always being "Da Bears!" (Or if it's basketball, "Da Bulls!") Or complete non-sequiturs like Mike Ditka vs. a hurricane.
* IAmNotSpock: [[invoked]]
** Creator/JimParsons' monologue in season 39 is an impassioned musical number aptly titled "I'm Not That Guy", complete with the regulars acting as various other well-known examples like [[Series/FamilyMatters Urkel]] and [[Series/HappyDays Fonz.]]
-->'''Jim:''' Her role on ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' was sweet old Jessica Fletcher; but Creator/AngelaLansbury she robbed 50 banks and ''nobody could catch her!''\\
'''Angela (Kate Mckinnon)''': (brandishing a pistol) Get down on the ground!
** During Creator/JohnKrasinski's opening monologue for his Season 46 hosting gig, everybody in the audience keeps calling him [[Series/TheOfficeUS "Jim"]] and bugging him to make ''The Office'' references or to [[invoked]][[OneTruePairing kiss Pam]].
* IAmVeryBritish: Cecily Strong often puts on a delightfully posh accent for her commercial narrations.
* IApprovedThisMessage:
** From the parody of UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton's 3 a.m. ad: "I'm Hillary Clinton and I approve this unfair and deceptive message."
** In the episode where John [=McCain=], then the actual Republican Nominee for President and the election only a few days away, [=McCain=] appears in a sketch as himself where he is personally approving the radio ads his campaign is putting together, complete with a live recording of "I approve this message" rather than them sticking a prerecorded version on to the end.
** In the Creator/SethMacFarlane episode/Season 38 premiere, UsefulNotes/BarackObama (now played by Jay Pharoah) prefaced his attack ad on Mitt Romney with, "I'm Barack Obama, and I approved this message. Uhhhh...but I'm not real proud of it."
** Done repeatedly in "The Passion of the Dumpty" sketch when the program cut to commercial.
** One ''Weekend Update'' in 2015 attempts a disclaimer of sorts with the Hillary approval edited:
--->"I'm Hilary Clinton and I approve this (badly dubbed by what sounds like a black dude) Joke."
* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: One recurring sketch set in a mountain lodge has visitors from the big city who came here to deliberately visit a place like this (apparently the lodge is within a stone's throw of a dozen of them), and Bill Hader is Roger, the sole witness cum victim who's always scoffed at. It turns out to be RealAfterAll... [[FunnyBackgroundEvent behind their backs.]]
* IgnorantAboutFire: One skit has a scene of cavemen hunting party gathered around a campfire. Guest Steve Martin plays TheSmartGuy of the group, who develops the idea of encircling their prey to preclude escape. Bill Murray plays TheLeader, who is also a BarbaricBully, and so stupid that he steps into the campfire three times in total, yowling in pain each time.
* IHaveManyNames: Nick the Lounge Singer's last name changes depending on what film's theme song he has added lyrics to.
* IHaveThisFriend:
** In the ''Series/UndercoverBoss'' parody with Creator/AdamDriver appearing as Kylo Ren of ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/TheForceAwakens'', who is disguised as "Matt," a radar technician, Matt tells a group of stormtroopers that he has a friend who saw Kylo Ren in the shower and that he had an 8-pack and was shredded.
** Melania Trump (Creator/CecilyStrong) employs this trope to ask Michael Cohen (Creator/BenStiller) if a woman can testify against her husband:
---> '''Melania:''' Hello, Michael, it’s Melania.\\
'''Michael:''' Oh, hey, Melania. I was just talking to Donald about, uh –\\
'''Melania:''' Oh, huh, yeah. Eh, listen, I have a completely hypothetical question for a friend of mine, okay? If her husband is accused of crime, would she have to testify against him?\\
'''Michael:''' No.\\
'''Melania:''' But could she? If she wanted?\\
'''Michael:''' I guess she could.\\
'''Melania:''' Oh, my friend will be so happy. Thank you, Michael!
* ImagineTheAudienceNaked: Subverted in Pamela Anderson's monologue. She was "nervous" because it was her first time hosting, but remembered advice that Tommy Lee gave her: Have the audience picture her naked. That didn't work -- she actually had to ''be'' naked.
* TheImmodestOrgasm: One sketch has Vanessa Bayer, Cecily Strong, Leslie Jones and SpecialGuest Music/MileyCyrus visiting the very diner where ''Film/WhenHarryMetSally'' was filmed, where supposedly lots of diners have visited just to re-enact that scene.[[note]]They even make sure to have a shot of the real place, Kat's Deli, of which ''a different shot'' [[FreezeFrameBonus is already in the OP during this period]].[[/note]] Then Vanessa, Cecily and Miley have a go, and they all start goading Leslie into doing it. And then wish they hadn't.
-->"OOOHH THE CONDOM BROKE AGAIN MARCO!! YOUR JAGGED PECKER'S TOO SHARP!!!"
* InadvertentEntranceCue: The third ex-porn star in the "We're not porn stars anymore" skits will walk in and ask "Did somebody say [pun relating to the item being sold]?" -- only it's subverted because the cue is never said, and eventually the main girls just have the third one do their schtick regardless.
* IncrediblyLongNote: The [[Series/TheArsenioHallShow Arsenio Beckman]] sketch ends with Phil Hartman (as the announcer) saying, "Don't leave your seats, we'll be right back with more Arseniooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Beckman!"
** The season 38 premiere has [[Creator/SethMacFarlane Seth MacFarlane]] singing a note close to the end of his monologue for ''14 seconds''.
* InsaneProprietor: 1977's skit "Crazy Ernie," who sells electronics valued at hundreds of dollars for as little as 52¢. He eventually admits [[spoiler:he's actually Crazy Ernie's cousin, Crazy Frank, who's deliberately ruining Ernie's business because Ernie stole his girlfriend]].
* InSeriesNickname: The much-loved SNL girl group, comprising regulars and the SpecialGuest if possible, started going with "Nasty Girls" at some point. Aidy Bryant in particular always goes by "Lil' Baby Aidy", which is made into a necklace she wears in "Back Home Baller".
* InterchangeableAsianCultures:
** Casting Bobby Moynihan as Kim Jong Un is a ballsy move on its own, but [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF-oLVPMTbQ in this sketch]] the bits of Korean you can make out above the English translator's voice are actually ''Japanese''.
** Speaking of lil' Kim, the role would later go to Bowen Yang, who's actually Chinese and started out in a non-speaking take on the role (basically mumbling Korean-sounding gibberish while a translator provided the actual dialogue), before going with accented English that was really his Creator/KenJeong voice.
** In the game show [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYSbk_tTsjk "Can I Play That?"]], Jackie correctly answers that a Japanese character can only be played by "anyone who's Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and maybe Pakistani".
--->'''Host:''' Once you're generally Asian, that's as far as anybody looks into it.
* IntercourseWithYou: Parodied with the T.T. and Mario album. Most of the songs have the word 'booty' in the title.
* InterfaithSmoothie: The bewildering Church of Confusion {{sermonette}}, delivered by His Most Reverend Archbishop Maharishi O'Mulliganstein, D.D.S.
* InterspeciesRomance: Aidy Bryant as Tinkerbell's half-sister Tonkerbell is actually a twofold deal -- first she mentions that Tink's her ''half-sister'', from their mother being with a ''housefly'', then she reveals she's been dating a ''mouse.''
-->'''Peter Pan''': If you say anymore [[BrainBleach I'll never have a happy thought again!]]
* ItsAWonderfulPlot: Spoofed quite a few times during the show's run. Season 44 has "Ït's a Wonderful Trump", where UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump gets to see what it would have been like if he was never elected President. Melania (Cecily Strong) talks without an accent since she's long left him for someone with better command of English; Kellyanne Conway (Kate [=McKinnon=]) looks younger as a result of breaking her DealWithTheDevil; and Eric Trump (Alex Moffat) is now smart enough to solve a Rubik's cube. The twist: Robert Mueller (Creator/RobertDeNiro) is the one guy cursed with RippleEffectProofMemory.
* IWantGrandkids: Exaggerated for laughs in Season 47 Episode 9[[labelnote:*]]December 18, 2021[[/labelnote]]. Paul Rudd's character is directing a commercial asking moms what they want (as in things that can be bought and sold). The moms keep finding ways to shoehorn grandchildren into what they say.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Dana and Niff (Cecily Strong and Bobby Moynihan) may be rude and loud especially when they think they're about to be fired, but they tend to be right about why half of their colleagues shouldn't be in customer service in any capacity. And at least one supervisor did mention that "the customers love you". Also their warnings about [[ObviouslyEvil Andrew]] tend to be ignored, up until [[spoiler:he chloroforms and drags off the supervisor at least once.]]
* JudgementOfTheDead: This appears in a tribute to Rodney Dangerfield. In the sketch, St. Peter reads a list of questions to the late comedian who has arrived at the pearly gates, then simply says, "Okay, you can get in." RD is amazed at this, and St. Peter admits, "I just wanted to hear those jokes one last time." RD is nearly reduced to tears upon realizing that he has finally gotten some respect.
* KarmicRape: At one point during his tenure as host of Weekend Update, Norm Macdonald joked that PrisonRape, being the worst part of the whole experience, should be formally portioned out during sentencing.
* KickTheDog: The whole point of the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoTv5sjom8k "Super Showcase"]] sketch is showing the contestant (Vanessa Bayer) everything she ''didn't'' win due to one wrong answer.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: One sketch is about Vanessa Bayer as the AlphaBitch setting up a {{Film/Carrie}}-level prank on the new girl in school. The twist? She's played by SpecialGuest Creator/RondaRousey.
* TheKilljoy: Debbie Downer, played by Rachel Dratch, constantly ruined other people's fun by bringing up unpleasant facts. The character's name became a slang term for a depressing person, and has been added to several dictionaries.
* KinkyRolePlaying:
** Parodied in a recurring sketch where a couple tries to spice up their sex life by talking dirty and role-playing. However, the girlfriend keeps taking the scenarios to weird places and [[MomentKiller turning off her boyfriend]], such as by role-playing as a dirty third grader or pretending to be the Elephant Man.
--->'''Boyfriend''': I want you.
--->'''Girlfriend''': Yeah you do, you little bitch.
--->'''Boyfriend''': Ooh, you're so mean to me.
--->'''Girlfriend''': [[BrotherSisterIncest Because you're my little brother, bitch!]] Now scram!
--->'''Boyfriend''': ''What?''
** A parody of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" has Daddy watching Mommy and Santa Claus kiss as part of a cuckoldry fetish, and then when Santa tries to leave, Mommy and Daddy choke Santa out. Luckily, this is all part of an elaborate role-play they organized on Craigslist.
* LadyInRed: Kristen Wiig in the "Red Flag" commercial takes a... unique approach.
-->'''Narrator:''' ''Red Flag.'' The only perfume that warns men...\\
'''Kristen:''' I'm f*cking crazy!
* LamePunReaction: In the March 4, 2017 Weekend Update, Jost's Music/{{U2}} pun [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucqbKO4WPk4 makes much of the audience groan]].
-->'''Che:''' He insisted on telling that.
* LargeHam:
* LaughingAtYourOwnJokes:
** In "Weekend Update", Creator/BillHader as culture reporter Stefon often cracks up because the writer of the bit changes the cue cards at the last minute to stuff even more outrageous than planned.
** In a ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' skit, Creator/SeanConnery would nearly always crack up at his own obnoxious jokes while Creator/AlexTrebek would wear an annoyed deadpan expression.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In the "Family Feud" sketch from the Sterling K. Brown episode in 2018, Jordan Peele (Chris Redd) tells Steve Harvey (Kenan Thompson) that at some point, you have to move on from sketch comedy. Thompson, who's been on the show for 15 seasons as well as ''Series/AllThat'' for five seasons before joining ''SNL'', begins to break character at that point.
* LeastRhymableWord: In ''The Religetables'', during the Salem witch burning part:
--> '''Broccoli and Yam''': (singing) "God has a hitch / To right the witch / Without a hitch / We'll watch her twitch / And then we'll pitch / her in a ditch / And it's a cinch..!\\
'''Broccoli''': (talking) That doesn't rhyme.\\
'''Yam''': (talking) Whatever.
* LeavingFoodForSanta: "The Night Hanukkah Harry Saved Christmas". Harry is SubbingForSanta and discovers some milk and cookies out.
-->What's this? ''[sniffs milk]'' I'd better put this in the fridge before it turns.
* LenoDevice: In "Divertor", Leno is shown making jokes on the various scandals that erupt.
* LikesOlderMen: Aidy Bryant as Melanie, a middle school girl who goes to a slumber party and falls for her friend's father each time. It's actually explained all of one time when the father is played by {{Music/Drake}}:
-->'''Melanie's Mom (Vanessa Bayer)''': She's not 12, she's 25. We lied to her about how long she was in that Vicodin coma, so she's all horned up and she doesn't know why.
* LiteralMinded: A lovely example when Creator/JohnMulaney returns for the second time in 2019, pointing out that his first hosting gig was in April 2018, and adding that they have a photo. They show a photo of ''the calendar page for April 2018.''
* LiveButDelayed: ''SNL'' had three episodes were put on seven-second delay, all of which were hosted by controversial comedians — Richard Pryor (Season 1), Sam Kinison (Season 12), and Andrew "Dice" Clay (Season 15). Outside of that, ''SNL'' is only live on the East and Central Time Zones and tape delayed on the Mountain and West--that is, until April-May of 2017, when, for the first time, the show aired live all across the country.
* LongBusTrip: After beginning the "Coffee Talk" segment as Paul Baldwin, Mike Myers found it was funnier hosting it as Linda Richman. Officially, though, Linda's appearances are just her filling in for her friend Paul while he recovers from "shpilkes in his genecktageesoink."
* LongList:
** When Dana Carvey impersonated Music/GeorgeMichael, complaining about how the editor of his music video didn't follow his instructions:
---> '''Carvey''': It went: Shot of boot, beard shot, belt, bullfighter, hair, crowd, face, hand, bull, boot, hair. And I told them ''specifically'' it was supposed to be: Butt shot, shot of the hand, back to the butt, hand, butt, hand, butt, hand, butt, belt, butt, beard, butt, butt, earring, face, butt, earring, tight, hold on the butt, hold on the butt; it's a formula, but it bloody ''works''!
** The sketch digging about a [[TeacherStudentRomance teacher being sued for sex with a student]] unknowingly veers into one of these.
--->'''Prosecutor (Creator/TarajiPHenson)''': Did the kids call you names?\\
'''Student (Pete Davison)''': Um, yes ma'am; The Man, Luckiest Guy Ever, My Hero, Baller, Lil' Pimp, Lil' Baller, The One, Goodyear Pimp, [[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones Fred Pimpstone]], [[WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy Ren and Pimpy]], King of the Teachers, After-School Special, Teacher's Petter, [[Literature/HarryPotter The Boy who Lived]], Gavin the Great, [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Magic the Gavin-ing]], Legend, [[Film/MaryPoppins Supercalifragilisticexpi-such-a-dope-kid]], and He who has Sex with Teachers -- I'm sorry, that's all I can remember, those were the main ones.
** Kenan as Dominican baseballer David "Big Papi" Ortiz, spokesman for ConspicuousConsumption and countless endorsements, who's always going into one long list after another. Made even more ridiculous by [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign doing it in presumably his mother tongue.]]
** Also from Weekend Update:
--->'''Michael:''' This week Sony Pictures announced it would not release the movie ''Film/TheInterview'', drawing criticism for giving in to terrorist threat. Because studios are only supposed to give in to the threats of actors. And directors, and producers. And agents, and focus groups, and bloggers, theater chains, conservative groups, liberal groups and anyone with a damn Twitter account.
** A lesser-seen RunningGag in Weekend Update involves deliberately subverting this with a scroll that's deliberately done a little too fast just to show how short the list really is. For example, episode 2 of the 2017 Summer Edition lists everything the Economic Advisory Council accomplished before it collapsed: Had One Meeting, Got the Wifi Password, Ordered Thai food, Everyone Quit.
** One season 43 episode has Bill Hader going into a list of inbreeding-related conditions after it's revealed that incest is supposedly commonplace in Ireland.
** Pete Davidson again in season 44, regarding his new relationship with Creator/KateBeckinsale, starts going into a list of every Hollywood relationship where the guy was the significantly older one. It's ridiculous, even if you ignore how Larry King pops up three times.
* LongRunnerCastTurnover: The show's cast and crew turnover is as legendary as its peak-and-valley quality, and the reason why it has such a love/hate relationship with viewers. According to show creator Creator/LorneMichaels on an E!-channel special about the history of the show (from Season 1 to 28), this is the secret to the show's longevity. Seasons 6 and 11 have been the only seasons where the ''entire'' cast turned over at once. The fact that both seasons were poorly received and put the show's future in doubt explains why Michaels has since made sure to keep at least a core of the previous year's cast even in drastic overhauls.
* LongRunners:
** ''SNL'' has hit 47 seasons and shows no signs of ending its run anytime soon (with Lorne himself stating that the only way the show is going to end is if he dies or decides to retire, as he really doesn't want ''SNL'' to fall into another showrunner's hands like what happened between 1980 and 1985). It has survived cast and crew changes, eight U.S. Presidents (starting with UsefulNotes/GeraldFord), harsh critics, low ratings, threats of cancellation, fickle fans, radical (and not-so-radical) social and cultural shifts, world and domestic events that often make it hard to laugh at the news (particularly the September 11th attacks, as it happened in the city where the show is broadcast), and all of the DuelingShows that have aired as alternatives (taking out ''Fridays'' and ''Series/{{MADtv}}'', which were specifically made to get disillusioned fans of ''SNL'' to watch their shows and see them as better). Its presidential election spoofs are now so traditional, they're a ''de facto'' part of the UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem. The show has run for so long that all of its current cast members are younger than the show itself.[[note]]Leslie Jones was the most recent cast member to be born prior to SNL's debut. She left the show in 2019. Darrell Hammond is still technically part of the show but as the announcer, rather than a cast member.[[/note]]
** A lot of cast members have been on for more than ''seven'' years like Jason Sudeikis, Kevin Nealon, Tim Meadows, Al Franken, Fred Armisen, Kenan Thompson, Creator/SethMeyers, and Darrell Hammond. Kenan currently holds the longest tenure out of any cast member in the show's history, currently in his 19th season.
* LoonyFan:
** The current page quote comes from a sketch about a support group for obsessive fans of ''Series/MrBelvedere''. They play a game called "Should and Shouldn't" which "helps keep the line between fantasy and reality a little less blurry":
--->'''Chris Farley:''' I ''should'' want to say "Hi!" to Mr. Belvedere. I ''shouldn't'' want to kidnap him and keep him in a big glass jar in my basement.\\
'''Tom Hanks:''' Okay, okay. That's good, we get that. But why? Why shouldn't you do that?\\
'''Chris Farley:''' [beat] Uh, because his breath would fog up the glass and I couldn't see him then?
** They once did a direct parody of ''{{Literature/Misery}}'' featuring Roseanne Barr as Dana Carvey's biggest fan. After Carvey announces he's retiring the Church Lady character, then gets into a car accident with John Lovitz, Barr rescues him (but apparently left Lovitz to die). When she finds out he's killed off the Church Lady, she starts trying to dress him up as her, to the point of painfully shoving orthopedic shoes on his mangled legs. They get in a fight until Lovitz shows up completely unharmed, kills Barr, and [[spoiler:kills Carvey so he can steal the Church Lady character.]]
** A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OJ7aW3Df5U&feature=emb_title Season 46 sketch]] parodies the music video for Music/{{Eminem}}'s "Stan," except it focuses on a deranged fan of Santa Claus named Stu writing a letter asking for a [=PS5=] before presumably killing himself when Santa doesn't get back to him.
* LoonyLibrarian: [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated]] in a sketch with Creator/MargotRobbie as a HotLibrarian who turns out to be a creepy, murderous, acid-spewing alien.
* LoopholeAbuse: "Celebrity Series/FamilyFeud" with Creator/JimmyFallon as Creator/JimParsons. Jim manages to nail an overly obscure answer on the board, before revealing that he was able to get it up there just by ''being one of the 100 people surveyed.''
* LoungeLizard: Bill Murray's Nick the Lounge Singer is the TropeCodifier for the stereotypical lounge singer.
* LousyLoversAreLosers: The gimmick of the character "Guy Who Just Bought a Boat" is that he's a man who's so terrible at sex that he bought a boat in order to [[CompensatingForSomething compensate]].
* MachineMonotone: Utilized in the "Robot Repair" sketch.
* MadLibsCatchphrase: A lot of people who recap episodes like [[Podcast/RobHasAPodcast Rich Tackenburg and Rob]] [[Series/{{Survivor}} Cesternino]] say that a lot of current characters do this. Such as Drunk Uncle, The Porn Stars, or Riblit.
** Reese De'What will often open Cinema Classics by remarking upon a time when his wife asked him a question and he gave her a snarky, insulting answer, then he says to the camera, "Worst. [insert event]. Ever."
* MagicalNegro: Invoked with Kenan as a {{racelift}}ed take on the angel from ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife''.
* MakingLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces:
** "Teachers Snow Day" leads to two teachers "having ''Fifty Shades'' sex" somewhere in the school.
** The first part of the Leslie & Kyle arc ends with them doing it ''in the guest host's dressing room.''
* {{Malaproper}}:
%%** Al Sharpton, as played by Kenan Thompson, is the king of this trope.
** Two recurring Vanessa Bayer and Cecily Strong characters are a duo of porn actresses-turned-advert stars with barely functioning brains. Naturally, they have difficulty with some of the words they have to say in their commercials.
-->'''Cecily's character''': All the grits and grammar of a high-class shoe.
-->'''Vanessa's character''': Good ribbons.
** Bobby Moynihan does this a lot, most famously as Drunk Uncle, but also as Anthony Crispino, a "second-hand news correspondent" who has a habit of mangling words when retelling the gossip he's overheard.
* ManOfAThousandVoices:
** Music/BrunoMars is revealed to be this in the [[http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/82872039/ Pandora Power Outage]] sketch. Music/ArianaGrande [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YlGpW4t4Xs repeated the achievement.]]
** Kenan Thompson has done the most impressions on the show. However, people who do podcasts like [[Podcast/RobHasAPodcast Rich Tackenburg and Rob]] [[Series/{{Survivor}} Cesternino]] say he's terrible at impressions.
** Jay Pharaoh has a recurring "Secret X Meeting" bit in ''Weekend Update'' -- in season 41 he goes into a string of impressions to illustrate a secret meeting of black comedians (including ''SNL'' alumni Tracy Morgan and Chris Rock among others), and in another one it's a string of rappers.
* {{Manchild}}: A sketch in the Music/SelenaGomez episode parodies ''Series/OldEnough'' with ''Old Enough: Longterm Boyfriends.'' Instead of a 4-year-old going on errands, it's a 34-year-old who spends so much time playing video games and [=LEGOs=] that he's totally lost when his girlfriend asks him to run an errand for her. He breaks down crying when he can't find the makeup she wants at Sephora.
* MarijuanaIsLSD: In one sketch from the Regina King / Nathaniel Rateliff episode, Regina's cop character unknowingly eats a bunch of weed gummies from a stash of evidence in the cop car, leading to a musical acid trip featuring singing gummy bears, a demonic [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Marge Simpson]], and an adult version of the sun from ''Series/{{Teletubbies}}''.
* MartialArtsForMundanePurposes: In the early years of the show, one of Creator/JohnBelushi's standard sketches involved a samurai warrior using his sword skills. One specific sketch was "Samurai Delicatessen", where he used his katana to cut up food items such as meats.
* MayDecemberRomance:
** A Season 41 episode had Creator/TinaFey and Creator/AmyPoehler host ''[[ImmoralRealityShow Meet Your Second Wife!]]'', where three unsuspecting, happily-married men (and their wives in the audience) get to meet their future partners as they are that moment. The first one is an eighth-grader, and the second one is 5 [[TeacherStudentRomance (and will meet her husband for real when her college roommate tells her about the internship program her dad's company runs)]]. The third one is a college sophomore, which doesn't seem so bad...until it's revealed [[{{Squick}} she's three months pregnant with the actual bride-to-be]].
** Season 43 has Bill Hader as a wheelchair-bound geriatric who's married to Cecily acting her actual age... and they're trying for a baby.
** A Season 46 episode has Mikey Day and Heidi Gardner as a 26-year-old man and his 106-year-old wife, with the man debunking concerns that he only married the clueless elderly woman for her money.
* MistakenForPedophile: In a rare onscreen appearance, then-writer Creator/AdamMcKay is a Weekend Update correspondent polling kids on their reactions to the 2000 Presidential election. Unwisely, he asks them to step into the back of a [[CreepyStalkerVan windowless van]] in order to respond.
* TheMockbuster: One sketch is about the voice acting work behind the new movie ''[[{{WesternAnimation/Zootopia}} Zoo-opolis]]'', which even has the voice actors mimicking well-known celebrities (similar to the Pandora Power Outage sketch) in lieu of being able to afford real ones.
-->'''Kenan''': Alright, as you know we just completed the initial story board for TV movie Zoo-Opolis. It’s an animated film about a city that’s full of animals.
-->'''Octavia''': Is that like, Zootopia?
-->'''Kenan''': "Is that like, Zootopia?" Who are you? My lawyer?
* MonochromeCasting: The show has received some criticism in TheNewTens for not having a diverse cast. The majority of its cast members have been white and the show has rarely had more than one non-white cast member at a time (and has never had any fully Asian cast members). The show has especially come under fire for not having any black female cast members since Maya Rudolph's departure in 2007(and for having had only 4 black female cast members in its 38 year history), a fact that was highlighted when Creator/KerryWashington guest starred (the ColdOpen featured her having to play Michelle Obama, Oprah and Beyonce in the same sketch because of the lack of black women, also mocking the show's tendency to use black male actors in drag). SNL attempted to remedy this by holding a casting call in December 2013 specifically for black women, and in January 2014 hired black woman Sasheer Zamata. In season 40, ''SNL'' hired (or rather, rehired) Michael Che (a former short-lived ''SNL'' writer who quit to do ''The Daily Show'', but was called back to ''SNL'' when Cecily Strong decided that Weekend Update wasn't for her) and Leslie Jones as cast members. Because of this (and the fact that Kenan Thompson, Jay Pharoah, and Sasheer Zamata haven't been fired or quit), ''SNL'''s 40th season is the first time that the show has had more than three black cast members and the first time they've have two who were black women.
* MistakenForCheating: In a sketch built around wartime letters, a homefront wife becomes paranoid about her husband having ''spoken with'' a French woman, and even tries to claim a DoubleStandard at work when he asks horrified questions about how ''she'' managed to produce footage of herself palling around with the Nazi high command.
* MoodWhiplash: In-universe, the couple on the "100 Floors of Frights" Halloween ride are enjoyably freaked out by everything they see until David S. Pumpkins -- who is basically just a smarmy guy in a suit covered with pumpkins accompanied by two guys in skeleton costumes doing a dance -- shows up out of nowhere. At which point they are so bewildered by how weirdly out of place he is and the fact that he keeps showing up that they spend the entire rest of the ride trying to figure out what his deal is.
-->'''David S. Pumpkins:''' Any questions?\\
'''Man:''' ''YES! SEVERAL!'' I mean, what, he has the middle initial now? I am so in the weeds with David Pumpkins!
** The Happy Smile Patrol Sketch lives on this trope, rapidly cutting between a saccharine kids show and a news report detailing that the entertainers the audience just saw are drug smugglers, murderers and violent [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic militia members]].
* MostWritersAreMale:
** The recurring "ESPN Classic" sketches are about women-only sports with Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte as commentators, and being sponsored primarily by feminine products leads to some of the most awkward ProductPlacement in history.
** Due to the Day Without Women protest, ''all'' of the writers were male for one infamous sketch.
* MouthingTheProfanity: The show once featured a sketch with Joe Pesci playing his ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'' character buying a pinkie ring. He goes to the mirror to try it on and begins miming a conversation which ends as an angry argument full of [[ClusterFBomb F words]]. Today, censors would pixelate his mouth and no one would get the joke.
* MrFanservice:
** A large number of Taran Killam's otherwise unrelated roles have him go sleeveless. Or shirtless. Or ''[[NakedPeopleAreFunny less.]]''
** After Taran's departure, Beck Bennet has inherited that role; his shorter frame makes his dad bod even more pronounced, and his best known role is the perpetually shirtless UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin. The Christmas episode of season 44 even has him in a tight tee in the ColdOpen.
* MundaneMadeAwesome:
** The SNL Digital Short "Lazy Sunday", in which Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell rap with hugely inappropriate levels of aggression about their Sunday afternoon of waking up late, getting cupcakes together and going to see ''Film/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''.
** "So long as men can breathe and eyes can see, so long lives this and gives life to me... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Sjy5DF28s SECTIONAL COUCHES]]!"
** The 2017 sketch "Papyrus" featured Ryan Gosling reacting to the fact that whoever did the poster for ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' used the Papyrus font, as if it were a horrific murder that the killer got away with. What makes it especially surreal is that the poster designer behaves exactly the same way.
--->'''Ryan Gosling''': I know what you did! [[LargeHam I KNOW WHAT YOU DIIIID!]]
* MuppetCameo: Back in the late '90s, Horatio Sanz, Creator/JimmyFallon, [[Series/ThirtyRock Tracy Morgan]], and [[Series/TheMiddle Chris Kattan]] used to do an annual Christmas song. When Fallon, Morgan, and Kattan left, Franchise/TheMuppets came in to cheer up Horatio!
* MushroomSamba: Episode 12 of Season 46 has a sketch titled "The Negotiator." In it, host Creator/ReginaKing plays a police officer who is called in to handle a hostage situation, but before arriving she admits that she ate en entire bag of gummy bears in a bag labeled EVIDENCE. What ensues is her hallucinations of giant weed gummies, lava men, the devil as [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Marge Simpson]], and the Baby Sun from ''Series/{{Teletubbies}}'' all grown up.
* MyBiologicalClockIsTicking: One sketch in the Ryan Gosling episode is for a dating app named Settl. They guarantee a date by taking out the swipe left function. The tagline? "Tick tock".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes N–S]]
* NWordPrivileges:
** One of the most famous sketches in the history of the show was the first-season "Word Association" sketch in which Chevy Chase's character gives Creator/RichardPryor's character a series of increasingly nasty racial slurs during the word association test. It ends with a terrified Chase giving an enraged Pryor the job.
** The 70s BuddyCopShow parody "Dyke & Fats" about a pair of Chicago policewomen: "Les Dykawitz"(Kate [=McKinnon=]), who's gay and "Chubbina Fatzarelli" (Aidy Bryant), who's large. After they solve a case they congratulate each other, calling each other by their nicknames but when the DaChief (host Creator/LouisCK) says "Good going Dyke and Fats!" they get angry and yell "You don't get to call us that! Only we get to say it! Those are our words! We love each other, we're friends!" and then the end credit reads: "Created by Kate [=McKinnon=] and Aidy Bryant".
** Creator/DaveChappelle dropped the N-word in his opening monologue in Season 42.
** A joke by Michael Che during Weekend Update on the 42nd Season about why one of the former cast members of Series/TheCosbyShow didn't denounce Creator/BillCosby once he got accused of sexual assault was because, according to her, "That nigga made me rich."
** Also in Weekend Update, Leslie Jones hitting on Colin by calling him "you vanilla milkshake" or something similar, but [[DoubleStandard whenever Colin tries to respond with anything including the word "black" she immediately goes "no, you can't say that".]]
** Subverted in season 44, when Michael Che claims that the terms of his contract only allow him to say it up to 4 times for the entire season. [[RefugeInAudacity Then he uses up one.]] Seth Meyers jokingly complained that he was here for 12 years and Lorne never gave him one. "Probably for the best..."
** In one filmed bit where he's undercover as a liberal white woman, Che says "Your masculinity is getting mad toxic, my nigga!" to (white) Alex Moffat.
** One Season 6 sketch has Charles Rocket (as Uncle Lester) drop it completely uncensored when talking about hunting communists as game, comparing the odds of shooting of one to that of shooting "a jew or a nigger" as one and the same. One can consider his eventual firing over his similarly uncensored "[[PrecisionFStrike fuck]]" in the finale as a bit of delayed LaserGuidedKarma over this.
** One sketch in Season 48 has Creator/MikeyDay forced to sub in for host Creator/DaveChappelle in a sketch about Black Heaven. As Mikey reads the cue cards, he realizes the next line has the N-word in it and flat out refuses to finish the line. Creator/KenanThompson and Creator/EgoNwodim admit that it's a good call.
* NakedPeopleAreFunny:
%%** "The Sensitive Naked Man" sketches.
** While not nearly naked, the sketch with Beck Bennet and Kyle Mooney as two out-of-control kids has them in tshirts and tightey-whiteys getting into repeated scuffles, defused by their father turning ''a hose'' on them until they're soaked to the skin.
* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognise: A sketch from the Creator/JonahHill episode is a send-up of ''TabletopGame/{{Cluedo}}'', with six murder suspects, half male half female, and all in different colors but deliberately jumbled up. Turns out the culprit is the only one whose color and gender match a canon character -- [[spoiler:Kate Mckinnon as "Mrs White".]]
* NestedStoryReveal: In the "Totinos" sketch, what starts out seeming like an ad for a microwavable snack ends up being a promo for ''Series/TheXFiles'' instead.
* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: In the 40th Anniversary Special, during the Wayne's World sketch, one of the top 10 reasons why ''SNL'' is great is because every season, some reviewer titles their review "Saturday Night ''Dead''" (usually in a review about how weak and lame the show is/has become), and acts like they're the first person to come up with that.
* NewSeasonNewName:
** When this show first started, it was called "NBC's ''Saturday Night''" because there was already a show on ABC called "Saturday Night Live" (this one had Howard Cosell as a permanent host). The NBC version wouldn't be officially called ''Saturday Night Live'' until season three (in season two, the "NBC" part of the title was dropped and the show was called ''Saturday Night'').
** The 1980-81 season was renamed "Saturday Night Live '80" in order to differentiate it from the five Lorne-produced seasons before it. The "80" was dropped in January 1981 (and the rest of the Jean Doumanian season was dropped a month later).
** On most anniversary seasons, specifically the 15th, 20th, 25th, 35th, and 40th seasons, the show is referred to in the opening credits and commercial break bumpers as ''Saturday Night Live'', plus the corresponding number (''SNL'' 15, ''SNL'' 25, ''SNL'' 35, and ''SNL'' 40).
** The name of "Weekend Update" changed a couple of times during the Dick Ebersol era. It changed back to "Weekend Update" when Lorne Michaels returned in 1985.
* NewsParody: Weekend Update, which has been a part of the show since the beginning, is arguably the TropeMaker for this genre.
* NiceToTheWaiter: Creator/JonahHill's recurring character Adam Grossman, a 6-year-old who inexplicably talks like an AlterKocker insult comic whenever he's dining at Benihana, but is somehow popular enough that he and the teppanyaki chef (Fred Armisen) know each other by name.
* NightmareFuelColoringBook: One ''Weekend Update'' brings up the Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty, which is supposedly "based on the crayon drawings of a 5-year-old after his parents were murdered."
* NoHoperRepeat: When "Vintage SNL" appears on Saturday night at 10PM EST, you can rest assured NBC had ''nothing else'' to put in that timeslot.
* NoIndoorVoice:
** The Loud Family, with Bill Murray and Jane Curtin as the parents, and two daughters played by Gilda Radner and SpecialGuest Creator/CarrieFisher. They're visited by one daughter's boyfriend, a soft-spoken Dan Aykroyd; then by the other daughter's boyfriend, John Belushi as an airport signaller who still has his hearing protection on and never notices; then by [[RuleOfThree the police.]]
--->'''Bill''': WE ACTUALLY HAD THREE DAUGHTERS, BUT ONE OF THEM PASSED AWAY IN A SKIING ACCIDENT!\\
'''Dan''': I'm sorry... how did it happen?\\
'''Bill''': '''AVALANCHE!!'''
** Creator/WillFerrell as Jacob Silj, who's apparently been diagnosed with Voice Immodulation Syndrome. The details remain sketchy due to him ''still being the only patient'' by 2018.
* NoodleIncident: The "Celebrity Jeopardy!" skits typically start off with Trebek apologizing for some kind of noodle incident that occurred during the previous, unseen, round of the game, e.g. "I apologize for what happened before the commercial, and would like to assure the audience that all three contestants are now wearing pants."
* NonstandardPrescription: Creator/ChristopherWalken has a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell.
* NoProductSafetyStandards: Dan Aykroyd's recurring character Irwin Mainway. He's a corrupt salesman; in his first appearance he is trying to persuade a TV reporter that his company's toys are fun and safe for children. The products include a teddy bear with a built-in functioning chainsaw, Johnny Switchblade Adventure Punk, and Bag O' Glass (a bag of real broken glass! Also try Bag O' Sulfiric Acid!), etc. More HilarityEnsues when he then tries to "prove" that other, safe toys are extremely unsafe. In a later appearance he's running an AmusementParkOfDoom that works on similar (un)principles; the sketch ends with the host attacking him out of sheer horror!
* NostalgiaFilter: Those who grew up with the show are among the most vocal critics of its current shape. Also, because 60-minute cable reruns and video compilations have trimmed a lot of the weaker material from the older shows, it's easy to forget that even during its good seasons ''SNL'' had bad moments (from lousy hosts and musical guests to recurring characters and sketches that suffer from being underdeveloped and/or annoying — though this can apply to the stuff that people actually remember or have currently seen). The DVD box sets of uncut and complete seasons of the show, in the original order and from the beginning, may be helping to undercut this.
* {{Not}}: In ''Series/UndercoverBoss: Where Are They Now?: Kylo Ren'', [[Film/TheForceAwakens Kylo Ren]] goes undercover as the intern "Randy" and learns that the interns do the "bitch work." He asks a stormtrooper who is in charge fuel invoices and the stormtrooper tells him that he's looking for "Deez Nuts."
-->'''Randy''': Hilarious. Said no one ever.
* NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: In the December 03, 2016 cold open, both Creator/AlecBaldwin as UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump and Creator/KateMcKinnon as Kellyanne Conway [[BreakingTheFourthWall look into the camera]] and point out that Trump really did retweet a 16-year-old boy.
* NuclearFamily: In the December 19, 2020 episode's skit "Christmas Morning", the family consists of a mother, a father, a son and a daughter.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: In the "Celebrity Jeopardy!" Sketches, most of the contestants are hilariously stupid. It is implied that regular guest Creator/SeanConnery is not nearly as stupid as any of the other contestants, behaving as such [[ItAmusedMe just to get a rise out of Trebek]].
--> '''Ferrell/Trebek''':... And Tom Hanks is caught in a dry cleaning bag.
* ObviousStuntDouble:
** Kristen Wiig and Creator/MelissaMcCarthy do a jazzy dance behind a sheet, so we only see their outlines. [=McCarthy's=] is about 150 lbs thinner than she is.
** PlayedForLaughs in season 48, when host Creator/KekePalmer and Cecily get into a CatFight. Not just because Keke is pregnant at the time, but the stunties start doing pro wrestling moves and trashing the furniture -- Cecily's stuntie even has kneepads!
* OccidentalOtaku: Jonathan Cavanaugh-"san" and Rebecca Markowitz-"san", the hosts of ''Jpop America Funtime Now!'', a campus TV programme, are about the most caricaturistic weeaboos you can possibly imagine, much to the frustration of their (white) Japanese studies professor and faculty advisor, Mark Kaufman (Jason Sudeikis).
-->'''[[DeadpanSnarker Prof. Kaufman]]:''' If there is such a thing as a loving version of racism, I think you found it.
* OddOrganUpTop: An episode (hosted by Creator/JonStewart) had a sketch where he plays the founder of several boy bands and presents his latest such group, which he genetically engineered himself. It's also revealed that he contaminated one batch and the resulting members came out wrong. One of these members, Ass-Face, has... well, look at his name and guess.
* OldPeopleAreNonsexual: In one "Ladies' Man" sketch, a caller talks about using Viagra with his wife. Leon is [[NoJustNoReaction briefly disgusted]] when he learns that the caller is 76 and his wife is 80... then adds, "Um, [[SubvertedTrope but, I must say]], after all those Viagra I took, it doesn't sound ''that'' disgusting, you know!"
* OldShame: In-universe, there's a TV Funhouse cartoon where a boy and a girl gain entrance to the "Disney Vault", which is filled with old shames from the Disney legacy (such as a ''really'' racist cut of ''Film/SongOfTheSouth''). WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse argues that you have to take the bad with the good.
* OnceASeason: This was basically the frequency of John Goodman's and Alec Baldwin's hosting gigs in the -90s.[[note]]Goodman hosted in every season during that decade; Baldwin hosted in every season except 1991-92, 1997-98, and 1999-2000.[[/note]] Also of Steve Martin's and Buck Henry's in the '70s, although in their case they usually hosted more than once a season.
* OncePerEpisode:
** The cold open always ends with, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"
** The host's monologue always ends with, "We've got a great show tonight, [musical guest] is here, so stick around!"
* OnlyInFlorida:
** That sketch from the Creator/MargotRobbie episode about the news report where the anchors are less concerned about the sinkhole they should be reporting on, and more about why the incredulously attractive Alexandra Kennedy would marry the hilariously {{Gonk}}tastic Matt Shatt, is set in Florida.
** From Weekend Update:
--->'''Cecily Strong''': A 72-year-old man in Florida attacked the man in front of him for trying to check out more than 20 items in the express lane. Incidentally, [[ExpressLaneLimit "20 items or less"]] is Florida's ''only law.''
** Another Weekend Update features Kenan as the policeman who arrested Music/JustinBieber, and when asked about pulling over a major celebrity:
--->"I work in Miami, nothing surprises me. Most cars we pull over have a tiger in the back seat, and an alligator in the trunk guarding the cocaine."
* OnlySaneMan: Alex Trebek in the "Celebrity Jeopardy" sketches, who just wants to run a simple quiz show but has to keep dealing with self-absorption, vapidity and bullying from the celebrity guests.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Fred Armisen can't seem to decide on what accent Lawrence Welk actually had.
-->Notice how when I pronounce the "th" in "Mother" it's "Mother", but when saying thank you it comes out as "tank yoo"?
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: Played with. One sketch is about the three daughters of the king of the ocean, all mermaids -- Cecily Strong and Sasheer Zamata are your typical mermaids, but Kate Mckinnon is Shud, who looks less like the vampiric siren you'd expect of a "different" mermaid, and more like that guy who took a toxic waste bath in ''Film/RoboCop1987'', due to her fish half being ''blobfish''.
* OverlyLongGag:
** One sketch is about a super-duper-uber-long stretch limo pulling up to a drive-thru, populated by increasingly rich, self-absorbed, eccentric dingbats who opt to let the next guy in line give his order, causing the stretch limo to advance to the next window, one at a time, very ''very'' slowly. The payoff comes at the end, when the vehicle's owner reveals himself -- Music/BrunoMars.
** Weekend Update mentions the Golden Globes and Jacqueline Bisset taking a little too long to reach the stage after winning Best Actress (Miniseries), leading to an appearance by Jacqueline Bisset (played by Vanessa Bayer), who somehow manages to take ''even longer'' to reach the Weekend Update desk. They go back to the news stories and check back on her later... ''and she's still in her seat''.
** Also on ''Weekend Update'', Seth and Cecily throw [[KickTheDog way too many jabs at]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_557068&feature=iv&src_vid=KJ39Lhvj2BA&v=mCByxfnTpao the divorce of Bruce and Kris Jenner, one after another.]]
** A season 41 Weekend Update somehow leads to Jon Rudnitsky's audition for the ''Film/DirtyDancing'' stage musical, to the tune of an extended version of "(I've Had The) Time of My Life"... which needs to be ''really'' extended as Jon's dance goes from botching the overhead suspending part to having to apply CPR, then hiding the body, then getting found by the police and riddled with gunfire...
** A minor case in "Back Home Baller" when they mention having to help your parents set up their wifi router with a 20-digit passcode... and then recite out the whole thing.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATFy2YLT504 "One Voice"]], a rap song where the lead rapper (Kenan Thompson) introduces a few guest rappers, but can never actually start the song because more emcees keep inviting themselves to the track.
* OverlyNarrowSuperlative: "Simu & Bowen", which starts off with Creator/SimuLiu and Creator/BowenYang congratulating each other on their representation milestones (Liu was the first Asian Marvel film lead, Yang the first fully Asian cast member). It then turns into the two of them trying to one-up each other in the awards they got for being the first Asian men to do the pettiest things, from "first gay Asian man to mispronounce 'boutique'", "first Asian man to do a Music/{{Cher}} impression on SNL", to "the first Asian to avail of the You-Pick-Two promo at Panera Bread". The final punchline is that [[spoiler:Bowen can outdo him in milestones simply by being a ''gay'' Asian.]]
* OverlyNervousFlopSweat: There was a skit, Alex Karras as guest host, where Billy Crystal plays a guy at a soda company who sweats excessively at a board meeting.
* ParodyAssistance: Music/DionneWarwick loved "The Dionne Warwick Talk Show", where Creator/EgoNwodim portrays her as a self-absorbed old woman who is clueless about today's pop culture. She popped up on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHQbl3byYiY the November 6, 2021 version]] of the skit to be interviewed by her impersonator, even singing a duet with her.
* PaperThinDisguise:
** Creator/ChrisHemsworth DisguisedInDrag to infiltrate a circle of girlfriends just to suss out the estrogen brigade's view of him in his movies. Somehow they think he's been a longtime part of their circle. ''And he didn't even shave.''
** The spoof of ''Series/UndercoverBoss'' with [[Film/TheForceAwakens Kylo Ren]] as "Matt the radar technician". All the Starkiller base crew were onto him long before he inadvertently used Force choke in front of them.
* ParallelPornTitles: From the "Bambi 2002" sketch: "Pokahontass". From the "Disney Vault" sketch: "101 Fellations".
* ParkingPayback: A memorable sketch had a man played by Creator/ChristopherWalken on a TV show about pulling pranks, and the prank he played on a man who kept stealing his parking spot... [[spoiler:murdering him.]]
* PassiveAggressiveKombat: Kate [=McKinnon=] as Mrs Santini, who settles the admittedly numerous complaints to her neighbors with the kind of little notes you'd rather not get.
-->"How does your baby know my favorite song? [...] It was first recorded by Music/BritneySpears when they push her face first into woodchipper..."
* PassThePopcorn: A variation in season 48 -- host Creator/DaveChapelle deliberately sits out of one sketch and hands the role to Mikey Day, who ends up in a borderline blackface act as he's the one delivering [[NWordPrivileges the racially-tinged dialogue that would have been fine coming from Dave.]] All this while Dave is watching with glee while smoking.
* PaymentPlanPitch: The sketch "39 Cents" parodies DarkestAfrica charity commercials, as the poor villagers in the background quickly take offense to Charles Daniels (Creator/BillHader) asking for a donation of "only 39 cents a day." When he repeatedly refuses their urging to raise the amount asked for, they take him hostage and use the commercial to demand a $200 ransom.
* PerfectlyCromulentWord: In the "Dr. Beaman's Office" sketch, Chris Parnell called Will Ferrell a "vondruke".
* PersonaNonGrata: There are a handful of hosts who have caused so much trouble backstage (or on the show) that they can never host ''SNL'' again.[[note]]Though there have been rumors that Lorne rarely holds grudges, and doesn't ever permanently ban anyone, and those that did just didn't appear again for some other reason altogether.[[/note]] Who are they, you ask? Well...
** Creator/LouiseLasser: Hosted the penultimate episode of season one (July 24th, 1976). Michaels has gone on record in saying that Lasser was incoherent during her performance (due to cocaine abuse), locked herself in her dressing room causing the cast to split her parts and wouldn't appear in any sketches unless she was by herself or with Chevy Chase.
** Speaking of which, Creator/ChevyChase is banned from hosting (after doing so nine times–the record for a former cast member) simply due to his unbearable {{Jerkass}} attitude toward cast members and the writing staff. He has made small [[TheCameo cameos]] in a few episodes and also appeared in the 40th anniversary special, but hasn't hosted since Season 22 (1996-97). Made all the more egregious in that he was an '''''original''''' cast member.
** Creator/CharlesGrodin: Hosted the October 29, 1977 episode and was banned for skipping rehearsals and ad-libbing his lines.
** Music/FrankZappa: Hosted the October 21, 1978 episode and was banned for doing a disastrous job doing so, where he regularly mugged for the camera and frequently noted to the audience that he was reading from cue cards. Notably, during the goodbye at the end, the cast (except John Belushi) stands away from him.
** Creator/MiltonBerle: Hosted the April 14, 1979 episode, where he consistently upstaged other performers, mugged non-stop to the camera, plugged his autobiography, had one of his hangers-on lead a standing ovation and gave an unscripted performance of "September Rain". Michaels not only banned him from the show in response, but kept that episode from appearing in syndicated reruns later.
** Creator/RobertBlake: Hosted the November 13, 1982 episode and was banned due to his un-cooperative attitude during rehearsals. At one point, he crumbled up a script presented to him by Gary Kroeger and threw it back in his face. Blake appears in only two sketches plus the monologue.
** Creator/AndyKaufman: In 1983, the show held a poll to determine whether or not to let him continue making appearances. The audience voted to against him, making him the only person to ever be banned by the show's audience.
** Creator/StevenSeagal: Hosted the April 20, 1991 episode, and was banned soon afterwards because he had difficulty working with the cast and crew, often pitching lousy sketch ideas and getting angry that none of them were picked. A later episode had Creator/NicolasCage lament to Lorne Michaels that his monologue made him look like "the biggest jerk on the show":
--->'''Michaels:''' No, no. That would be Steven Seagal.
** Creator/MartinLawrence: Hosted the episode that came right after the infamous Alec Baldwin-hosted show with the "Canteen Boy Goes Camping" sketch ([[spoiler:where Canteen Boy (Creator/AdamSandler) is molested by his scoutmaster]]) in 1994 (Season 19), and got himself banned when he launched into a monologue about the decline in women's hygiene. All reruns have cut off Martin's monologue and replaced it with cards that explain why this can never air on TV again.
** Creator/AdrienBrody: Hosted in Season 28 (2002-03) and got himself banned after introducing musical guest Sean Paul in a rude boy Jamaican get-up and ad-libbing. There was nothing obscene about it; it's just that Creator/LorneMichaels didn't approve of the piece and warned Brody not to do it. Considering how shaky in quality ''SNL'' was in its 28th season, this was considered a highlight (along with Creator/DanAykroyd coming back to host the last episode of the season).
** Musical guest Music/SineadOConnor was banned after ripping up a picture of the Pope and calling him 'the real enemy' after her second song (the segment has been edited out as well, replaced with the dress rehearsal version where she shows the audience a picture of a starving child from Africa).
** The most famous was probably Music/ElvisCostello, who in a 1977 appearance defied Lorne Michaels' order that he was not to play "Radio Radio" on air. The ban was in effect until 1989, when he was the musical guest for the season 14 episode hosted by Creator/MaryTylerMoore. He was later allowed to disrupt a Music/BeastieBoys performance to play the song again during the 25th anniversary special in 1999.
** Music/{{Fear}} (on the season seven episode hosted by Creator/DonaldPleasence, which is itself banned for its dark, disgusting humor) was banned after a profanity-laden and set-destroying performance. This was not helped by the people in the mosh pit, who caused ''at least'' $20,000 in damages.
** Music/TheReplacements (on the season 11 episode hosted by Creator/HarryDeanStanton) were banned after they performed while drunk, switched clothes between songs and screamed obscenities at the audience. However, Paul Westerberg later went solo and was allowed to appear.
** Music/CypressHill (on the season 19 episode hosted by Creator/ShannenDoherty) was banned after DJ Muggs trashed the dressing room and lit a joint on-camera.
** Music/RageAgainstTheMachine (on the season 21 episode hosted by Creator/SteveForbes) were banned after they hung upside down American flags from their gear in protest of the host. Crew members stepped in to remove both the flags and the band from the stage, prohibiting them from performing a second song during the show and banning then for life.
* PetTheDog: In the midst of the Mueller investigation, Robert Mueller (Creator/RobertDeNiro) takes some time to reach out to Eric Trump (Alex Moffat), who's been suffering sleepless nights over the way everyone in his family is being affected.
* PhoneWord: A ParodyCommercial for a harassment agency's phone number is 1-800-HARASSS -- "the extra "S" is for extra harassment."
* {{Pixellation}}: When Creator/PamelaAnderson guest hosted, she admitted to being nervous and remembered that the best way to combat stage fright is to picture the audience naked. When that didn't work, she surmised that you actually have to ''be'' naked. At that, she stripped and her breasts and pubic area were censored by pixellation (of course, she wasn't actually naked- if you look closely you can see she's still wearing underwear).
* PlaceWorseThanDeath: The hometown of Olya Povlatsky (played by Kate Mckinnon), Krezynovichjorgjykultkuljkulchkulk (more or less), which translates into "[[Film/TheHobbitTheDesolationOfSmaug desolation of smog]]".
* PlantHair: There was a sketch recommending chia hair for people suffering from hair loss.
* PlayingCatchWithTheOldMan: In a season 44 sketch, Creator/PeteDavidson's Chad dies and is taken by an angel to the afterlife to find closure with his father Brad (Creator/AdamSandler). The angel conjures up a baseball and two gloves, intending for them to bond over a game of catch. It backfires when it turns out Brad [[LikeFatherLikeSon is just as oblivious and lazy as Chad]].
* ThePollyanna: Willie, Kenan Thompson's recurring character on Weekend Update. His whole shtick is recounting horrific memories of his life to Michael Che, his neighbor. And yet, he never once complains about them and is always so undyingly optimistic that you just want to give the guy a hug.
* PornNames: Several of the porn stars helping Brookie and [[NoNameGiven the one in Witness Protection]] film their commercicals have ridiculous names like [[PunnyName LeJean Noween]], [[Music/GarthBrooks Girth Brooks]], and Creator/JamesFranco.
* PrecisionFStrike:
** As a live broadcast, [[https://www.thewrap.com/a-history-of-saturday-night-live-f-bombs-from-paul-shaffer-to-sam-rockwell-photos/ several F-bombs]] have accidentally dropped over the years, starting with Paul Shaffer in a 1980 sketch. The most notorious cases were Creator/CharlesRocket in 1981 (the mishap that effectively ended Jean Doumanian's brief tenure as producer) and Creator/JennySlate in 2009 (in her first featured sketch on her first episode).
** Whether Music/{{Prince}} actually swore in his 1981 appearance (on the same episode as Rocket's incident, which happened right after Prince's song) has been disputed, though.
** Music/SystemOfADown played a song that was already being bleeped for profanity, but an ad-libbed F-bomb got through.
** Worth noting is that Creator/KristenStewart is responsible for one but got another hosting stint in season 45, showing that they've moved past it.
** At the end of ''Weekend Update'' in the Creator/EddieMurphy episode, Cecily Strong as Jeanine Pirro says "It's merry fucking Christmas", which got past the censors. The same episode has Murphy say "we can still win this shit!" in another sketch, though that got censored.
* PregnancyScare: One skit parodied pregnancy test commercials, with a couple who were ''really'' hoping their one-night-stand hadn't resulted in conception.
* PresidentSuperhero: The X-Presidents. Hey, a President who has left office ''is'' customarily called "President" forever, so they do count.
* PressXToDie: One ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' sketch had "Don't Do Anything" as a category where players were penalized for ringing in. Of course, this being the ''Saturday Night Live'' version, the celebrities still manage to screw it up (with Connery admitting that did so out of malice for Trebek).
* PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy:
** Weekend Update can rope in quite a few performers [[AsHimself as themselves]] regardless of the subject matter, but Pete Davidson has had to adopt certain traits in certain occasions, such as showing up in a gold chain for a bit about the BET awards. The very first thing Michael Che does is [[DisapprovingLook shake his head.]]
** Aidy Bryant on the other hand wields this trope like a double edged sword -- she's the unofficial frontman of the girl group music videos[[note]]Which are usually co-written by her and Creator/KateMckinnon[[/note]], and then there's Tonkerbell and several other of her characters.
** Inverted in a sketch where Creator/JohnMulaney is nervous about meeting his African-American fiancee's friends and family, but shows an unaffected rapport with them (one of them being his old frat buddy from Howard University), all while doing an intricate line dance routine to "Cha Cha Slide".
** In the "Samurai Night Fever" sketch, Futaba (John Belushi) is Italian-American but dresses like a samurai, and his brother (O.J. Simpson) actually became black in the '60s, but decides to stop, because it's no longer countercultural in the '70s.
* PrettyInMink: Some rich ladies in skits would wear nice furs, although there were a few instances of FurAndLoathing as well.
* PrisonersLastMeal:
** {{Invoked|Trope}} in the sketch "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksu7hmVcB4M Parole Board]]" where a prisoner based on "Red" from ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'' is revealed to be a remorseless [[ImAHumanitarian cannibal]] who is facing the death penalty. When told that the only thing he should be thinking about is what he wants for his last meal, the prisoner ultimately settles for Shake Shack, after his initial requests to eat another man or two boys or just one boy were curtly refused.
** Referenced in a 1982 sketch where Creator/EddieMurphy plays a prisoner on DeathRow trying to come up with every excuse imaginable to stall for more time. In one failed attempt, the prisoner insists he get a last meal, and the guard reminds him he already had his last meal.
* ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'': In the episode "[[Recap/TalesFromTheCryptS2E1DeadRight Dead Right]]", the grossly overweight Charlie is arrested, convicted, and executed for Cathy's murder. It's reported on the news that his last meal was [[BigEater the largest any death row inmate has ever had]].
* PrisonsAreGymnasiums: The season 43 finale starts with a sketch about Donald Trump meeting up with several other people caught up in his scandals, like Michael Cohen contemplating the prospect of going to jail, whereupon Trump says "they have a free gym, you are going to get ''so'' jacked".
* TheProblemWithPenIsland: Sean Connery takes this [[ExaggeratedTrope up to eleven]] on Celebrity Jeopardy, who will always misread clearly spaced categories, typically as something sexual, such as "The pen is mightier" as "The penis mightier," "Catch these men" as "Catch the semen," and "Let it snow" as "Le tits now."
* ProductPlacement:
** One of Kristen Wiig's recurring characters is the over-enthusiastic Target cashier.
** All of the "former porn star" commercials feature actual brands. [[StylisticSuck The execution is something else though.]]
** "Office Christmas Party" has the boss "makin' it rain", handing out gift cards for actual brands.
** There's a RecurringElement where they start the sketch like this, only to BaitAndSwitch at the end.
-->"Burger King: At least we're not UsefulNotes/McDonalds."
** Dana and Niff (Cecily Strong and Bobby Moynihan), world's worst employees, are somehow able to find employment at big-name places like Best Buy and [=McDonalds.=]
* PronouncingMyNameForYou:
** One sketch has Creator/JonHamm and singer Music/MichaelBuble doing a TV spot for their new restaurant that serves "fine pork dishes and sparkling Champagne", Hamm & Bublé, the latter of which Jon pronounces like "bubbly". Michael corrects him: "Actually, it's pronounced BOO-blay," but Jon counters, "Well, Boo-blay doesn't work, so now it's pronounced Buh-blee."
** In a ShoutOut to Creator/LizaMinnelli, Creator/SaoirseRonan's monologue has her sing the correct pronunciation of her first name to the audience. People still pronounce it like "[[Series/GameOfThrones Cersei]]."
* PropheticNames: In his first episode as a cast member, Luke ''Null'' appeared in no sketches.
* ProxyBreakup: In the sketch "The Understudy", Creator/MelissaVillasenor asks Creator/ChloeFineman to impersonate her and break up with a boyfriend. As Melissa admits, she's terrible with breakups.
* PunctuatedForEmphasis:
** "I'M BARRY! EFFING!! '''GIBB!!'''"
** Season 44 reveals the eponymous boxer (played by Creator/MattDamon) for the Girlfriend of the Boxer in Every Boxing Movie Ever (Heidi Gardner), with the very HollywoodNewEngland name of "Tommy. Ray. Donovan."
* QuirkyUkulele: Parodied in the segment "Being Quirky with Creator/ZooeyDeschanel", which spoofs Deschanel (played by Abby Elliot)'s spacey brand of "quirky". She's playing a ukulele in the theme song.
* RagingStiffie: A sketch about the high school walkout protests of 2018 has John Mulaney as a student who makes the mistake of wearing the wrong kind of pants, giving him problems just getting out from behind that desk, just because one of the girls touched his shoulder encouragingly. Not helping things is one female teacher who leans right into his face to question his commitment to the cause, after which...
-->"[[JizzedInMyPants Well, it took care of itself the other way. Let's go!]]"
* RamblingOldManMonologue: James Austin Johnson's take on Trump, who's incapable of staying on topic and drones on in long Trump-style complaints, one seguing into the next, about everything ''but'' the subject at hand, until he just barely manages to loop back around and tie it all together at the end.[[note]]Johnson has stated for the record that he thinks the impression lands better if he never brings up politics (and because the real Trump already has that covered, which [[DudeNotFunny can be more uncomfortable than amusing]] for many audiences); his first variation on the character was Trump complaining about a dragon terrorizing the countryside, and his viral sketches were about Trump having opinions on pop culture like ''Scooby-Doo'', LEGO, and 100 Gecs.[[/note]]
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: Parodied (of all things) in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0NgUhEs1R4 2017 sketch]] with [[Creator/DwayneJohnson The Rock]], where {{Mad Scientist}}s are competing to build the "World's Most Evil Invention". While other scientists have built shrink rays and freeze rays to use for CartoonishSupervillainy, such as stealing or destroying world monuments, entrant Roy (The Rock) has built a "child-molesting robot" that ''horrifies'' all of the evil villains present who want him kicked out since EvenEvilHasStandards, only for Roy to calmly point out that being EvilerThanThou was supposedly the whole point of the competition and that if anything [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain the other contestants are slacking]]. The sketch culminates in the revelation that [[spoiler:the whole thing is a commercial for White Castle]].
* RealAfterAll: A Christmas sketch from the Ryan Gosling episode has Ryan and Vanessa Bayer as a couple at a Christmas party that eventually reveal themselves to be a [[AxCrazy dangerously unhinged]], ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'' style couple that practically take everyone hostage when the host implies Santa isn't real. Someone is forced to dress up as Santa to pacify them, and the woman insists on sitting on Santa's lap... in the style of a lapdance. The final shot implies that not only is Santa real, he's ''thoroughly spooked.''
* RebootSnark:
** One sketch parodies the Film/DisneyLiveActionRemakes with an edgy live-action reboot of ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'', with host Creator/DwayneJohnson as the titular deer, updated to be gruff, buff, and loaded with pistols to get revenge on his mother's hunters. Creator/VinDiesel is cast as Thumper and Creator/TyreseGibson is Flower.
** One of the Creator/JohnMulaney episodes promotes the most recent sitcom to be rebooted, the in-universe sitcom ''Switcheroo'', about a FreakyFridayFlip between a son and a dad with a disturbing focus on the son getting trapped in sexual situations with the mom. The reboot apparently doesn't do much to update itself, other than showing a newspaper that says "Trump is President" and then having the mom switch bodies with the dog.
** The Creator/ArianaDeBose episode [[BitingTheHandHumor takes aim]] at parent company Creator/{{NBC}}'s DarkerAndEdgier reboot of ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir'', ''Series/BelAir'', by creating a ParodyCommercial for ''Urkel'', a DarkerAndEdgier reboot of ''Series/FamilyMatters''. The narrator introduces the "cast" with "The goofy characters you loved in the '90s with absolutely none of the fun or the charm."
--->'''Narrator''': Rolling Stone raves, "''Family Matters'' is the #1 worst choice for a sitcom to modernize like this."
* RecliningVenus: Parodied in the Digital Short "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTwwxs3Lqhc Everyone's a Critic]]", when Creator/AndySamberg and Creator/PaulRudd paint nude portraits of each other in the Reclining Venus position and try to sell them at an art auction. The only problem is that [[SuckinessIsPainful anyone who looks at the resulting work is driven to violent, suicidal hysteria]] if the [[BloodFromEveryOrifice internal hemorrhaging]] does not kill them first.
* RecurringExtra: The show often uses writers and production staff as extras in sketches. The show's "all hands on deck" mentality was more prevalent in its early days, but these days, ''SNL'' will use writers as honorary cast members, often if the monologue involves the celebrity host to interact with audience members (mostly the Q&A sessions where a celebrity fields questions from fans) or other sketches where they have more roles than cast members or need some background people if the sketch takes place somewhere where there is a high number of people (restaurants, busy streets, Congressional hearings, press conferences, classrooms, hospital waiting rooms, stores, etc). SNL's choreographer Danielle Flora has appeared as a recurring extra in sketches (often ones that are big musical numbers and they need dancers).
* ReluctantGift: In an episode from late 1992/early 1993, Barbara Bush is showing UsefulNotes/HillaryRodhamClinton around the White House, but is reluctant to let go of the precious antiques and such that stay with the house.
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated:
** Music/PaulMcCartney informed Creator/ChrisFarley that "I wasn't really dead."
** Inverted in [[http://snltranscripts.jt.org/00/00supdate.phtml this]] ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' segment from 2001 in which Music/LouReed appeared on "Weekend Update" to confront rumors that he was dead. Reed confirmed that yes, he really was dead.
* {{Retraux}}: "A Lady's Guide to Throwing a Party", from the January Jones episode in 2009, is shot in the style of an old educational film.
* TheReveal: Much of season 42 had Steve Bannon represented as a hooded Grim Reaper-like character despite the show usually doing faithful representations of appearance and clothing. In season 43 it's finally revealed that under the black robe is a very accurately made-up and clothed [[spoiler:Creator/BillMurray]].
* RidiculousExchangeRates: In season 47's parody of ''Series/SquidGame'', the 45.6 billion ''won'' prize money works up to about US$400.[[note]]The phone calculating the difference has the original figure at 4 billion by mistake. Also the value should actually be US$38.8 million.[[/note]]
* RightForTheWrongReasons: One sketch features Creator/DanaCarvey as a psychic who is never wrong competing on a quiz show and builds an early lead by giving all the answers before the host can ask the questions. Then he gets stuck because he keeps getting premonitions about a meteor and it's not the answer to any of the questions. It then turns out the meteor he was seeing wasn't the answer to a question; it was actually a warning that a meteor was about to strike the show's set. The other contestant gets knocked out when it lands and the psychic wins by default.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: A sketch from 2015 parodied Disney's then-recent trend of remaking their animated movies in live action by reimagining ''{{WesternAnimation/Bambi}}'' as one. Creator/DwayneJohnson (the episode's host) played the title character going after the hunters who killed his mother.
* RomanceOnTheSet: [[invoked]]Parodied with Leslie Jones and Kyle Mooney throughout Season 42, starting in the Dave Chapelle episode, where they begin dating. There are numerous callbacks and references to their "relationship" during the season, and by the end of the season they're married, have a kid together named "Little Lorne" and Kyle ends up in a love triangle between Leslie and Colin Jost.
* RuleOfDrama: Averted for laughs in the ''Forgotten TV Gems'' soap opera spoof [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgYOkcA3wtY "Supportive Women"]], in which all the women were consistently nice to each other and all drama was thereby averted. As host Reese De' What (Kenan Thompson) observed, "Viewers tunes in in whatever the opposite of droves is."
* RunningGag: Generally specific to individual performers; some guest hosts have appeared so often that they've developed their own.
** One particular gag was running roller captions over a bit. Done twice during Garrett Morris' songs ("An Die Musik", on Garrett's surprising song choice, and "Danny Boy", supposedly written by Morris himself in response), and twice during Buck Henry's monologues (one on how he was hired out of pity, and another on how he was brought back because the writers didn't need to work very hard for him).
** Whenever a sketch takes place backstage, there are usually a bunch of showgirls, a llama, and a man dressed as Abraham Lincoln hanging out.
** During the second half of Creator/TimMeadows' tenure, there would inevitably be a joke regarding his LongRunner status whenever one of his old cast-mates came back to host the show.
** From "Celebrity Jeopardy", "Potent Potables", the category that nobody ever picks (at least until the 40th Anniversary special). The "Black Jeopardy" equivalent is "White People".
** A more recent one is the "Five-Timers Club", comprised of everyone who's reached their fifth hosting stint on SNL, and gets awarded a cigar and smoking jacket with a golden 5 on it. There may even be a Broadway-esque dance number.
** During the Colin Jost/Michael Che iteration of "Weekend Update", the two have an annual Christmas tradition where they will end the segment with them telling jokes that were written for them by the other that they are now reading for the first time. [[CrossesTheLineTwice Michael tends to write jokes for Colin that are incredibly racist, while Colin's jokes will most likely make Michael sound like a sexual deviant.]]
** And of course, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is ''still'' dead.
%%* SadClown: Pete Davidson has been diagnosed with depression, which has come up on the show a couple of times.
* SantasSweatshop: In a parody of the play ''Theatre/GlengarryGlenRoss'', a higher-up elf played by Creator/AlecBaldwin (who is a CaptainErsatz of the salesman played by him in its film adaptation) comes in to harshly criticize some workshop elves after they complain about the inferior tools they are using and reminding them to "always be cobbling," a parody of the line in the play "always be closing".
* SarcasmMode:
** Seth Meyers on ''Weekend Update'' every other line:
--->(re: Music/JustinBieber's mugshot) "Well THIS looks like the face of a man who's learned his lesson!"
** Michael Che's style of handling ''Weekend Update'' is two-thirds this and one-third NWordPrivileges. Sometimes both at once.
--->'''Colin''': A merit-based system is contrary to the ideals of America. My Irish ancestors didn't come to America because they were the best and the brightest; they came here because ''[[UsefulNotes/IrishPotatoFamine God took their potatoes away]]''.\\
'''Michael''': At least they had a choice. President Trump said... ({{Beat}} due to massive audience reaction)
* SatanIsGood: A recurring bit on "Weekend Update" has TheDevil (played by Jason Sudeikis, not Creator/JonLovitz) invited on to comment on something heinous in the news, only for him to be [[EvenEvilHasStandards appalled when he hears the act described]] and disavow having any part in it.
* SatelliteCharacter: Certain recurring characters are designed expressly as an add-on to the SpecialGuest.
** Cecily Strong as the English BrainlessBeauty Gemma, who's the girlfriend of many past hosts from Creator/DwayneJohnson to Creator/BenedictCumberbatch. This even extends to Kenan Thompson and Vanessa Bayer, who play the old friend of Gemma's boyfriend ''regardless of who it is'' and his wife. (Lampshaded in season 46, sometime after Bayer left the show, with her character officially PutOnABus.)
** Fred Armisen as Regine, the pretentious and overly-reactive girlfriend to Creator/DanielCraig, Jason Sudeikis and several others, is a classic one.
** Dana and Niff (Cecily and Bobby) are apparently followed to wherever they're working now by the unnervingly creepy Andrew (Taran Killam), who ''doesn't even get lines.''
* SchmuckBait: Win ''Who's On Top'', and you get $600,000 and a choice: walk away or lose it all. Choose to lose it all, and, well...
* SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp:
** From Weekend Update, Riblet (played by Bobby Moynihan), Michael Che's old classmate who's PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy (very distinctly Italian-American too), and constantly ribbing Michael about taking his "jorb", thus coming across as this.
** One sketch has Creator/RyanGosling AsHimself who's in the middle of an interview when he comes across the guy who harassed him in school. [[ManChild The "grown up" part is debatable though.]]
* TheScottishTrope: Season 36 covers the problems with ''Theatre/SpiderManTurnOffTheDark'', which producer Julie Taymer (Kristen Wiig) attributes to the two prop department heads being named Mac and Beth.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: At the end of the "High School Theater Show" sketch with Reese Witherspoon, Leslie Jones' character leaves the cringey show during intermission because she'd rather go home and watch ''Judge Judy.''
* SecretWord: A recurring joke in the show was the segment "Secret Word" in which two contestants in a game show had to guess hidden words based on clues from their celebrity partners.
* SelfDeprecation:
** One Rita Delvecchio sketch centers on her as she gives out candy to trick or treaters on Halloween. When two kids show up as the Spartan cheerleaders (Cheri Oteri of course being the portrayer of both Rita and Arianna the female Spartan), Rita complains, "If I see that freakin’ skit one more time, I’m gonna put my foot through the TV."
** During their music video "That's When You Break" that aired during the 40th Anniversary special, Creator/AndySamberg mentions he and Creator/AdamSandler "[[Film/ThatsMyBoy made a movie that bombed!]]"
-->'''Sandler:''' ''(not singing)'' Why would you bring that up?
** In the Chance the Rapper/Eminem episode, when Colin reports on Al Franken forcing a woman to kiss him for a sketch comedy sketch for Afghanistan:
-->'''Colin:''' Come on, the troops in Afghanistan have it bad enough without you forcing them to watch sketch comedy. People can barely stay awake to watch sketches after "Weekend Update."
** The Jason Bateman/Morgan Wallen episode features a sketch that mocks the incident in October 2020 where Wallen was dropped as the show's musical guest after being caught on social media violating [=COVID=] protocols with Wallen playing himself and owning up to his poor decision making.
** The Benedict Cumberbatch/Arcade Fire episode has a sketch where it's revealed Chloe Fineman is the show's understudy for the other female cast members and she's shown doing impressions of most of them:
-->'''Sarah Sherman:''' Wait, do I sound like a Jewish parrot?
* SerialEscalation: The Sean Spicer segments from season 42 has Melissa [=McCarthy=] (as Spicer) doing crazier things every skit. In her first Spicer appearance, she picks up the press secretary podium and swings it at the reporters; in the following episode's cold open, she drives the podium into the reporter pool; and in Spicey's final appearance, she drives through the streets of New York on the podium.
* SeriesFauxnale:
** The last episode of season five hosted by Creator/BuckHenry with musical guests Andrew Gold, Andrae Crouch, and Voices of Unity. It even ended with the remnants of the original "Not Ready for Primetime" cast running out of the studio as the "ON AIR" light flashed off for (what seemed like it would be) the final time.
** ...Then along came NBC's decision to continue the show, which, at first with Jean Doumanian and her cast (save for Creator/EddieMurphy and Creator/JoePiscopo), was a bad idea. The last Doumanian-produced episode hosted by Creator/BillMurray was also written as the last one...until Dick Ebersol stepped in as Doumanian's replacement.
** The last episode of season 11 (hosted by Creator/AnjelicaHuston and Billy Martin with musical guest Music/GeorgeClinton and Parliament-Funkadelic) was written as the series finale as well, due to the low ratings and terrible reviews the show had gotten during the season. The final scene had everyone in the cast (except for Creator/JonLovitz) locked in a room that Lorne had set on fire. When the show was given a second chance at life, the final scene (and everything about season 11) was written off as All Just a Dream ("...a horrible, horrible dream").
** The last episode of season 20 (hosted by Creator/DavidDuchovny), much like season 11, had a large majority of cast members killed off (as seen in the "Beastman" cold opening and the last sketch where the popular male cast members all throw themselves in a polar bear cage exhibit at the zoo).
* SeriousBusiness:
** The guy who ruins an otherwise perfect dinner with his future in-laws because he gets ''very'' intense on the subject of ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' being the best animated film ever made.
** In another sketch characters played by Creator/MattDamon and Creator/LeslieJones ruin a holiday dinner by fighting over old or new Music/{{Weezer}} is better.
* ShamefulSourceOfKnowledge: From a Weekend Update segment on January 25, 2014:
--> An 18 year old high school student in Florida, who was suspended after school officials learned that he was starring in adult films, has been allowed to return to classes. School officials are also stressing that the way they found out the student was starring in adult films "is not important."
* SharePhrase: It would probably be easier to list the cast regulars and hosts who ''haven't'' gotten to deliver "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" than those who have.
* SheIsAllGrownUp: The Janelle sketches headlined by Sasheer Zamata. Apparently Janelle's online live cam show still uses the same title card she had about 6 years ago, showing her in NerdGlasses, braces and Nickelodeon-worthy braids, but then the show starts and Janelle turns out to be... well... [[MsFanservice Sasheer Zamata.]]
* ShmuckBait: One question in "Black Jeopardy" that should resonate across all races:
-->'''Kenan:''' The answer is "Your barber says there's a 2-hour wait, but there's an empty seat up front". \\
'''Chris:''' What is "aw HELL naw, there's a good reason your chair's empty!"\\
'''Kenan:''' Correct!... You could come out looking like Music/TheWeeknd.
* ShooTheDog: Played for laughs inthe "Tiny Horse" sketch with Creator/TimotheeChalamet -- Tim breaks out his A-lister acting chops as a boy whose parents have to sell the farm, forcing him to shoo the tiny horse away forever. It's a ''tiny'' horse. They could have kept it ''in a drawer.''
* ShootingGallery: Parodied in a sketch, where in between the typical criminals and civilians, a man in an 80s business suit named Kevin Roberts (played by Creator/LarryDavid), who inexplicably has a storyline, pops up, which confuses the rookie FBI agents going through the gallery.
* ShootTheTelevision: On the ''Weekend Update'' airing just after the inauguration of UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump:
-->'''Michael Che''': Welp, after Friday all of America had to go out and buy a new TV. (inset shows a smashed tv still showing said inauguration)
* ShoutOut: Kate [=McKinnon=] as Rudolf Giuliani holds her hands before her chest with her fingers splayed out, in exactly the same manner that Max Schreck held his fingers in ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}''.
* ShownTheirWork:
** Fred Armisen always researches [[RunningGag those elaborate street directions]] in "The Californians" to get them right.
** The spoof of Franchise/{{Batman}} in season 43 repeatedly mentions petty criminals being dangled by wires from gargoyles, cementing this Batman as the Arkham games version.
** According to a comment by a former car dealership employee on the "December To Remember" sketch from Christmas 2020, many versions of the scenario have happened in RealLife.
** The titles of various true crime and cult documentaries shown throughout Season 46’s "Murder Show" are all real. The ones in the lyrics however, are fictional.
* SickeninglySweethearts:
** ''Morning Joe'''s Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski (Alex Moffat and Kate [=McKinnon=]), with reaction shots of any guests for effect.
** {{Deconstructed| trope}} with Nico Slobkin (Mikey Day) and Brie Bacardi (Heidi Gardner) a photogenic Instagram couple who break into a horrible on-air fight at the drop of a hat.
* SignatureTransition:
** The iconic transition between the end of the opening skit and the opening credits is the host breaking character to yell "Live from New York, it's ''Saturday Night''!"
** In both the ''Film/WaynesWorld'' films and SNL sketches, Wayne and Garth would initiate a flashback or fantasy sequence by waving their arms and saying "dillilu" several times, which would result in a wavy transition.
* SitcomArchnemesis: On almost every skit parodying celebrity Jeopardy with involving Sean Connery, Sean Connery always makes fun of Trebek and goes out of his way to try to pick fights with him. While this is mostly one-sided as Trebek just seems to want to get the show over with Connery antagonizing him ever chance possible, Trebek is the at the very least really put-out by Connery's antics. In spite of the professional front he puts up, Connery is clearly getting under Trebek's skin.
* SketchComedy: Not the first of its kind, but definitely one of the most popular.
%% * SlidingScaleOfContinuity: The show alternates between Level 0 (Non-Linear Installments) and Level 1 (Negative Continuity), with some recurring sketches and characters.
* SleepingSingle: Invoked by Bea in "[[https://youtu.be/oPyx4JRCQ88?t=192 Dream Home Cousins]]" (April 9, 2022). It was her idea to replace the king bed with three single beds for her son and his wife when designing the house.
* SluggishSloths: One sketch subverted this. A zookeeper introduces a video made by high school students to teach people more about sloths. The video is a heavy metal video depicting sloths as raucous party animals and violent hoodlums. After the video, the zookeeper says "That's not entirely accurate."
* SmellySkunk: In the Daniel Kaluuya / St. Vincent episode, Kate [=McKinnon=] plays WesternAnimation/PepeLePew who sprays Matt Gaetz with his stench. Gaetz actually likes it a bit.
* SoBeautifulItsACurse: PlayedForLaughs, of course, on the "Creator/SharonStone[=/=]Music/PearlJam" episode (Season 17, Episode 17, original airdate April 11, 1992). Sharon's character is sitting at a bar and guys are walking up to her and being utterly ''terrified'' to speak to her, with Jon Lovitz' character being the only one brave enough to actually sit down and talk to her.
* SoapboxSadie: The "High School Theatre" sketch involves a production delivered by a group of high school students who have clearly just recently discovered both the concept of ''avant garde'' and various issues such as climate change, homophobia, transgender, and so forth, and as a result behave as though they ''personally invented them''. The resulting production is a series of skits that are the worst combination of insufferably self-righteous, poorly informed and utterly pretentious, which their long-suffering parents are forced to endure while snarking and complaining from the audience.
** In one "Woodbridge High School Experimental Theater" sketch, the SoapboxSadie performers all in unison repeatedly chant "Who runs the world? ''Whites''." While this is presumably supposed to be a searing indictment of white privilege, one of the parents points out that, since all the performers happen to be white, this has the unintended effect of making it seem like they're just bragging.
* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: PlayedForLaughs with the recurring Leslie Jones and Kyle Mooney relationship storyline -- they somehow have a son who's grown to the age of 6 ''during season 42'', and by season 43 he's old enough to go to college (and played by surprise guest Jay Pharoah!)
* SoapPunishment: Sean Spicer as played by Creator/MelissaMcCarthy attacked a reporter with [[WaterGunsAndBalloons a Super Soaker]] full of soap water to wash out his "filthy lying mouth".
* SpeedSex: One musical number is done as a "sequel" to the classic "Baby It's Cold Outside", with a TimeSkip of ''12 minutes''.
* SpinOff: ''SNL Korea'', [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a localized Korean version]], is practically a carbon copy of the original, right down to the use of the Grand Central-inspired set for the host monologue. The only real difference is that, because Korean cable shows only have one brief commercial break, the audience gets to watch what happens backstage as the cast and crew reset for a new sketch.
* SpiritualSuccessor: Certain recurring skits feel like successors to older recurring skits; Bill Hader's "Vincent Price's holiday special" is about [[OnlySaneMan Vincent Price]] having to wrangle {{Cloudcuckoolander}} celebrities into putting on a good show, just like Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek in Celebrity Jeopardy.
* SpoofedWithTheirOwnWords: The famous skit about Sarah Palin during the 2008 U.S. presidential race. It very intentionally consisted almost entirely of actual Palin lines from her interview with Katie Couric. A couple of judicious additions and Creator/TinaFey's delivery were all it took.
* SpotlightStealingSquad:
** With Creator/ChevyChase, Creator/DanAykroyd and Creator/JohnBelushi gone by the fifth season, it was left to Creator/BillMurray to carry most of the workload (and Creator/GildaRadner to an extent).
** Creator/EddieMurphy was this during the early '80s, to the point where he became the first person to host while still a castmember. This did not go over with his fellow castmates, especially when he opened with "Live from New York, it's ''The Eddie Murphy Show''".
** By the late 2010s, the show has pretty much become "The Creator/KateMcKinnon Show" after her rise to fame for her portrayal of UsefulNotes/HillaryClinton during the 2016 election. She usually gets a round of applause just from arriving on stage mid-sketch, and during the Trump administration frequently cross dressed so she could play a male member of Trump's cabinet (usually playing CoDragons with Beck Bennett's Mike Pence even when the actual person she played wasn't anywhere near that) and be able to headline the cold opens[[note]]the trend started when she played Jeff Sessions to mock Trump's dislike of the show's portrayal of Sean Spicer, but Kate's comments during the 2020-2021 season suggest she frequently crossdresses as a hobby and escapist technique anyway, so best of both worlds for her![[/note]].
* StagingAnIntervention: In a Weekend Update segment.
--> Creator/SethMeyers: NBC announced that Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb will host a primetime special on the network called A Toast to 2013 in which they recount their favorite stories from the past year. But ''[whispering behind his hand]'' shh, it's actually an intervention.
* TheStarscream: When Beck Bennet plays Vice President Mike Pence, many of his jokes seem to come down to him just biding his time until he can take office, such as this excerpt from a dialogue with Kate [=McKinnon=] as Attorney General Jeff Sessions:
-->'''Sessions:''' What're we going to do, Mike?\\
'''Pence:''' The important thing is to stay calm. In a couple months, the president will be back to normal.\\
'''Sessions:''' *incredulously* How's that?\\
'''Pence:''' Because it will be me.
* StraightGay: Seth Meyers is revealed to be this, after stopping Stefon's wedding and claiming Stefon for himself.
* StealthPun: Season 44 has a ''Series/GameOfThrones'' parody with the odd casting choice of Pete Davidson as the (much older) High Sparrow. Pete has famously been on marijuana, which would make him ''a different sort'' of High Sparrow.
* StepfordSmiler: Downplayed and implied with Kristen Wiig's mom character in "Christmas Morning"- "It hurt so bad, but I didn't even scream, 'cause I keep the pain inside of me!"
* StepfordSuburbia: A recurring plot element involves a gathering of suburban housewives that eventually leads to this disturbing reveal about their reality, barring a certain level of ridiculousness. One episode has Creator/BrieLarson as the new one in a neighborhood where ''all the women'' already have the same 90s-style "soft waterfall in the front but knives in the back" hairdo... and not by choice.
* StraightManAndWiseGuy: Alex Trebek and Sean Connery from the "Celebrity Jeopardy" sketches. Trebek tries to host a normal game show while Connery makes jokes about [[YourMom Trebek's mother]].
* StuffBlowingUp: The Christina Applegate episode of season 38 has a sketch about the legend of Odysseus, where the sirens successfully get the ship to crash against the rocks... and ''explode.''
* StuffyOldSongsAboutTheButtocks:
** Deliberately parodied with "Dongs All Over the World".
** One sketch is about the funeral of a man who dabbled in hip-hop songwriting despite being ''incredibly'' white. One song is actually titled "This Is My Butt".
** Creator/JohnGoodman and Kenan Thompson sing a soul tune called "All I Want for Christmas is Booty" during the monologue.
** PlayedForLaughs in season 44, with a music video about what happens when PoliticalOvercorrectness hits.
--->Shake that booty (If you wanna!) Shake that booty! (It's your choice!)\\
We all wanna touch your booty but we will respect your voice!
%%* StupidSexyFlanders: "Mango" is this joke stretched out to several sketches.
* StylisticSuck:
** One sketch had to be written in a hurry by Beck Bennet and Kyle Mooney due to taking place at the weekend after Day Without Women. Looks ok at first, but then the dialogue suffers ''badly'' before going deliberately anvilicious.
** The Woodbridge High School Experimental Theatre sketches, in which the skits performed by the students are the worst combination of self-righteous, poorly-informed, pretentious and, well, rubbish.
* SubvertedKidsShow: Many a skit have featured this, with the most notable being Mr. Bill, a clay feature getting tormented by Mr. Sluggo and denied help by his "friend" Mr. Hands, as well as Eddie Murphy's parody of Gumby as a drinking and smoking cynic and Mr. Robinson, an inner-city parody of ''Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood''.
* SubvertedSitcom: A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCYPeuEWUbI sketch]] featured host Creator/JohnMulaney as the creator of a 1980s sitcom called ''Switcheroo,'' which seems to be a typical FreakyFridayFlip comedy about a boy and dad switching bodies and trying to hide the secret from the mom. Then we see more clips of the sitcom, which put more and more focus on [[ParentalIncest how the boy has sex with the mom while in the dad's body]]. The interviewer gets creeped out talking about the series, but the creator nonchalantly defends his decision to focus so heavily on the sexual implications of this premise (while also revealing some disturbing childhood facts). The creator mentions an episode in the reboot where the dog and the mom switch bodies while implying [[BestialityIsDepraved similar gross things]], as well as an upcoming crossover with ''Series/{{Dateline}}''. Needless to say, the sitcom wasn't popular in-universe and the cast members are all in group therapy (except for the son, "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Cunanan little Andy Cunanan]]" who left the business).
* SuckOutThePoison: One sketch parodies Indiana Jones, with SpecialGuest Creator/DwayneJohnson as the hero who keeps making the sidekick (Pete Davidson) suck out the poison every time they're hit by venom darts, leading to a jarring case of StayInTheKitchen when they keep preventing the beautiful professor played by Kate Mckinnon from doing it, as much as she [[EatingTheEyeCandy really,]] ''[[AllWomenAreLustful really]]'' wants to.
* SuddenlyShouting:
** From the season 39 premiere, a mock game show called "New Cast Member or Music/ArcadeFire" where SpecialGuest Creator/TinaFey has to figure out which of the people brought before her is a new addition to the show or the musical guest that week. For some reason Kenan Thompson as the game show host turns downright hostile any time the new members start fangirling over Tina.
--->'''Kenan''': "'''HEY!! NO LINES!!''' You get NO LINES! That's something you gotta EARN!!"
** From Weekend Update:
--->'''Cecily''': A river in Scotland was accidentally flooded with whiskey when a bottling plant accidentally released more than 1700 gallons of liquor. [[IntoxicationEnsues Said one fish (terrible Scottish accent) 'YEW DON'T KNOW MEH!']]"\\
(whole scene grinds to a halt as Seth and Cecily both start laughing)
** Leslie Jones pulls this off like a boss:
--->"I want a guys who likes flowers. But don't send me flowers. Cos I DON'T like flowers. Cos they stink of DEATH! COS YOU CUT 'EM UP AND THEY DEAD!! I GOT A BAG FULL OF ROTTING GARBAGE DEAD FLOWERS!! '''A BAG FULL OF DEATH!!'''"\\
(frame out to [[JawDrop Colin Jost looking completely stupefied]])
* SunroofShenanigans: The "Prom Limo" sketch has some drunken high schoolers standing up in a sunroof to try to banter with strangers and sing. Naturally, it ends with [[spoiler:an overpass [[OffWithHisHead decapitation]]]].
* SuperpowerLottery: PlayedForLaughs with the spoof of ''Series/StrangerThings'', with Eleven (Creator/NataliePortman) meeting up with a whole bunch of randomly numbered kids with all sorts of abilities and weaknesses. Cecily Strong is a EightiesHair-wearing teen who can read minds, causing her to fart.
* SurpriseParty:
** A recurring sketch is about a group of people planning a surprise [birthday/anniversary/retirement/etc.] party for one of their friends, and Kristen Wiig's character is so very very excited about it she just can't keep still -- or keep her mouth shut when the character in question appears.
** Creator/JeremyIrons's guest appearance featured a skit in which Literature/SherlockHolmes' friends try to throw a surprise party for him. Turns out they can't surprise the clever Holmes with anything!
** A Christmas-related sketch from Season 13 has the Apostles giving Jesus a surprise birthday party, but they have a hard time being able to surprise him.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Despite being a comedy show, this is frequently played out in its skits and commercial parodies:
** One sketch features a send-up of ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'' as Troy (Creator/ZacEfron) has to break it to a graduating class of East High that if you try breaking out into song in college, not only will no one join in, but people will treat you like a lunatic.
** Likewise, some skits would have Creator/NormMacDonald placed in ''Film/{{Evita}}'' or ''Film/WestSideStory1961'' and baffled at people suddenly breaking into song. "What the hell was that?"
** In a sketch parodying ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'', Lucy attempts the old RunningGag of pulling the football away when Charlie Brown (Creator/BrendanFraser) tries to kick it, but when Charlie Brown lands, he cracks his skull open, and everyone gets angry with Lucy for causing him to be severely injured, and desperately trying to keep him to hang on until the paramedics arrive.
** In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd7NjPYAH3k one sketch]], a military executive brings president UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington (played by Creator/RussellBrand) into the present day using a secret military time machine in hopes that he could bring an end to the arguments over the founding fathers. While a tad exaggerated, considering he starts beating up everybody around him, Washington's [[FreakOut reaction]] over being transported into another time period with no warning was fairly realistic as he questions where he is and who the people around him are out of fear.
** Another skit parodies the famous scene from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" where Grandpa Joe gets out of bed and starts singing when Charlie (played by Kristen Stewart) reveals he won the 5th Golden Ticket. Before Grandpa Joe can really get into the song, however, Charlie becomes absolutely befuddled that his grandfather could walk the entire time and had been essentially forcing Charlie to drop out of school to earn a living for the household while he had essentially been lounging around in bed all day. When Grandpa Joe tries to brush off Charlie's indignant and justified anger, Charlie makes it clear that he is not taking him to the Chocolate Factory and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere storms out of the room when his other grandpa and one of his grandmas revealed that they could walk also]].
** Another "Willy Wonka" themed skit introduces Willy's accountant brother Glen (Al Gore) who is yelling about how the factory is "hemorrhaging money" due to Willy's insistence on such things as a chocolate river, spending a billion dollars on a machine to simply change giant chocolate bars into smaller ones and the countless health code violations of having a pack of mysterious foreign helpers around as the staff (without green cards). When he hears Willy is about to hand control of the factory to an 8-year old boy, Glen hits the roof. Charlie meanwhile, decides he's going to go in for the profits and instructs Glen to start seeing about getting some cheap Mexican-made chocolate they can pass off as expensive.
** The "Hero Song" sketch features Andy Samberg as a businessman singing about how he's distressed by crime in the city and donning a superhero cape and mask to clean up the streets. Until he finds a DamselInDistress played by Creator/AmyAdams being menaced by a {{mook|s}} played by Jason Sudeikis. In mid-''line'', the singing hero takes a [[TalkToTheFist punch to the face]], at which point the mook proceeds to beat the hero. ''[[{{Squick}} Brutally]].'' [[OverlyLongGag For over a minute.]]
** In one of its [[https://youtu.be/KUzGrzsYqH4 commercial parodies, Undercover Office Potty]], a man is provided with a lamp that doubles as a portable toilet so that he can use the bathroom in the office and continue working. A typical ''SNL'' bit would have his co-workers being blissfully unaware and his boss complimenting his increased work production, but instead, everyone immediately notices the stench and orders him to get rid of the lamps. When he tries the same thing with oversized office equipment, he gets the same result, culminating in his fed-up, horrified, and disgusted boss firing him.
** As overkill as it ended up being for the sake of comedy, the famous sketch where Chris Farley plays a man that gets mad at finding out he was in a ProductSwitcherooAd ''do'' showcases the fact that people sometimes don't like being swindled like that. There's a reason why these kind of ads have been struggling recently, not the least of which is the fact that people who get pissed off can make it public as fast as they can place it on the Internet, [[https://consumerist.com/2011/09/07/marie-callenders-tricks-bloggers-with-lasagna-they-thought-was-made-by-a-chef/ like this example here can attest.]]
** Two "Black Jeopardy" sketches (one with Music/{{Drake}} as a Black-Canadian named Jared, the other with Creator/ChadwickBoseman as [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse King T'Challa]]) have the characters played by the hosts perform poorly because, even though they have dark skin, they are natives of other countries and, thus, are completely unfamiliar with African-American culture.
** The early-'90s recurring skit "The Denise Show" featured a teenage boy moping over his ex-girlfriend and doing whatever he could think of to get her back. Despite the comedy setting, it's made abundantly clear that StalkingIsLove is ''not'' true--his father blasts him for his behavior, Denise herself repeatedly tells him to leave her alone, his new girlfriend dumps him because he won't get over her, and the final skit has him mentioning that a restraining order has been filed against him.
** A sketch where a medieval hot oil scalder teaches his son how to perform the job during a siege of their castle has the scalder laugh as he recalls how he [[AmusingInjuries accidentally poured molten lead on his father's leg when he started out]]. His son asks what happened and the scalder replies in a serious tone that his father died as a result.
** A "Stranger Things" skit has Mike, Lucas, and Dustin about to venture into the Upside Down only to be stopped by Lucas' parents, who noticed that their son has been missing for days. The adults chide the kids for being out late while kidnappers are roaming around, do not believe them about the Demogorgon and the Upside Down, and are not any more reassured by them getting supervised by Joyce(who went crazy from the disappearance of her son) and Chief Hopper (who they do not know and are uncomfortable with him calling the kids some of his closest friends). The skit ends with Lucas being taken home by his parents while they comment on the weirdness of the situation.
** A parody of an enhancement drug ad starts out with a man, played by Dwayne Johnson, talking about the miracle of "xentrax", a drug recommended to him by his colleague that cures erectile dysfunction. However, when Johnson's character tries getting a prescription for xentrax, his bewildered doctor points out the dangers of the drug, calls out Johnson for taking sketchy medical advice and responsibly refuses to write a prescription that could lose him his medical license and get a patient killed. [[KickTheDog Unfortunately Johnson keeps aggressively persisting and beats the poor doctor up for all his troubles at the end of the skit.]]
** A 2019 Christmastime Macy's commercial parody makes the point that children often find the cute Christmas outfits their parents buy and make them wear to family gatherings to be uncomfortable for a variety of reasons, and sometimes can't get out of them in time to go to the bathroom. In addition, those clothes can cause adults problems, like a marital couple's squabble over the father's inability to get a pair of boots on their daughter expanding into the father's reluctance to visit his in-laws because the inevitable family drama, and "onesies with so many buttons you'll keep them in a fully loaded diaper rather than have to take it off and put it on again".
** A social distancing Santa's Workshop skit where Santa and Mrs. Claus talk to the kids through giant hamster balls [[{{Slapstick}} ends in disaster when the two actors playing the respective characters keep falling over and hurting themselves in the unsecured balls and destroying the set,]] with Santa even sustaining a nose bleed. The family who came in at the beginning of the skit understandably refuse to let their daughter near those unsafe conditions.
** In this [[https://youtu.be/WcEylCwkSxE parody]] of the ubiquitous "Buy A Car For Christmas" commercials, a man's wife is ''furious'' when he surprises her with a new Lexus, [[WetBlanketWife not just because he made such a large purchase without discussing it with her, but because they can't actually afford it]]. His neighbor is equally angry, as he loaned him the money for it in the belief that he needed it for emergency expenses.[[note]]In the comments, a former Lexus dealership tech who said he often had to work on Christmas making these deliveries said the sketch was all the funnier for him as this had happened several times in real life.[[/note]]
** One sketch centers around a fictional episode of ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' where, after JustForFun/StatlerAndWaldorf do their usual heckling, two security guards suddenly appear and tell them to stop disrupting the show. Then when the duo try to defend themselves by pointing out how bad the show is, the guards remind them no one is forcing them to be there and they can just leave.
** One sketch has the citizens from a Gotham neighborhood up in arms because, despite being the town superhero, Batman keeps beating people up for random crimes like petty theft. Naturally, the people aren't happy that such minor offenses are met with such retaliation as broken jaws and getting dangled from a building for hours.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBFIqRSsixE One sketch]] focuses on a city councilman (played by Creator/OscarIsaac) explaining all the problems with the [[WesternAnimation/PAWPatrol PAW Patrol]] being the only team of rescue workers in Adventure Bay, and how a group of talking dogs isn't a good replacement for actual cops and firefighters. In addition, the counselman questions the idea of Ryder, a ten-year-old boy, being in charge of the team, as a 911 call reveals he wasn't sure how to handle a man's girlfriend while she was suffering from an overdose.
-->'''Councilman:''' Mayor Goodway, the numbers don't lie. 258 unsolved murders. 36 carjackings a day. 0 sex crime units in our police force because the PAW Patrol and their ten-year-old boss don't know what sex is!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes T–Z]]
* TakeThat: Michael Keaton on his episode of ''Celebrity Jeopardy!''. When asked to write his favorite food in Final Jeopardy!, he responded with "[[Film/BatmanForever Val Kilmer Sucks]]" and he wagered "[[Film/BatmanAndRobin George Clooney Sucks]]".
* TakeThatUs: The ColdOpen for the Season 48 is filled with this, as the sketch centers around a fake "[=ManningCast=]" with Peyton (host Creator/MilesTeller) and Eli (Andrew Dismukes) watching the season's first sketch and the two of them mocking several of show's conventions over the last few seasons (over-relying on Creator/KateMcKinnon, continuing to mock Creator/DonaldTrump even though UsefulNotes/JoeBiden is now the president, StuntCasting celebrities for politicians, etc.)
* TeacherStudentRomance:
** The Season 35 classroom sketch with Tina Fey and Music/JustinBieber. Deconstructed when the student (Bieber) catches wise to what his teacher is doing and threatens to sue her for sexual harassment.
** A Season 32 sketch where episode host Annette Bening plays a teacher who's in love with an apathetic student (Andy Samberg) who doesn't realize that he's in a relationship with his teacher.
** On the Creator/JoshBrolin/Gotye episode from Season 37, a drunk teacher (Brolin) during Booker T. Washington High's prom confessed that he's in a relationship with a student (played by Nasim Pedrad).
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM28YFrMdfI This sketch]] has one such case go to trial, where the real joke is that not only was it completely consensual considering both parties' attitude, but ''[[RefugeInAudacity even the judge clearly approves.]]''
--->'''Student:''' She made the first move, sir... [[SextraCredit I went to her office and asked her "what can I do for extra credit?",]] [[InstantSeduction and then it was on.]]
** One sketch has Music/MileyCyrus as a completely detached emo student who only shows an interest in poetry just so she can get in front of the class and start snuggling up to the HippieTeacher.
** There's also Creator/AmySchumer's teacher and her student in the porn parody sketch, who keep getting interrupted by a student (Aidy Bryant) who has actual school-related questions for the teacher.
* TestKiss: In a the episode hosted by Creator/GalGadot two lesbians, Megan and Dre (played by Aidy Bryant and Creator/KateMcKinnon) sail to Themyscira (the home of Franchise/WonderWoman) expecting that the amazons living there will be all lesbians as well; they are severely disappointed when it turns out that none of them are. Diana eventually kisses Dre to see if they feel anything, but they don't.
* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: One "Former Porn Stars" sketch has special guest Creator/JonahHill as "legendary" porn director [[Creator/MartinScorsese Martin Porn-cese]], responsible for such "famous" films as [[ParallelPornTitles Bangs of New York, Raging Boner, The Departed (Hymen)]] and ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet''.
* TheyKilledKennyAgain:
** Mr. Bill, the little Play-Doh man who died a violent death in every sketch at the hands of...well, a giant pair of hands known as Mr. Hands!
** Also Bobby Moynihan's character, Ass Dan, who, despite being dead since 2009, has been appearing in the Under Underground commercials alive and well, until they freeze-frame the shot and play funereal music as the caption: "Ass Dan 1981 -- [whatever year he died. So far, he's died once in 2009, twice in 2010, twice in 2011, and once in 2012, so that's six times if you're keeping score at home].
** Chad has died at least twice: in the haunted mansion sketch with Adele, and the Mars colonization sketch with Elon Musk.
* ThisIsGonnaSuck: In the "High School Theater Show" sketch with Reese Witherspoon, Leslie Jones' character notices one of the actors is planted in the audience and groans, "This is gonna suck."
* ThoseTwoGuys:
** Practically a SNL staple character-wise. Some of the historic pairings on the show's history include the Wild and Crazy Guys, the Butabi brothers, Wayne and Garth, Dyke and Fats, [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers Donald Jr. and Eric Trump...]]
** There's a bunch of behind-the-scenes clips (part of the 40th anniversary celebrations) depicting Beck Bennet and Kyle Mooney (both of whom joined at the same time in season 39) as this. It's taken to its logical conclusion in a "Leslie and Kyle RomanceOnTheSet" sketch in season 43.[[invoked]]
** Similarly, Kate Mckinnon and Aidy Bryant get paired up a lot even though they're the only ones most likely to break each other mid-sketch (and in [[TheAce Kate's]] case that says ''a lot''). Just watch any of the "Mrs Rafferty" sketches, which involve Kate and Aidy sitting opposite each other from beginning to end.
** To a lesser extent, Mikey Day and Alex Moffat, both of whom joined up at roughly the same time, but it wasn't till their roles as Donald Jr and Eric Trump that people started to take notice. Other famous duos they've been cast as include Prince Harry and William, and even [[Series/SesameStreet Ernie and Bert!]] This was actually lampshaded during Creator/ScarlettJohansson's monologue when several cast members [[Film/AvengersInfinityWar crumble into dust]]. Alex is one of the victims and Chris Redd mistakenly calls him Mikey. Ego Nwodim points this out, to which Chris replies "it's the same damn thing."
%%* ThreateningShark: Chevy Chase's "Landshark" skits:
%%-->"Candygram?"
* ThrowingOffTheDisability: In the Christmas edition of "What's Up With That", one of the random characters added to the dance numbers is [[Literature/AChristmasCarol Tiny Tim (with Ebenezer Scrooge right behind)]], who drops his crutch and starts popping and locking like a ''boss.''
* TitleSequence: One thing that SNL has been known to do, constantly, is to update the opening title sequence drastically (as well as the logo) from time to time, in order to look fresh. Only one thing has remained consistent in the sequences, which is that they always feature scenes of New York City locations and goings on,[[note]]the exception is Season 23's opening, which did not feature New York at all[[/note]] either going about their business, showboating for the camera, or being a part of the sequence skits as they were in season 29. Even the ThemeTune has changed frequently, only starting in season 12 to have a more consistent melody to it (and starting in season 24 to also feature a sax solo halfway through that has extended itself over the years). It's also rather long, which, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04kop3CvE_s as this video demonstrates,]] allows for time to prepare the set.
* TomatoSurprise: One Christmas episode hosted by Creator/AmyAdams is about the Dundee sisters, a trio of attractive singing flappers in the '50s who turn out to be complete {{CloudCuckooLander}}s who are ready to eat garbage if they lose a bet (and are way too eager to). [[spoiler:They're actually three raccoons, whose Christmas wish came true, giving them human form for one night.]]
* TooDumbToFool: Alex Moffat's depiction of Eric Trump uses this frequently, as when he's not struggling to understand how [=FunDip=] and fidget spinners work, he's often shooting very simple and innocent statements about his father that completely undermine his brother's (Mikey Day's) prior arguments. (Which also counts as SayingTooMuch.)
* TooDumbToLive:
** A spoof of the upcoming ''Series/JerseyShore'' remake, ''Floribama Shore'', set during Hurricane Irma. None of the occupants really take any precautions beyond staying indoors. The sketch ends with some debris being blown through a window and killing one of them.
** Sam Rockwell appears as the presenter on a children's science show, with two kids brought on set to assist him. They could use some assistance of their own, putting it lightly.
** Typically the game show spoofs will have someone like this among the contestants -- in "Celebrity Jeopardy" it's usually ''all of them''. Except Sean Connery, who's just being an arsehole.
* TookTheBadFilmSeriously[[invoked]]: In one sketch during the 2019 episode with Creator/EmmaStone as host, she played an actress who does this with her bit part on a ''gay porn shoot''. Her "role" is simply being the wife who's cheated on by her husband with her godson, appearing only briefly twice (to leave, then come back and catch them together). However, she goes all out trying to connect with her character, imagining her entire backstory and is moved to tears at the end (though the director doesn't care at all, her fellow actors are impressed).
* TopTenList:
** ''Wayne's World'' would have some, including the TropeNamer for WhyWeAreBummedCommunismFell.
** Nat X would have a top 5 list because The Man wouldn't let him have any more.
* TransparentCloset: The daytime talkshow ''Right Side of the Bed with Gracelynn and Cory'' (Cecily Strong and Taran Killam respectively). They're supposed to be married, but then you notice the way Cory paws at Gracelynn like she was a ''guy...''
--> '''SpecialGuest Creator/ScarlettJohansson''': (on the phone) I'm on that talk show with the gay guy and his mom!
* TrashTheSet: Some ''SNL'' sketches do end with a character laying waste to the cheap, flimsy sets and props on the show, most notably the sketches featuring Molly Shannon's neurotic Catholic schoolgirl Mary Katherine Gallagher or Chris Farley's loud, obnoxious motivational speaker, Matt Foley.
* {{Troll}}: In the "''Celebrity Jeopardy!''" sketches, Sean Connery is easily the smartest and most lucid of the contestants, but he's more interested in getting under Alex Trebek's skin than actually winning the game. So dedicated he is to the idea of trolling Trebek, Connery wrote an album of dirty limericks for the sole purpose of being eligible for the "Rock & Roll" edition and even turned down a role in ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' to be able to attend another edition. His favored insult towards Trebek are his many, ''many'' variations of YourMom jokes.
* TrollingTranslator: In a 1987 sketch, Kevin Nealon plays a translator live-translating a joint press conference by UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan and Gorbachev, but he doesn't speak Russian very well. To cover Nealon "translates" Gorbachev saying "I'm now going to start speaking in a very obscure Russian dialect that very few have ever heard of and it will be impossible for your translator to translate." (paraphrased.)
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: Invoked in the Woodbridge High School Experimental Theater sketches, but while the students clearly ''believe'' this the effect is usually less "incomprehensible" and more "[[StylisticSuck not really that good.]]"
* TwoferTokenMinority: Parodied in the sketch "Simu & Bowen", where the joke is that Bowen Yang's OverlyNarrowSuperlative representation milestones are worth more than Simu Liu's because Yang is a ''gay'' Asian. So while Simu Liu gets an award for being the first Asian to be deadpan on a theme park ride, Bowen Yang gets the same award for being the first ''gay'' Asian to do it.
* UglyGuyHotWife: The "Matt Shatt" sketches, where a gorgeous woman (usually played by the host) brings up her loser husband (Mikey Day). The more dorky things come up about him, the more everybody tries to guess how the wife could be attracted to him, such as suggesting he must have a GagPenis or that she must be blind.
* UndignifiedDeath: A HalloweenEpisode featured four ghosts singing about their means of death, except one of them (played by Chance the Rapper) keeps avoiding his turn to sing. After a lot of convincing, he reveals his means of death: [[spoiler:he developed a {{fetish}} after sitting on a 9-volt battery as a child, and when he built up a tolerance to that, he shoved a metal pipe up his ass and climbed up to get struck by a lightning bolt, getting his insides fried.]]
* TheUnintelligible:
** Vanessa Bayer as Dawn Lazarus, who doesn't mince her words so much as ''dice them up'' and serve them with a smile. It takes a rewatch or two but it can be interpreted.
--->"Hep!"[[note]][[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl Mostly we figure that means "yes".]][[/note]]
** Cecily Strong as Representative Susan Collins became this, in a ''Meet the Press'' cold open from May 2019:
--->'''Susan Collins''': Well, you just bring it on, Chuck, 'cause if you think Susan Collins is a pushover, well, then, you...[''folds up like a woodlouse and starts mumbling unintelligibly into her own jacket'']
** Creator/DavidLynch (voiced by Creator/PhilHartman) was portrayed as this when he called Kyle [=MacLachlan=] during his monologue to chew him out for casually revealing the ending to ''Series/TwinPeaks''.
* UnintelligibleAccent: In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6p0W4ZsLXw Don' You Go Rounin' Roun to Re Ro]]", Creator/BillHader plays an ActionHero who was just released from prison and is forced back into the criminal underworld by his old boss. The joke comes less than a third of the way into the video when their British accents become so intense that their words become muffled, sounding like unintelligible grunts, laughs or mad barking. Hilariously, [[TakeThat this is considered a plus by film critics]].
* UnwantedAssistance: Discussed; in typical pompous and self-righteous fashion, the Woodbridge High School Experimental Theater trope announce in one sketch that in support of LGBTQA+ rights, all proceeds from their latest show will be going to... Creator/NeilPatrickHarris. In the audience, one of their parents perplexedly notes that he doesn't actually ''need'' them to do that. Also overlaps with a bit with CondescendingCompassion since (a) they're presumably only donating the money to him because he's gay, with the unspoken assumption that ''because'' he's gay, he automatically needs their charity and/or (b) they're presumably only donating to him because, for all their smug piousness, they don't actually know of and can't be bothered to find out about any more deserving individuals or charities assisting the LGBTQA+ community.
* VideoCallFail: The "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYP1mXqiwqc Zoom Church]]" sketch made in the beginning months of the pandemic is about a pastor doing his best to hold worship over Zoom. It's incredibly difficult because his hundreds of constituents don't know how to hit the mute button, resulting in inappropriate interjections throughout the sketch.
* VomitIndiscretionShot:
** An infamous Season 20 sketch titled "Rookie Cop", where a murder victim is apparently so gruesome that all the cops/coroners/reporters/etc. who see pictures vomit everywhere. It was later parodied on ''[[Series/ThirtyRock 30 Rock]]''.
** In the Mark Jensen Christmas sketch, Will Ferrell was singing "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" while spinning around on a rotating platform. Gradually he became more and more nauseated until he vomited profusely.
** The "indiscretion" part is arguable when it's shot in grainy night vision camera, as one of those horror movie campaigns where they use the audience reactions as part of the promos, but Melissa Mccarthy is clearly shown throwing up ''more than once'' as part of her epic FreakOut.
** In the cold open of Season 46's Bill Burr/Jack White episode, Joe Biden (Creator/JimCarrey) has a TeleporterAccident and ends up becoming the fly that sat on Vice President Mike Pence's head for two minutes during the 2020 Vice Presidential debate -- then undergoing a SlowTransformation into Creator/JeffGoldblum in a spoof of ''Film/TheFly1986''. In keeping with the movie, when asked by the debate moderator for closing remarks Biden/Goldblum vomits before declaring "Be afraid! Be very afraid! And live from New York, it's ''Saturday Night''!"
* WatchedItForTheRepresentation: Parodied InUniverse with the fake trailer "Lesbian Period Drama": Despite the ClicheStorm, wooden acting, and the leads played by straight women, "Lesbians Monthly" says, "Sure, I mean, I'm gonna see it."
-->You get one a year. Make the most of it.
* WalkingShirtlessScene:
** The "Sober Caligula" sketch has Taran Killiam in just a loincloth and a horse head mask.
** Vladimir Putin, played by Beck Bennet, is shirtless all the time. Nobody seems fazed by his appearance, even the judges in a courtroom.
** The popular "Funkytown Debate" sketch, due to using WordSaladLyrics everywhere including character names, has Jay Pharoah as part of Captain Catfish's (Creator/WillFerrell) staff Diaper Jones. ''He really is in a diaper.''
* WaxingLyrical:
** Bernie Sanders (Larry David), in the Season 43 sketch "Message from the DNC". When the Democrats suggest that Bernie transfer his base of voters to a new leader, he says "No. [[Music/{{Beyonce}} If you liked it, you should've put a ring on it.]] Pass."
** Season 37 had Maya Rudolph return in the role of Beyonce, talking about the birth of her first child (Blue Ivy Carter):
--->"I asked the doctor 'Did I Have A Boy?' The doctor said 'No, you had a Single Lady'."
* WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties: Parodied on the banned TV Funhouse cartoon "Mediaopoly"; late in the song, after exposing many dark secrets about General Electric, a "technical difficulties" title card appears, implying GE censored the sketch. However, it's actually part of the sketch, since the chorus keeps singing afterwards. The singers even lampshade the fact that WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties is sometimes used as a cheap way to censor out anything that the sponsors or network may find controversial.
* WeDontSuckAnymore: Tom Hanks says this about the show during his monologue from 1996, after ''SNL'' improved following the disastrous 1994-95 season.
* WeirdMoon: The Halloween episode of season 45. One sketch is about a full moon that keeps interrupting a dance lesson, and closing the curtains in front of it ''just makes it move to an open window.'' It's an even bigger problem when [[spoiler:the dance instructor turns out to be a werewolf.]]
* WellDoneSonGuy: Sometimes the punchline in ''Weekend Update'' is just Colin Jost with a knowing "....dad." Which repaints the whole joke in a different light.
-->"Today was National Compliment Day... dad."
* WhamLine:
** PlayedForLaughs, not surprisingly, any time they parody soap operas, like "The Californians"
--->'''Pete Davidson:''' What's with that accent?... [[LampshadeHanging I'm from Encino and I've never heard anything like that before.]]
** In the fourth "Black Jeopardy" sketch, Tom Hanks appears as a rural Trump supporter named Doug and Darnell Hayes (Kenan) thinks he'll be the most disastrous white contestant yet:
--->'''Darnell:''' "They out here saying, the new iPhone wants your thumbprint 'for your protection." ''(beeping)'' Oh, okay then, Doug.\\
'''Doug:''' What is, "I don't think so. That's how they get you".\\
'''Darnell:''' ''(stunned)'' YES! Yes! That's it!
** From the "What Even Matters Anymore?" sketch:
--->'''Kate''': [[BreakingTheFourthWall Jessica, you don't have to do this...]]
* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: In the Feb. 4, 2017 cold open, a cranky Trump (Alec Baldwin) agrees to call other heads-of-state without getting briefed first, asking what could go wrong.
* WickedToymaker: One of the first recurring sketches was a segment called "Consumer Probe". The interviewer always wound up interviewing toymaker Irwin Mainway (Creator/DanAykroyd), who made and marketed children's toys like "Bag o' Glass" and "General Tranh's Secret Police Confession Kit".
* AWildRapperAppears: "Dongs All Over The World". Except that Creator/AnnaKendrick was already in the song, and her bit leads to a wild Music/IconaPop appearing.
** Also paried to an absurd extent in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATFy2YLT504 "Rap Song"]], where so many Wild Rappers appear that the lead singer becomes frustrated.
* WinHerAPrize: There is a sketch that pokes fun at this where legendary quarterback Tom Brady struggles to win a prize for his girlfriend at the carnival.
* WishingForMoreWishes: In a sketch John Goodman plays a fisherman who catches a wish-granting fish. He hires a team of lawyers to craft his first two wishes so that they don't backfire; his third wish is to pay his lawyers. The lawyers' fee is 100 wishes.
* WolfWhistle: In [[https://youtu.be/B-GTvgjzomg?t=59 Weekend Update]] for Season 47 episode 5[[labelnote:*]]November 6, 2021[[/labelnote]], Colin Jost says the International Handball Federation says that female players can wear biking shorts instead of bikini bottoms, but the referees will have to whistle with a Wolf Whistle.
* WordAssociationTest: The seventh episode of Season 1, hosted by Creator/RichardPryor, had a sketch in which a prospective black employee (Pryor) is interviewed by a white boss (Chevy Chase). Everything goes normally until partway through the test, when Chase breaks out the black racial epithets. Pryor counters with white racial epithets, escalating to:
-->'''Interviewer:''' Jungle bunny!\\
'''Mr. Wilson:''' Honky!\\
'''Interviewer:''' Spade!\\
'''Mr. Wilson:''' Honky honky!\\
'''Interviewer:''' Nigger!\\
'''Mr. Wilson:''' ''[[BerserkButton Dead]]'' honky!\\
[[spoiler:(In the end, Pryor's character gets the job.)]]
** It should be noted that this sketch was cited (by Tina Fey, on a Season 31 episode that aired on the same day Richard Pryor died) as the sketch that solidified ''SNL''[='s=] reputation as the "edgy, outrageous late-night sketch show".
* WorkingClassAnthem: Parodied in "[[https://youtu.be/lK0Lp43a8z0 Corporate Nightmare Song]]", where four {{Emo}} employees in an office job start out complaining about the "working stiff" lifestyle, until one by one they're all won over by it.
* WorldOfHam: Just about every cast member will overact like hell for some laughter.
* WorstNewsJudgementEver: Every now and then on Weekend Update, often for the sake of a punchline, but some are salvageable:
-->'''Cecily Strong''': Two dogs from Oklahoma went for a three-block ride in their owner's car, after one of the dogs accidentally knocked the vehicle into gear, and the other dog ''accidentally'' opened up a map to Las Vegas, and then ''the first dog'' (Colin Jost laughing from offscreen) accidentally put on sunglasses, ''and then'' the second dog accidentally put on "{{Bad to the Bone}}", [[MoodWhiplash and then they hit a tree.]]
* WrongGenreSavvy: Quite a few sketches revolve around this one person that ''probably'' shouldn't be there.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ39Lhvj2BA This one]] is about a black ops Seal team briefing that looks like something out of ''Film/ZeroDarkThirty''... except this one guy is approaching it like he's a NinetiesAntiHero. Then again, it ''is'' Creator/BruceWillis.
** Bobby Moynihan as recurring character Kirby, a ManChild KindheartedCatLover who's inexplicably thrust into every HighConcept action scenario out there, like a spoof of ''Film/Armageddon1998'' that also has Bruce Willis. At least he doesn't cause all their deaths ''every time''.
* WrongInsultOffence: In his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2X0TaXknVE opening monologue]] in 2017, Creator/KumailNanjiani [[note]]Dinesh from ''Series/SiliconValley'', co-writer and co-star of ''Film/TheBigSick''[[/note]] complained about racists telling him to "go back to India"...because he's never been there; he's from Pakistan.
-->'''Kumail Nanjiani:''' Here's my problem with most racism: it's the inaccuracy. That's what bugs me. I'm like, "Do the research! Put in the work! You will see the benefits!" ... if someone was like, "Go back to Pakistan, which was ''part'' of India until 1947, and is now home to the world's oldest salt mine," I would be like, "That guy seems to know what he's talking about. I'll pack my bags."
* {{Xenofiction}}: Dwayne Johnson / The Rock's DumbMuscle portrayal of Superman spoofs the trope. As in most Superman adaptations, Superman uses his cover identity as journalist Clark Kent to blend in with humans, but his Daily Planet co-workers immediately find him out because, among other reasons, he keeps haplessly writing his articles from a Superman-centric perspective, e.g. "A man in New York was shot to death yesterday because bullets do not bounce off of human bodies."
* XtremeKoolLetterz: Parodied in the "Z shirt" sketch from the episode hosted by Kevin Hart. The sketch is a commercial for the "Z-shirt" (which is just a T-shirt with the letter "Z" on it), and Hart's character keeps asking what kind of shirt it is, using every letter of the alphabet in order ("Is that an A-shirt?" "Is it a B-shirt?" etc.).
* YankTheDogsChain:
** Creator/AdamSandler hosting in season 44 had surprise guest Creator/ChrisRock joining him for the "I Was Fired" song:
-->I was fired, I was fired[=/=]I was fired from NBC\\
Then I ended up on ''Series/InLivingColor''[=/=]Three weeks later they took it off tv
** Sean Connery pulls this off on two ''Celebrity Jeopardy!'' sketches.
*** The first time, the Final Jeopardy! category is "Things you like". Sean wrote "Alex Trebek" and tells him that his jokes are all good fun. Alex then asks to see what he wagered, and it's revealed that Sean wrote "sucks", making the screen say "Alex Trebek sucks." Lampshaded when Alex says, "I can't believe I fell for that."
*** Then, Alex and Sean share some good-natured laughed at Anne Heche's expense. Sean for his Final Jeopardy! response writes, "I'm sorry, Alex" and again tells him it's nothing personal. The rest of the phrase is revealed through Sean's wager: "Trebek is such a fruit."
* YokoOhNo: One sketch in season 38 is about punk rocker Ian Rubbish (Fred Armisen), whose band The Bizarros shot to fame with his sweary anti-establishment rock tracks, until his open support for UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher and the resulting conflicts with his band members started to divide them. It's a rare case of the "Yoko" not needing to be anywhere near the band.
* YouGetMeCoffee: In the skit ''Series/UndercoverBoss : Where Are They Now?: Kylo Ren'', [[Film/TheRiseofSkywalker Kylo Ren]] goes "[[EverybodyKnewAlready undercover]]" as an intern named "Randy" on a First Order ship. He learns that the interns do the "bitch work" -- clerical work, droid wrangling, and stuff like serving blue milk to rude officers.
* YouKnowWhatYouDid:
** Arianna Huffington (Nasim Pedrad) criticizing the Bridgegate scandal:
--->"If it was done by a woman, she would close off ''all the lanes'', and the neon lightboard would light up saying 'You know what you did!' "
** One sketch is about a homemade game show with the housewife as the host and all her children as contestants. The rapidfire round is about all the other housewives who have pissed her off in some way that the kids have to guess at; one answer is a simple "she knows what she did."
* YourMom: From Weekend Update:
-->'''Michael Che''': Scientists say that when people french kiss they transfer over 80 million bacteria. This according to a recent study on yo momma.
* YouSayTomato: The premise of the "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" song during Christopher Walken's monologue. Played with: Walken didn't alternate pronunciations like he was supposed to:
--> '''Walken''': You say potato, I say potato, you say tomato, I say tomato, potato, potato, tomato, tomato...\\
(take two...)\\
'''Walken''': You say potahto, I say potahto, you say tomahto, I say tomahto, potahto, potahto, tomahto, tomahto...
* YoutuberApologyParody: The Daniel Kaluuya / St. Vincent episode had a sketch featuring a fictional [=YouTube=] channel called "Prank Posse," where the [=YouTuber=]'s history of abusive behavior and problematic pranks (such as "Shrek Costume at Funeral" and "Racist Bus Fart") comes to light, which he keeps addressing with somber but clearly insincere apology videos. He nearly kills his friend with a dangerous prank, makes an apology video where he promises to delay an upcoming video where he pranked said friend into kissing his penis, then releases the video anyway, remarking that the worst part about the situation is losing his sponsors. At the end of the video, [[spoiler:his friend commits an apparently DeadlyPrank on him, quickly says "I am so sorry," to the camera, then runs away]].
[[/folder]]

* FootFocus: When Creator/JasonMomoa hosted in 2018, the camera made sure to frame out to show he deliberately went barefoot during the monologue [[BookEnds and again at curtain call.]]