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** The peak example is "Spelling Bee" from season 31, with Creator/WillForte as a contestant who gets given the word "business", stalls before trying to spell it by asking to have it repeated, plus the word's origin and definition, before finally "spelling" it by starting with a "B", and following it with '''74''' completely random letters (including "Q" 12 times in a row).
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* JinxGame: Julia Louise-Dreyfuss and Mary Gross in one episode performed a rhyme together any time they said the same thing, with the Jinx Game as the theme:
--> '''Both:''' ''(singing)'' "Jinx! Buy me a Coke! Inky-dinky-pinky-winky! Flush it down the kitchen sinky! Alley Ooop! Alley Ooop! Doh hinky. The king of France wet his pants right in the middle of a ballroom dance. Yodleayheehoo! Yodleayheehoo! Nee nee nee ne nee nee neee ne nee nee nee nee. Huh!"
--> '''Both:''' ''(singing)'' "Jinx! Buy me a Coke! Inky-dinky-pinky-winky! Flush it down the kitchen sinky! Alley Ooop! Alley Ooop! Doh hinky. The king of France wet his pants right in the middle of a ballroom dance. Yodleayheehoo! Yodleayheehoo! Nee nee nee ne nee nee neee ne nee nee nee nee. Huh!"
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* 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".]]
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* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognise: A NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: An in-universe example for a sketch from the Creator/JonahHill episode is episode. In a send-up of ''TabletopGame/{{Cluedo}}'', with six murder suspects, half male half female, and are 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".]]
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* 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.
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* PassThePopcorn: A variation in season 48 -- host Creator/DaveChapelle Creator/DaveChappelle 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.
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* ImprovComedyIsInane:
** One of the high school theater sketches incorporates some improv into the show, with the students asking for a suggestion from the audience. An audience member gives "basketball." The students then put on a clearly pre-rehearsed scene about a mother comforting her son after kids are homophobic to him in school, then announcing they're going to have ''basketball'' for dinner at the end.
** One sketch parodies ''Series/ChicagoFire'' and ''Series/ChicagoPD'' with ''Chicago Improv,'' a gritty drama full of obscure references to the Chicago improv scene played as SeriousBusiness. The reviews are very confused.
-->"Too much improv," says ''Improv Magazine.''
** The sketch "Improv Show" from season 40 has an improv troupe named "Prince Charmin" who enter the scene doing corny dance moves and are overly expressive with every single sentence they say. When they interview audience member Robert Durst as a prompt for a scene, he says they have "too much energy" and once the team starts the scene, they end up laughing at all their own jokes.
** One of the high school theater sketches incorporates some improv into the show, with the students asking for a suggestion from the audience. An audience member gives "basketball." The students then put on a clearly pre-rehearsed scene about a mother comforting her son after kids are homophobic to him in school, then announcing they're going to have ''basketball'' for dinner at the end.
** One sketch parodies ''Series/ChicagoFire'' and ''Series/ChicagoPD'' with ''Chicago Improv,'' a gritty drama full of obscure references to the Chicago improv scene played as SeriousBusiness. The reviews are very confused.
-->"Too much improv," says ''Improv Magazine.''
** The sketch "Improv Show" from season 40 has an improv troupe named "Prince Charmin" who enter the scene doing corny dance moves and are overly expressive with every single sentence they say. When they interview audience member Robert Durst as a prompt for a scene, he says they have "too much energy" and once the team starts the scene, they end up laughing at all their own jokes.
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** 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.
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** Speaking of which, Creator/ChevyChase is allegedly banned from hosting (after after doing so nine times–the eight times (the record for a former cast member) simply due to his unbearable for being an abusive {{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, specials, but hasn't hosted since Season 22 (1996-97). Made all the more egregious in that he was an '''''original''''' cast member.
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* PushPolling: During a 1982 episode of the show, Creator/EddieMurphy presents a live lobster in a chef's kitchen on-air. He then opens a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_the_Lobster a phone poll]] so that viewers can decide whether to cook the lobster or not. Murphy deliberately tries to skew the poll towards killing the crustacean by enunciating the "cook" number slowly and clearly while speeding through the "spare" number. Despite this, the "spare" option wings; Murphy, however, cooks and serves the lobster anyways a week later due to racist remarks he received in the wake of the poll.
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* ParallelPornTitles: From the "Bambi 2002" sketch: "Pokahontass". From the "Disney Vault" sketch: "101 Fellations".
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* ParallelPornTitles: ParallelPornTitles:
** From the "Bambi 2002" sketch:"Pokahontass". "Pokahontass".
** From the "Disney Vault" sketch: "101Fellations".Fellations".
** 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 Bangs of New York, Raging Boner, The Departed (Hymen) and InNameOnly ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet''.
** From the "Bambi 2002" sketch:
** From the "Disney Vault" sketch: "101
** 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 Bangs of New York, Raging Boner, The Departed (Hymen) and InNameOnly ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet''.
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* {{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."
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* {{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 of fuel invoices and the stormtrooper tells him that he's looking for "Deez Nuts."
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* ObituaryMontage:
** [[Recap/SaturdayNightLiveS19E16 "Lindsay Lohan/Jack White"]]: There's an award show for psychics with a montage of people who are ''going'' to die that year. Needless to say, this comes as a bit of a shock to the people seen in the video. Ultimately including the entire audience of the show, it predicts them to die when the theater catches fire.
** [[Recap/SaturdayNightLiveS40Special04 "40th Anniversary Special"]]: It shows a genuine montage, introduced by Creator/BillMurray, featuring the cast and crew members who had passed on. To lighten things back up, the final tribute was for Creator/JonLovitz, with the camera cutting to a very alive and confused Lovitz sitting in the audience. Additionally, it ends with an update coming from Spain: "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead."
** [[Recap/SaturdayNightLiveS19E16 "Lindsay Lohan/Jack White"]]: There's an award show for psychics with a montage of people who are ''going'' to die that year. Needless to say, this comes as a bit of a shock to the people seen in the video. Ultimately including the entire audience of the show, it predicts them to die when the theater catches fire.
** [[Recap/SaturdayNightLiveS40Special04 "40th Anniversary Special"]]: It shows a genuine montage, introduced by Creator/BillMurray, featuring the cast and crew members who had passed on. To lighten things back up, the final tribute was for Creator/JonLovitz, with the camera cutting to a very alive and confused Lovitz sitting in the audience. Additionally, it ends with an update coming from Spain: "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead."
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* MistakenForDestitute: Parodied in a high school theater sketch, in which the SoapboxSadie teenage actors put on a scene to demonstrate why not to judge a book by its cover. They ask someone hunched over and warming up his hands if he's homeless, to which he replies, "No, I'm just cold. I'm actually very rich." Then they ask someone standing up proudly if she's rich, and she replies, "No, I just have good posture. I'm homeless."
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* ProfoundByPopSong: In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbnfxwus0s Rude Buddha]]", a man comes to the Buddha and asks for council about the stress of his farming job. The Buddha answers by quoting the opening theme to ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'', deliberately doing so to mess with him and then remarks that the people who come to him are morons.
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* OperatorsAreStandingBy: There's a TV ad offering courses on becoming call center operators. It, of course, ends with "operators are standing by".
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* KickTheSonOfABitch: One sketch is about Vanessa Bayer as the AlphaBitch setting up a {{Film/Carrie|1976}}-level prank on the new girl in school. The twist? She's played by SpecialGuest Creator/RondaRousey.
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* PovertyPorn: {{Parodied}} in the sketch "39 Cents" where Creator/BillHader plays Charles Daniels, an old white man asking for viewers at home to send a check of 39 cents to help the poor country he's in (while the natives are adamant that more than 39 cents in cash should be sent instead). Daniels makes the big mistake of guessing the country he's in is [[AfricaIsACountry Africa]], prompting the natives to hold him for a ransom of $200 cash.
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* 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.
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* KickTheSonOfABitch: One sketch is about Vanessa Bayer as the AlphaBitch setting up a {{Film/Carrie}}-level {{Film/Carrie|1976}}-level prank on the new girl in school. The twist? She's played by SpecialGuest Creator/RondaRousey.
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I do not know why I put that there...
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* ''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]].
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[[Series/SaturdayNightLive Main page]] | [[SaturdayNightLive/TropesAToC A to C]] | [[SaturdayNightLive/TropesDToH D to H]] | '''I to P''' | [[SaturdayNightLive/TropesQToZ Q to Z]]
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: I]]
* 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.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: J-L]]
* 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]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: M]]
* 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: N]]
* 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.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: O]]
* 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.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: P]]
* 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."
[[/folder]]
----
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: I]]
* 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.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: J-L]]
* 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]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: M]]
* 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: N]]
* 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.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: O]]
* 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.
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[[folder: P]]
* 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."
[[/folder]]
