Debbie Downer, Tina and Amy, Domingo, Close Encounters, Black Jeopardy, New York Musical — these were just some of the notable sketches featured in the 50th Anniversary Show Special of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) on Sunday night. The three-hour long live show consisted of an endless string of callbacks to some of the show’s biggest hits … of the last 15 years.
The show itself was great. There was a brilliant mixing of eras, including Eddie Murphy, Leslie Jones and Tracy Morgan competing on Black Jeopardy, Will Ferrell, Murphy and Keenan Thompson in Scared Straight and Kate McKinnon, Pedro Pascal, Woody Harrelson and Meryl Streep in Close Encounters. Even the musical performances were a fun mixing of ages and genres, including Sabrina Carpenter performing a duet with Paul Simon and Lil Wayne performing with The Roots.
Each sketch provided some of the best comedy to come from SNL in a long time, which makes sense given the star-studded cast in attendance for the show. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler had a great routine that was essentially a stand-up performance polling cast members in the audience.
One of the highlights of the night was John Mulaney, Pete Davidson and David Spade in the New York Musical, which was a hilarious encapsulation of both SNL’s comedy throughout the years and New York City itself.
Rachel Dratch revived her Debbie Downer character for a playful exchange with Robert De Niro playing his Godfather character. It was also fun to see SNL give attention to Domingo, which is a sketch from this season that garnered mass attention across social media.
Weekend Update lived up to the expectations you’d expect from SNL’s staple of the last 50 years. Bill Murray had a playful segment ranking Weekend Update anchors, which included shots at both Chevy Chase and Colin Jost.
Cecily Strong revived her The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With character, alongside Bobby Moynihan’s Drunk Uncle to create a duo that complimented each other perfectly.
Some of the other sketches included Davidson’s Chad character being a stagehand, Bowen Yang and Andy Samberg doing a SNL digital short about cast members getting anxiety and original cast member Garrett Morris leading a tribute to John Belushi.
One of the only substantial issues I took with the anniversary show was that it was more a tribute to the past 15 years of SNL rather than the past 50. The sketch callbacks were all to relatively new sketches, and a majority of the older cast members, aside from Morris, Steve Martin and Laraine Newman, were omitted from appearing.
This feeling changed, however, towards the end of the show when Adam Sandler was introduced by Jack Nicholson for one of his classic songs. Sandler’s song “50 Years” was undoubtedly the highlight of the night, honoring older cast members while paying tribute to his close friends Chris Farley and Norm MacDonald. Sandler’s song was a masterpiece that was equally emotional and funny, taking playful shots at show creator Lorne Michaels and included nods to some of SNL’s more underappreciated players throughout the years.
Perhaps you don’t have to sit through the nearly three-and-a-half hour show, but if you have found yourself enjoying SNL at any point in the last few decades, do yourself a favor and check out some of the sketches from the anniversary show.
5/5 stars
wjackso2@ramapo.edu
Featured photo courtesy of @nbcsnl, X
