SNL Reviews: 50th Anniversary Special (Part 2)

 Sketch: Close Encounters

Mrs. Rafferty relates her latest encounter with those Goddamn aliens.

• Are you fucking kidding me??? Why is this back again? They gave it a proper conclusion almost THREE YEARS AGO!!!!

• Hey, Aidy’s lost some weight!

• At least Woody Harrelson is a perfect fit for this sketch. I actually laughed at his character’s first line questioning why it’s called The Pentagon when it “only” has five sides.

• *sigh* Kate’s character is going through all of her usual tired routines. Thankfully, there’s no Ryan Gosling for her to crack up this time.

• Woody and Pedro’s characters are giving me my only laughs.

• Oh, wow, Mrs. Rafferty just got between someone’s legs! What a hilarious and unexpected twist!!! Barf!

• How is this only the first time Meryl Streep has ever appeared on SNL? And it has to be in THIS??? What a fucking waste of her talents.

Film: The Stagehand

Laraine Newman returns to Studio 8H, where she meets a familiar face working there as a stagehand.

• Sweet, a Laraine Newman showcase! I’ve always been more familiar with her from providing “additional voices” in so many animated films.

• Seeing her interacting with Mikey is kind of sweet, considering that they’re both Groundlings alumni. 

• Chad is back, bros!!! Despite dying on Mars in Season 46, he’s somehow been resurrected as an employee at SNL!

• The interplay between these two is hilarious! 

• Laraine: “Could you do me a favor?” Chad: “Heh, do me.” I hate that I laughed at that.

• This part with Chad screwing things up and saying “My bad.” has no right to be as funny as it is. I also love how it’s the exact same recording each time he says it.

• After Laraine’s heartwarming speech about all the memories she’s had, I LOVE how Chad’s favorite memory is something we saw only a minute ago!

Musical Performance: “50 Years” by Adam Sandler

• As if things couldn’t get any more special, now we have a Jack Nicholson cameo!!!

• Turns out he was there to introduce an Adam Sandler guitar song! FUCK YEAH!!!

• That’s Dan Bulla on the keyboard. Apparently Adam was responsible for recommending him to SNL, as they had worked together on some comedy specials.

• It’s sad that this is the only time we get a Victoria Jackson mention tonight, even though she was apparently in the audience.

• I’m getting tears in my eyes when he brings up Phil and Chris Farley at the end…Who knew that Adam fucking Sandler would give us one of the most emotional moments of this special??!

• I don’t normally rate the musical performances, but, since this was so good…

Sketch: New York 50th Musical

New York is celebrated.

• ANOTHER Mulaney musical sketch?!??? Did we really need two in one season??? Jesus Christ, these sketches aren’t as iconic as SNL and the media think they are.

• I should be more excited to see David Spade, but we just saw him a few episodes ago as Hunter Biden.

• They’re clearly running out of ideas for these, as the inciting line from Pete in this one is just him saying that he’s moving to New York.

• Fuck, it’s Maya singing again! And she’s dressed as…a heroin needle…could it be any more obvious why I hate these sketches??!!???

• Not even the sight of Adam Driver in a hot dog costume is making me laugh.

• Why are they singing the Fame theme song if this is supposed to be the 70s? Didn’t that come out in the 80s?

• Hey, it’s G.E. Smith, mugging up a storm as always!!! And he’s rocking out with Paul Shaffer!

• NATHAN LANE!!!!!!! The episode he hosted in Season 23 is an underrated classic, and it’s such a surprise to see him on the show again!!! Unfortunately, he’s there to sing a cocaine-themed parody of “Hakuna Matata”, because reference!!! To a movie that won’t come out until 1994!!! Did they just randomly pick these celebrities without thinking about if they made sense in these particular decades???

• Despite my saltiness, Lane is still as amazing as ever. It brings me right back to my childhood listening to his voice on that George and Martha cartoon (which coincidentally also featured SNL’s Tony Rosato).

• Putting Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte in fake mustaches will never NOT be funny! Their song is actually making me laugh for a change!

• On an unrelated note, I can see Brad Hall (!) behind them as they’re arguing! Nice to see him on the show again! Also, you can see Woody Harrelson in the background with a zoned-out expression. Guess he’s tired of this shit too!!!

• I did get a laugh at John introducing Kristen’s character as a prostitute. 

• No. NO. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK YOUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!! IT’S MOTHERFUCKING KATE GIULIANI AGAIN!!!!! *I grab a gun and shove it in my mouth like Budd Dwyer, pulling the trigger and sparing myself from having to watch this bullshit again*

• And now Lin-Manuel Miranda is there to do a shitty parody of a song from his musical? Why is this still going on????

• Oh, and just to screw me over even more, now there’s a drag version of Michael Bloomberg, played by Sarah. *I put a plastic bag over my head and suffocate myself to death*

• *sigh* Mulaney actually tells Sarah that her impression is “great”. I don’t know what impression you heard, buddy, but that sounded awful!

• Another genuine laugh from a tall, unknown extra playing Bill DeBlasio.

• James Austin Johnson is wasted with a small role as a whiskey bottle.

• Mulaney: “Remember what this city gave you!” Pete: “Herpes?” Okay, that did get a chuckle from me.

• And Kenan comes out at the end as the lobster from the original sketch. Holy shit, does that mean that this is going to be the final installment??? It better fucking be!!!

• Overall, that was definitely the worst of these sketches. It was way too long, had several extremely annoying elements, and in general, there was kind of a half-assed aura to it. However, I did surprisingly get a few laughs from it, which has never happened before.

Montage: Commercials

• Ugh, it’s fucking Alec Baldwin. Please go away!!!

• Anyway, the only reason he’s here is to introduce our next montage: one about commercials!!!

• I love how this starts off with the iconic “Oops! I Crapped My Pants!” (“How do you know so much about Oops! I Crapped My Pants?” “I’m wearing them, and I just did.”)

• All of our favorites are here!!! “Colon Blow”! “Happy Fun Ball”! “Mom Jeans”! They’re all there!!!

• Nice to see some Tim Robinson representation with the hilarious “Z Shirts” commercial! 

• And you know I loved seeing the “Toilet Death Ejector” again!!!

Sketch: Bronx Beat

Betty and Jodi interview Miles Teller before everyone’s favorite verklempt old lady Linda Richman hijacks the show.

• Not too thrilled to see this again. I’m not a big fan of sketches where the only joke is the way people talk. And SNL has done waaaaaay too many sketches about how funny New Yorkers talk.

• At least Miles Teller is a welcome presence, reminding me of how much I liked him as a host, despite the horrid material he was saddled with.

• So far, I’m not exactly hating this like I thought I would…but I’m not laughing, either.

• Random and unexpected appearance from Mike Myers as his Linda Richman character, the first time she’s appeared since 1997. I love Mike Myers and all, but not one of my favorite characters of his. I would have preferred seeing the return of Dieter, to be honest. 

• Thanks to his aging, he now resembles an old lady more than he did while he was in the cast. This also leads to a funny blooper when he has trouble pronouncing “shpilkis in his genechtagazoink”.

• And there goes the overused “I’m feelin’ verklempt” catchphrase. 

• Not much to say about this one, really. What was the point of even bringing Miles Teller on stage when they were just going to forget about him halfway through for memberberries?

Musical Performance: “Uproar”, “Lollipop”, “6 Foot 7”, “A Milli” by Lil Wayne, The Roots, and DJ T. Lewis

In Memoriam Montage

Tom Hanks introduces a montage of all the moments that are considered “problematic”nowadays.

• Alternate title: “If you laughed at any of these, then you are a Trump supporter”

• Is it wrong that I laughed at a lot of these???

• Nice use of Adrien Brody’s infamous “rude boy” routine that got him in trouble.

• I got an unintentional laugh from seeing a young Larry David in one of the clips.

• Some of these “problematic” moments aren’t even that bad. The one with Ben Affleck yelling at Fred as a disabled man was kind of the point. They were showing what a horrible person he was for discriminating against the disabled.

• There’s the classic clip of Norm saying that SNL doesn’t hire women!

• Again, the section showing off “problematic” makeup (i.e. blackface) is missing the point that some (not all) of those examples were satirical. For example, the one of Kevin Nealon in Al Jolson-esque makeup was making fun of the time when Ted Danson roasted Whoopi Goldberg in blackface, and the one with Joe Piscopo and Eddie dressed as Chinamen was mocking advertising companies and their use of stereotypical mascots.

• It doesn’t help that all of the examples shown have been pixelated to protect the snowflakes in the audience. SNL needs to stop being pussies and acknowledge their sometimes offensive past.

• They even censor a clip of Fred’s Prince impression, even though we JUST SAW HIM DOING IT AT THE CONCERT THE OTHER NIGHT!!!!

• Great ending with the montage of criminal guests such as OJ, Diddy, and Jared Fogle.

Sketch: Debbie Downer

Debbie airs her grievances at a bar.

• Jimmy Fallon, Ayo Edebiri, and Drew Barrymore is such an odd combination.

• Debbie Downer?!!?? Holy shit, talk about unexpected!

• As much as I hate that this character became recurring, I will never get tired of those “wah-waaaaah” sound effects.

• I like the variation on the routine with chicken sounds being played instead after Debbie talks about the bird flu.

• I’m amazed that Jimmy hasn’t cracked up once. That’s clearly the reason why they put him in this, but it’s just not happening. 

• Maybe it’s just the festive atmosphere, but I’m actually liking Ayo’s performance here more than I did when she hosted.

• Fuck, now we have a DeNiro appearance. Can’t wait to see him botch all of his lines!!!!

• I like the fake-out with Debbie doing the “You talkin’ to me?” routine, only it turns out to just be a genuine question because she has dry-eye and can’t see properly.

• Amazingly, DeNiro only screws up once, and it takes a while for it to actually happen. By default, this is his most professional appearance on SNL.

• And, of course, they had to get in a feline AIDS reference at the end. Meow meooooooowwwww!

SNL Reviews: 50th Anniversary Special (2/17/25)

I’ve decided to review the amazing 50th Anniversary Special that aired just last night! Since this will be longer than a typical episode, I’m going to split this review in two parts, with the cutoff happening after Weekend Update.

Cold Open/Musical Performance: “Homeward Bound”

• Just a musical performance by Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter to start the show. While Paul’s physical appearance is certainly concerning, his voice is just as good as ever.

Monologue

Steve Martin talks about how great it is to be here, with help from John Mulaney and Martin Short.

• Really, Steve? Your first joke is that you’re SNL’s newest “diversity hire”?

• He’s starting off with some typical modern day Steve Martin groaners.

• Bearded David Letterman scares me.

• I got a laugh from Steve introducing Martin Short as “the only Canadian who wasn’t in Schitt’s Creek”.

• As Steve himself says, the monologue is often the weakest part of the show. That is certainly the case here. It’s kind of sad seeing Steve deliver hacky “modern” jokes about stuff like AI.

Sketch: The Lawrence Welk Show

Dooneese ruins a performance by Robert Goulet.

• Are you serious? This is how we’re starting the show? A horrible recurring sketch that wasn’t even funny the first time?

• Let me just say for the record that Fred’s Lawrence Welk impression is really, really bad. It pales in comparison to the excellent (or, dare I say, wunnerful?) impression that Stan Freberg did almost 70 years ago.

• Wow, Fred just made a crude joke about the Finger Lakes! Never seen THAT before!

• In this sketch, the Maharelle Sisters are played by Ana Gasteyer (good to have her back!), Scarlett Johansson (gee, I wonder why she’s there), and…ugh, Kim fucking Kardashian.

• Ah, but we also get a welcome return from Will Ferrell’s hilarious Robert Goulet impression! 

• Goulet: “Did they put LSD in my salad?” Hilarious!!! Will hasn’t lost it at all!

• Ugh, here comes Dooneese, still as unfunny as ever. They actually gave her a fitting end in Kristen’s last episode, so why do they keep bringing her back???

• Goulet is the only thing keeping this from being a total disaster.

• Oh, and just to punish me even more, we get a “hilarious” scene where Dooneese plays bongos on Kim Kardashian’s ass. I wish I was making that up.

Sketch: Black Jeopardy!

Tracy Morgan is a contestant on this edition.

• First appearance of this sketch since Eddie hosted in Season 45. I was wondering when we’d see it again.

• Speaking of Eddie, he’s in this one…doing an impression of Tracy Morgan!!!! The other contestants are played by Leslie Jones and Tracy himself. It’s so good to see Tracy here, especially since he had to miss the last anniversary special because of his car accident. Leslie showing up was also a surprise, because I thought she was done with this show.

• Already a big laugh from Darnell Hayes saying that this show’s audience is entirely made up of people who understood Kendrick’s Super Bowl performance.

• As expected, Eddie’s impression is spot on and hilarious.

• I like how one of the categories is “Leave Bronnie Alone”.

• I love “Tracy’s” whole routine about how James Earl Jones was his biological father, which unintentionally reminds me of this piece that Eddie did in Season 7 where he reveals that his father is actually Ronald Reagan.

• Even though I totally saw it coming, I still laughed at Tracy’s In Living Color line.

• Now Eddie has suddenly disappeared, and has been replaced by Tom Hanks as his racist Doug character from the last time he hosted!!!

• Priceless scene where Doug refuses to shake hands with Darnell after getting the correct answer.

Montage Intro

• Oh, fuck, Sally O’Malley again. As much as I appreciate some of Molly Shannon’s low key roles, she is absolutely horrible when she tries to go over the top. Thankfully, this is just a short intro to the following montage instead of a full sketch.

Physical Comedy Montage

• And now we have a montage of physical comedy moments over the past 50 years. These aren’t really worth rating in the final rundown, but they’re so well edited that I’m gonna give some comments on them anyway.

• Unsurprisingly, most of the first half of this montage consists of Chevy and Chris Farley clips. And almost all of the Farley clips are Matt Foley.

• I like how the dance portion of the montage is accompanied by “What is Love?”

• I did not need to see that clip of Melissa McCarthy rubbing her fat ugly face against the car window again.

• The brief clip from that one Please Don’t Destroy film with John Higgins getting assaulted is pretty much their only appearance all night, which is surprising given how much of a part of the show they’ve become.

• Great use of the classic Julia Child sketch with Aykroyd (“Why is everybody spinning???”)

• I like how they end this by showing the heartbreaking “Love Is A Dream” film with Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman, along with Gilda and Steve’s dance.

Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey

“Looking back over 50 years, we treasure the laughs, the friendships, the fond memories. But the real treasure is how much money we were making.”

• This was a HUGE surprise! I never thought we’d see another one of these again!!! And it’s a new one, too, unlike the last special where they just showed an old one from the 90s.

Sketch: Vow Renewal

Domingo is back yet again, but this time, he’s not alone…

• Just from the setup, my brother and I could already tell what this was going to be. Another fucking Domingo sketch! Jeez, why do they keep bringing this shit back except to pander to the TikTok idiots?

• How many times is Andrew’s character going to get married to the same woman?

• Ugh, more Wicked shilling???? 

• Wow, Domingo is showing up already, and the sketch isn’t even halfway through? There must be a catch…

• Andrew: “I can’t believe Domingo is at another major life event of mine.” Hey, he said it, not me!

• Beck and Kyle are back!!!! I know we already saw Kyle a few episodes ago, but this is Beck’s first appearance since he left!

• Carpenter’s line about not knowing what this song is was so hacky. Get it??? Cuz it’s a parody of that one song of hers they like referencing for no reason!!!!

• At least Beck and Kyle have some good lines.

• Perfect casting of Pedro Pascal and Bad Bunny as brothers of Domingo. Why is that perfect? Because they’re both overrated Hispanic performers that I can’t understand the appeal of!

• Molly’s twerking was totally unnecessary.

• While this did some new things with the Domingo formula (which automatically makes it the most tolerable one of these), it was WAAAAAAY too long.

Q&A

Tina and Amy take some questions from the star-filled audience.

• Uh-oh, here comes Tina. Are we in for more “jokes” about how much better she is than the rest of the cast?

• A lot of the fun I have during this segment is trying to point out all of the celebrities I can see in the audience. For example, in this first shot of Quinta Brunson, I see Conan (!), David Letterman the transient, some lady with Where’s Waldo glasses, Jimmy Fallon, and Nate Bargatze. I like how Nate has only hosted twice so far, but he’s already become part of the SNL family. That just shows you how good his episodes have been.

• Amy: “I’m wearing a 3D-printed mask of my younger self.” You know what? She’s right! She has barely aged!!!

• Holy shit! Tim Meadows with a beard!!! He’s just as funny and likable as ever!

• Uh-oh, I just saw Robert DeNiro during Ryan Reynolds’ scenes. Which reminds me that he makes a sketch appearance later on.

• The Weekend Update backdrop is visible during Nate’s scene.

• Nice shoutout to the show’s host dresser Donna Richards.

• Priceless visual of Jon Lovitz in the middle of the American Girl store. A welcome cameo that’s miles better than that awful Alan Dershowitz cold open he was in a few years ago.

• Unfortunately, Tina has to ruin it by explaining that this was in fact the real Jon Lovitz. Tina, shut the fuck up.

• As happy as I am to see Julia Louis-Dreyfus again, was it really necessary to throw in a cute dog as well?

• What is that on Cher’s head??? Is it hair, or is it a dead animal?

• Hey, it’s Keith Richards’ mummified corpse!

• UGGGHHHH!!!! I just saw Alec Baldwin!!! At the very least, I’m happy to say that there’s no Trumpwin appearances in this special. In fact, they barely mention Trump at all!

• Why is Bad Bunny so prominent in this??? He’s had more screentime than James Austin Johnson, who, by the way, has no speaking lines at all.

• Was anyone asking for an appearance from famous race hustler Al Sharpton?

• Fred’s routine where he asks about a rejected sketch he wrote about a vampire version of The Office made me think that we would be getting a full version of it later in. Thankfully, that did not happen. I also had to laugh at Eddie making a sly pose in the background during this entire scene.

• During Peyton Manning’s scene, I got more amusement out of sighting Rob Riggle in the background. Great to see him here! If only they would give him an actual sketch appearance!

Digital Short: Anxiety

Andy reassures Bowen Yang that everyone who’s worked on this show has suffered from anxiety.

• Hopefully this will be better than the last two Digital Shorts we’ve gotten this season.

• Nice of them to feature Dan Aykroyd in this song to make up for his absence. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Bill Hader and Dan Aykroyd both declined their invitations to the special. While I was expecting Bill’s absence, Dan’s was a shock.

• The creepy “anxiety” faces are hilarious. I was expecting it to get old at some point, but it never did.

• Bowen is surprisingly good here. Actually, I liked his role in the Domingo sketch earlier, too. Am I starting to come around on Asian Terry Sweeney????? Nah…

• Aw, yeah!!! A Chris Parnell rap!!!! Words cannot describe how glad I am to finally be reviewing something with him in it on this blog!!!

• That screaming utility pipe caught me off guard, but in a good way.

• The transition from archive footage to Molly and Ana’s rap is so smooth!!! Bonus points for them wearing the same outfits!

• Nice dig at the infamous Rolling Stone list of “best” cast members. I love how Will Forte is at the bottom for some reason.

• I love the shots of the crew members clapping along to the song, although there’s a surprising lack of Akira Yoshimura.

• Overall, while not as good as the song they did in the last special, this was a great return to form for the Digital Shorts.

Musical Performance: “Nothing Compares 2 U” by Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard

Weekend Update (featuring The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With At a Party, Drunk Uncle, Lorne’s Two Best Friends from Growing Up, and Bill Murray)

• Nice intro featuring clips from all the different eras of Update.

• This is surprisingly the first time they’ve mentioned Trump all night, albeit not by name.

• Good joke from Michael about how there’s about 100 “Tonys” on the crew.

• Another joke about how long Kenan’s been on the show by saying that he was hired to replace Chevy.

• Che’s memorial to OJ Simpson is great, especially how he makes you think it’s going to be for Norm.

• A welcome return from The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started A Conversation With at A Party, which is surprisingly the first we’ve seen of Cecily all night. There is a reason for that, though…she’s pregnant!!! I noticed it at the concert on Friday, but now they actually work it into the routine by having this character get pregnant as well.

• She’s going a little heavy on the malaprops tonight, but there’s still plenty of good lines. My personal favorite is when she randomly insults some woman in the audience.

• So, who’s the daddy? Why, it’s none other than Drunk Uncle!!!! Sweet!!!! I can totally see this pairing happening, because they’re both right-leaning, drunk assholes.

• The lack of the “That’s not me!” “That’s not anyone!” routine pleases me, although we do still get the usual “Drunk Uncle, I think you may be a little too drunk.” from Colin.

• Drunk Uncle’s random slam at Alec Baldwin was hilarious and cathartic.

• It feels so weird to hear Bobby mention AI.

• Oh, now we get an appearance from Seth. Are they going to let some of the other anchors do bits like they did at the last special?

• It turns out that he’s here to interact with…oh, shit. No. NO. NOOOOOOOO!!!!! NOT THE TWO BEST FRIENDS FROM GROWING UP!!!!!!!!! WHY DID THEY HAVE TO BRING THESE SATANIC BUTTWIPES BACK AGAIN?!!!???

• It’s sad that Vanessa’s only big role in this special is this horrible routine. Even though his appearance are just as formulaic, I would have preferred it if we got an appearance from her Jacob character.

• Seth: “I don’t think anybody can hear you.” Shut the fuck up, Seth! You’re not helping!!!

• Ah, but here comes Bill Murray to save the day! He’s doing a variation of his iconic Oscars routine, but this time it’s about ranking the various anchors of Weekend Update.

• Priceless part with his list of Best Black Anchors, which obviously only includes Che!

• Bill: “These are in no particular order, so I’ll be ranking them from worst to best.”

• Bill’s chemistry with Colin is great, especially the part with him revealing that number 10 is Colin…Quinn.

• I like how Tina is on here twice with each of her co-anchors.

• This whole bit about the “ignorant slut” routine is priceless.

• I haven’t even mentioned all of the funny little quips that Bill is throwing in there, because there’s too many for me to list!

• Who is number 1 on this list? Why, it’s Brian Doyle-Murray, of course!!! 

• Overall, this is by default the best Update we’ve had all season, despite the return of those Godawful Two Best Friends characters.

(Continued in Part 2)