Saturday Night Live (SNL) just aired its 50th Anniversary episode, and they pulled out all the stops to make it one to remember. There were too many past cast members and celebrity appearances to name drop, but I’ll name a few anyway.-Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Amy Poehler, John Mulaney, Pedro Pascal, and Meryl Streep were all guests this week. The episode merged some original skits and vibes from fifty years ago with the new era of SNL. Tributes were paid and celebrity appearances were made, and I have thoughts about the episode and the current era of SNL.
I’d been following the SNL 50th Anniversary build-up for a while on Instagram, so I knew who the hosts were and that they were trying to go all out for this special occasion. I’ve been watching SNL for a while now, but haven’t gone back fifty seasons, so I can admit that some of the magic and significance was lost to me. My Dad, however, definitely appreciated it. I will admit,they seemed to walk a fine line between name-dropping and crowding as many celebrity appearances as they could into three hours. While I can appreciate it and some of the skits were enhanced by the appearances, others faltered with newcomers trying their hand at live comedy and missing the mark.
The Gen Z audience made their mark on this anniversary episode with the reappearance of the Domingo skit with Marcello Hernandez. In the first skit a few weeks ago, Ariana Grande hosted and sang an off-beat parody of “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter in one of her skits. This weekend, they went full circle, with Sabrina Carpenter ending the skit by singing the “Defying Gravity” riff. This skit also featured Pedro Pascal and Bad Bunny as Domingo’s brothers, who were all romantically involved in some way with the family. This skit was very chaotic, but super fun and brought the younger viewers in on the action.
I was especially ecstatic to see Pete Davidson’s Chad skit come back and the debut of a tattooless Davidson. When I was younger I wasn’t big into YouTubers, but I would scroll through and watch every skit Pete Davidson was in, especially the Chad ones. The Chad skits consisted of Pete Davidson being overly chill and dumb and responding to crazy scenarios with either a simple “Okay” or “Cool” which gained him my love and affection. I’m not afraid to say that I’ve had a crush on Pete Davidson for a long time, so I’m completely biased, but I think he should come back as a cast member for the next season. He is a comedian, so of course his timing is perfect, but he also is perfectly unserious enough to embody SNL.
Overall, the anniversary special was super fun and shined a spotlight on some amazingly talented comedians with a strong New York City vibe. Some aspects of the anniversary, like the Q&A section, were not my favorite, but somebody out there enjoyed it, so that’s all that matters.