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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Jaws II" (Land Shark), November 8, 1975
Chevy Chase plays the Land Shark, a predator who works apartment doors with fake deliveries until somebody opens up, in a first-season parody of Jaws hosted by Candice Bergen. The joke is mostly the muffled voice behind the door and its escalating excuses, which is why "Candygram" still lands as a punchline. It is the best place to see how loose and strange the original cast could be, with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi playing it straight as the shark hunters.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Samurai Hotel," December 13, 1975
John Belushi plays Samurai Futaba, the sword-swinging samurai stuck in an ordinary job, here working a hotel front desk opposite host Richard Pryor as a bellhop and Chevy Chase as a customer. Belushi's grunted, half-invented Japanese and the real danger of that sword made the character a first-season favorite who kept turning up in new workplaces. Pairing him with Pryor gives this version an edge the later ones lack.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Super Bass-O-Matic '76," April 17, 1976
Dan Aykroyd's fast-talking pitchman sells a blender that turns a whole fish into a drink, and Laraine Newman's consumer gulps it down with delight. It aired in the episode hosted by Ron Nessen, and it set the template for the show's fake commercials: a straight-faced sales voice, a terrible product and no let-up in speed. Aykroyd's patter is so fast that the gross-out joke arrives before you see it coming.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"The Coneheads At Home," January 15, 1977
Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman play Beldar, Prymaat and Connie Conehead, a family of aliens with towering heads who describe everyday suburban life in stiff, overly formal language. That deadpan vocabulary is the whole joke, and it carried the family through years of sketches. This early installment, in the episode hosted by Ralph Nader, has Bill Murray as Ronnie Getsetter, a neighbor trying to take them in stride.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Two Wild & Crazy Guys," September 24, 1977
Host Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd play Georg and Yortuk Festrunk, brothers from Czechoslovakia in tight plaid pants and loud open shirts who are certain they are irresistible to American women. Martin hosted eight times between 1976 and 1980, and his pairing with Aykroyd gives the sketch two equally committed fools rather than a star and a straight man. The phrase in the title went straight into everyday speech.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"The Olympia Cafe," January 28, 1978
John Belushi's Pete runs a Greek diner counter where every order turns into "cheeseburger, cheeseburger" and every soda request into "no Coke, Pepsi," with Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray working the grill beside him. The joke grows purely by repetition until the customers give up, and it shows how much the first cast could get from one line delivered with total conviction. Host Robert Klein is among the bewildered patrons.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Nerds & The Nurse," February 24, 1979
Gilda Radner's Lisa Loopner and Bill Murray's Todd DiLaMuca are the snorting, noogie-trading teenage nerds who are secretly devoted to each other, with Jane Curtin as Lisa's mother, Enid. Radner's laugh and the affection under Murray's teasing make these sketches sweeter than their reputation, and this one, with host Kate Jackson, brings a visitor into the Loopner living room. A good pick if you know Radner mainly from her Weekend Update characters.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Mister Robinson's Neighborhood," February 21, 1981
Eddie Murphy turns the gentle children's show into a tour of a rough neighborhood, with Mr. Robinson cheerfully explaining scams, landlords and eviction to the kids at home. It aired during Murphy's first season, in the episode hosted by Charlene Tilton, with Gilbert Gottfried as Mr. Speedy. The parody has aged well because its target is poverty and hustle rather than the original host, and Murphy brought it back when he returned to host in 2019.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Church Chat," October 11, 1986
Dana Carvey's Church Lady interviews her guests with pursed lips and mounting suspicion, finding Satan behind everything they say, and the pauses before "Isn't that special?" are where Carvey's timing shines. In this installment host Sigourney Weaver turns up as Zuul, the demon from her Ghostbusters role, which gives the Church Lady the perfect guest to judge. Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks round out the show.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Pumping Up With Hans & Franz," October 17, 1987
Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon play Hans and Franz, Austrian bodybuilders in padded sweatsuits who promise to "pump you up" and sneer at viewers' flabby arms, an affectionate send-up of Arnold Schwarzenegger. This one aired in the season premiere hosted by Steve Martin, with Phil Hartman as the announcer. The sketch works because the pair never lose their total, misplaced confidence.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Wayne's World," February 18, 1989
Mike Myers and Dana Carvey's public-access show from a suburban basement, with Wayne's easy confidence and Garth's nervous energy, plus Phil Hartman as Garth's father, Beev, and Jan Hooks dropping by. This early installment aired in the episode hosted by Leslie Nielsen. The catchphrases and the gap between the hosts' excitement and their tiny audience carried the sketch all the way to two feature films.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Chippendales," October 27, 1990
Host Patrick Swayze and Chris Farley audition side by side to become Chippendales dancers, and Farley matches every move with total commitment while judges Kevin Nealon, Mike Myers and Jan Hooks keep straight faces. It is one of the most famous examples of Farley's fearless physical comedy. Later commentary has questioned whether the laughs come at the expense of his body, a fair caveat to weigh before watching.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Bill Swerski's Super Fans," January 12, 1991
A table of mustached Chicago sports fans, played by Mike Myers, Kevin Nealon, Chris Farley and co-creator Robert Smigel, with host Joe Mantegna as Bill Swerski, debate absurd questions about their teams and always land on "Da Bears." The thick accents, the sausages and Farley's escalating heart trouble make it one of the most quotable sketches of the early 1990s. You do not need to follow football to get it.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Coffee Talk," February 22, 1992
Mike Myers plays Linda Richman, a host so overcome by her love for Barbra Streisand that she has to stop and tell viewers to "talk amongst yourselves." This installment, in the episode hosted by Roseanne and Tom Arnold, is the one where Streisand herself walks on, and the shock on Myers' face is the payoff. Even without the cameo, Richman's verklempt pauses show how much comedy can fit into a beat of silence.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Van Down By The River," May 8, 1993
Chris Farley's motivational speaker Matt Foley, who lives in a van down by the river, is hired to scare two teenagers, played by David Spade and host Christina Applegate, onto the straight and narrow. Farley crashes through the furniture and visibly wrecks his castmates' composure, and it remains the standard example of a cast breaking for good reason. Phil Hartman and Julia Sweeney play the worried parents.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"St. Monica Talent Auditions," October 28, 1995
Molly Shannon's Mary Katherine Gallagher, the nervous Catholic schoolgirl who tucks her hands under her arms and hurls herself into the scenery to prove she is a superstar, auditions for the school talent show with Will Ferrell and host Gabriel Byrne looking on. Shannon's physical commitment carries the sketch, and the character went on to lead her own feature film, Superstar, in 1999. It is the clearest case for why Shannon became a mainstay of the late 1990s cast.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Jeopardy!" (Celebrity Jeopardy!), December 7, 1996
Will Ferrell's weary Alex Trebek tries to get through a round with Darrell Hammond's taunting Sean Connery, Norm Macdonald's Burt Reynolds and host Martin Short as Jerry Lewis. The clues get easier, the contestants get worse, and Hammond's Connery, insulting Trebek at every turn, became the reason people tuned in to each return. It doubles as a showcase of the late 1990s cast's impressions.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"The Delicious Dish," December 12, 1998
Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon host a hushed public-radio food show, and host Alec Baldwin plays their guest, Pete Schweddy, who has come to talk about his family's holiday treat. The whole sketch is one double entendre handled with whispery seriousness, and the hosts barely survive it. Baldwin's deadpan is why it works; he never once acknowledges the joke.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Behind The Music" (More Cowbell), April 8, 2000
A music-documentary reenactment of Blue Oyster Cult in the studio, with host Christopher Walken as producer Bruce Dickinson and Will Ferrell as Gene Frenkle, the cowbell player in a shirt a size too small. Ferrell's mounting enthusiasm and his bandmates fighting off laughter, Jimmy Fallon most obviously, turned "more cowbell" into a lasting catchphrase. Watch Walken: he never cracks.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Debbie Downer," May 1, 2004
Rachel Dratch's Debbie Downer brings grim news to every happy moment, each one cued by a sad trombone, here at a table of friends with host Lindsay Lohan. This installment is famous because the cast, Dratch and Jimmy Fallon included, can barely get through it, which makes the live version far funnier than a clean read would be. Fred Armisen, Amy Poehler and Horatio Sanz are at the table too.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"A Nonpartisan Message From Sarah Palin & Hillary Clinton," September 13, 2008
Tina Fey's Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler's Hillary Clinton deliver a joint address in the middle of the 2008 campaign, and Fey's impression became one of the defining political sketches of that election. Poehler's barely contained frustration plays beautifully against Fey's breezy confidence. It is a cold open rather than a mid-show sketch, but it was performed live in the studio, in the episode hosted by Michael Phelps.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"The Californians," April 14, 2012
A soap opera parody in which Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig play wealthy Angelenos who interrupt every confession to give each other driving directions, with host Josh Brolin in this first installment. The exaggerated accents and mirror-gazing made it one of the best recurring sketches of the 2010s, and Hader has said it began as an offstage bit among cast members. Kenan Thompson, Vanessa Bayer and Kate McKinnon fill out the cast.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Close Encounter," December 5, 2015
Host Ryan Gosling, Cecily Strong and Kate McKinnon play alien abductees questioned by government agents: the others describe wondrous experiences, while McKinnon's Colleen Rafferty recalls something far less dignified. Gosling's struggle to keep a straight face is half the appeal. McKinnon brought Colleen back several times, including with Gosling again on April 13, 2024, but this first one is the cleanest.
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Saturday Night Live (1975)
8.0/10on IMDb
First aired
"Haunted Elevator" (David S. Pumpkins), October 22, 2016
Host Tom Hanks plays David S. Pumpkins, a man in a pumpkin-print suit flanked by two dancing skeletons, played by Bobby Moynihan and Mikey Day, who keeps popping up on a haunted-house ride. Beck Bennett and Kate McKinnon, as the riders, cannot work out who he is or why he is there, and that confusion is exactly the joke. It became a Halloween favorite almost overnight.
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