2025 marks 50 years since the debut of Saturday Night Live (SNL). Since 1975, the show that started out as avant-garde comedy from unknowns has become a marker of American culture.Â
The entire weekend of Feb. 14, 2025 was dedicated to celebrating SNL 50. Not only was there a lineup of TV specials, but there were also fan opportunities in New York City to celebrate the anniversary. New York or Nowhere is running a popup shop from Feb. 14 through Feb. 21 on the rink level floor of 30 Rockefeller Center that has exclusive anniversary merchandise and a themed photobooth for patrons. Many of the restaurants in Rockefeller Center offer special SNL themed treats, such as the “Superstar Latte” at Cafe Grumpy and “The Booze Brothers” cocktail at 5 Acres. The NBC gift shop currently has SNL memorabilia on display, including the Sally O’Malley and “more cowbell” costumes, Diet Coke moisturizer, and the Dune popcorn bucket. Across the street from 30 Rock, Saks Fifth Avenue has display windows showing SNL costumes through the decades and a small collection of SNL merchandise on the fifth floor of the department store.Â
The broadcast festivities were kicked off on Friday with a three hour concert live streamed from Radio City Music Hall. It was an ode to 50 years of musical guests on SNL, a part of the show equally as important as the comedy. Performers included Miley Cyrus, Lauryn Hill, David Byrne, Cher, Bad Bunny, and Lady Gaga, amongst others. Everyone in the audience was involved in SNL in one way or another over the last 50 years. There was even a rare shot of the show’s producer, Lorne Michaels, cracking a smile.Â
In addition to the performances from top musical artists, several past SNL cast members performed. Ana Gasteyer and Will Ferrell performed a comedic mashup of the top songs of today, including Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” and Doechii’s “DENIAL IS A RIVER.” Andy Samberg did a digital shorts mashup with Lady Gaga, Chris Parnell, Bad Bunny, and fellow Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone.Â
The Sunday night anniversary special started at 7 p.m. with a red carpet hosted by Leslie Jones and Willie Geist on NBC, and Amelia Dimoldenberg of “Chicken Shop Date” fame on the YouTube livestream. The show began promptly at 8 p.m. with Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter singing “Homeward Bound,” which was followed by a monologue from Steve Martin. All the sketches were throwbacks to previous popular sketches, such as “Doonese,” “Black Jeopardy,” and “Domingo.” The repeat “Domingo” sketch wowed the audience by featuring Molly Shannon, Martin Short, Sabrina Carpenter, Pedro Pascal, and Bad Bunny. These sketches were followed by a scripted Q&A with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, and a musical performance by Cyrus and Brittany Howard.Â
“Weekend Update” came at its usual time of the show, starting with a segment from the current hosts, Colin Jost and Michael Che, who brought out ex-cast members Cecily Strong and Bobby Moynihan for a hilarious cameo. They then switched anchor duties over to Seth Meyers, who brought out Vanessa Bayer and Fred Armisen, who played “Lorne’s best friends from growing up.” Bill Murray then made an appearance to rank the past “Weekend Update” hosts, where he threw serious shade at Jost. Â
Audiences were graced with a “Close Encounters” sketch in which Meryl Streep played Kate McKinnon’s mom, and Pascal and Woody Harrelson played McKinnon’s companions in alien abduction. After years of these recurring McKinnon sketches, it will never cease to amaze how many rhyming words for “genitals” the SNL writers can produce for one sketch.Â
Adam Sandler sang a funny yet touching tribute to 50 years of SNL. John Mulaney did a version of his “Bodega Bathroom” sketch about New York through the decades, which featured Pete Davidson, David Spade, Maya Rudolph, Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and more. Miles Teller and Mike Meyers joined Poehler and Rudolph on a reprise of “Bronx Beat.”Â
Tom Hanks came on to introduce an “In Memoriam” for all the sketches and characters that have “aged horribly.” It was a montage of 50 years of problematic behavior on the show, including racial stereotypes, sexism, inappropriate jokes about children, and the most egregious racial and cultural costumes. Hanks made a jab at cancel culture by saying, “Even though these characters, accents, and, let’s just call them ethnic wigs, were in unquestionably poor taste, you all laughed at them. So if anyone should be cancelled, shouldn’t it be you, the audience?”Â
Of course, there was a Samberg digital sketch in which he sang an 80s techno-style song to Bowen Yang about how everyone on SNL has anxiety. It featured clips of sketches from the last 50 years, as well as clips of crewmembers, costume designers, and writers. If there weren’t already enough fan favourites during the night, Rachel Dratch brought back her famous “Debbie Downer” character in a sketch with Jimmy Fallon, Ayo Edebiri, Drew Barrymore and Robert De Niro.Â
As the night began to wind down, original 1975 cast member Garret Morris introduced a 1978 short film titled Look Back In Anger. It starred John Belushi visiting the graves of his fellow cast members. In the film, Belushi says, “They all thought I’d be the first to go,” as he approaches the cemetery, a heartbreaking line given the fact that he was the first to pass away in 1982. The showing of the short film was a sweet homage to the original cast. The over three-hour broadcast closed out with a performance by the legendary Sir Paul McCartney, followed by the traditional goodbyes on the “homebase” of Studio 8H.