Saturday Night Live is celebrating 50 years with a 3-hour primetime special featuring Robert De Niro, Miley Cyrus, Paul Simon and many more LIVE on NBC and Peacock February 16, 2025 at 8 PM ET.
Y’ALL. Y’all.
I have been obsessed with Saturday Night Live since I knew it existed.
I fell in love with Opera Man and Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman in the 90s.
I felt seen in the 2000s when Tina Fey and Amy Poehler took to the Weekend Update desk. And cried with laughter every time Tracy Morgan took the screen.
In the 2010s, I yelled “LESLIE JONES” at the top of my lungs every Saturday Night and also fell in love with Bill Hader a little bit every week.
And now, in the 2020s, I’ve settled into my love for Michael Che, gone cuckoo bananas for Sarah Sherman, and am obsessed with the fresh talent I see in Marcello Hernandez, Andrew Dismukes, Michael Longfellow, and Jane Wickline.
I’ve learned about so many different musical artists from this show – it’s where I fell in love all the way with The White Stripes, giving me a lifelong obsession with Jack White.
SNL has also been important to Mickey and I’s relationship. We bonded over it as friends, and now we watch and dissect it every week. Watching new talent reveal itself is one of our favorite hobbies.
So, I’ve been looking forward to this anniversary for a while.
There are four parts to this anniversary:
- SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night
- Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music
- SNL50: The Homecoming Concert
- SNL 50: The Anniversary Special
We watched SNL50 a few weeks ago – it is an incredibly put together four-part documentary that covers different parts of the show:
- Five Minutes: Explores the audition process and the diverse stories of those who achieved their dream of joining SNL.
- More Cowbell: Examines how the “More Cowbell” sketch became a cultural phenomenon and its lasting impact on sketch comedy.
- Written By: A Week Inside the SNL Writers Room: Offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creative process within the SNL writers’ room.
- Season 11: The Weird Year: Investigates the pivotal 11th season, highlighting the challenges and transformations that shaped the show’s direction.
Episodes 1 and 3 were my favorites. I especially loved episode 1, because your girl loves an origin story.
This weekend, we watched both the concert and the documentary about SNL’s music, and they were both exceptional. The documentary’s opening sequence is one of the most stunning visual and audio mashups I’ve ever heard/seen.
The concert was probably the best concert any of the folks watching live have ever been to.
I was hoping for a surprise appearance by Vampire Weekend because, for some reason, they are ingrained as an SNL band in my brain. Probably because that’s where I first saw these surprising preppies and fell in love with them.
They didn’t show up, but these folks did:
- Eddie Vedder, who really likes to point
- He showed up a few times, and he was really into this. He made some callbacks to SNL musical history and was just incredibly joyful throughout the whole thing.
- TRACY MORGAN. He didn’t do my favorite song, “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah,” but he did sing, and he was there living his life. I love this man for some weird reason.
- Devo was so visual and exciting.
- Lady Gaga teeing up the Lonely Island medley was unexpected.
- My only disappointment is they didn’t perform “I Threw It On The Ground,” which is somehow my favorite song by them.
- However, they did an incredible mashup with “Lazy Sunday” and Kendrick Lamar’s “TV Off” that worked impeccably.
- MISS LAURYN HILL
- Wyclef should have taken several steps back because whenever he participated in this performance, it dimmed significantly. Just seeing Lauryn Hill live in that setting must have been incredible.
- Jelly Roll’s performance was great, but I think the image of him gently kissing Bowen Yang on the forehead might anger some folks. I’m glad he did it because that shouldn’t anger anyone… and maybe this additional bit of normalization will make them less angry next time.
- Arcade Fire + David Byrne + St. Vincent = a religious experience. Could they tour, please?
- I cried when the Preservation Jazz Hall Band showed up. I had a chance to see them LIVE at Preservation Hall pre-Katrina on one of my trips to New Orleans, and I didn’t take it, and I will forever regret it. The shit I missed out on because of men. Learn from me – if you want to do something and can afford it. Do it. Let the other person figure out something to do that will make them happy.
- Also, there were at least two instruments that I didn’t know what they were. I would like to play the windy-upy one.
- Robyn and David Byrne looked like they were having a blast. The energy!
- Jack White closing it out. It’s like they made this concert especially for me.
- I would have picked a different host, if it were, though. Leslie Jones, probably.
And now tonight is the Anniversary Special proper.
I have a confession to make. I timed dinner so that we could watch this together on Saturday. And then… it wasn’t ready yet.
So we watched another episode of Dimension 20: Fantasy High.
Now, it’s Sunday, and we are eating breakfast sandwiches and ready to laugh and cry. Here are my thoughts:
- Of course, we watched the red carpet arrivals, and I was thrilled to see Leslie Jones hosting a portion of them.
- I was unclear about the other hosts, though. Based on his interaction with Bowen Yang, I think one was Matt Rogers from Las Culturistas, but I don’t know who that other fella was. Except he was incredibly bland.
- Watching Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones shower each other with love was magical.
- now the show proper
- I knew I would cry, but I didn’t expect to immediately cry.
- “Homeward Bound” was my personal theme song the year we moved to Michigan. It became my personal song because it was on The Leftovers soundtrack that I listened to obsessively the summer of the pandemic that Mickey was out of town a lot. It is a very important song to my brain and my heart.
- So, yeah, I was bawling right away.
- Steve Martin is a good choice for the monologue. I was hoping for someone more edgey like maybe Eddie Murphy since he was there.
- Didn’t like Martin Short showing up and horning in, but that’s what Martin Short does, so…
- Black Jeopardy!!!
- Having Eddie Murphy play Tracy Morgan NEXT to Tracy Morgan was fantastic. I laughed so much.
- Sally O’Malley & Emma Stone introducing a physical comedy clip segment.
- There was lots of Molly Shannon all night. I ain’t mad at it. I love her now.
- DOMINGO!!
- It is so hard to sing poorly when you actually sing well. This is masterfully done.
- DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDY
- When we were in middle school, my friend Billy and I had a small notebook filled with our own versions of ‘Deep Thoughts.’
- Adam Sandler’s anxiety song had me cry-laughing
- I miss Phil Hartman. I wish we could have seen his career age.
- Nothing Compares 2 U with Miley and Brittany Howard. Perfect.
- Weekend Update – I was kind of hoping we’d see all the past anchors do bit. It started with Michael and Colin and then Seth showed up. But that was it.
- It’s okay, though, because my favorite moment of the whole show happened at the Update desk:
- DRUNK UNCLE.
- I didn’t even begin to wish that we’d see Drunk Uncle on this, but after it happened and my excitement died down, I realilzed that it makes perfect sense. It’s an easy way to poke fun at the folks who still have their heads in the sand a bit.
- Kate McKinnon alien sketch. I called this – I figured they’d slip this one in. It’s always funny and easy to include guest stars.
- Was NOT expecting Meryl Streep though.
- I wonder if she is dating Martin Short just so she could get on the anniversary special. I feel like maybe she always wanted to, but SNL never thought in a million years that she would so they never asked. IDK, I’d like to see her do a whole episode now!
- Chad, Pete Davidson’s slacker character was back with original cast member Larraine Newman in a pretape.
- The John Mulaney musical number was fabulous and filled with joy.
- Lil Wayne’s sound felt off to me. He also felt like a weird choice to perform.
- I don’t associate him with SNL at all. Do others?
- His sound felt off.
- Don’t get me wrong, I fucking got hype as hell when 6 foot 7 foot started playing, but it didn’t feel like the right choice for this time.
- I don’t know who I would have picked otherwise, though. Maybe go into the archives and bust out some Salt N Pepa?!
All in all, this was a fantastic show, and I hope Questlove makes a documentary about the making of both the concert and the anniversary special.
This did spark some conversation at the Professor Haus surrounding who will take over for Lorne. We have compiled a short list:
- Tina Fey
- Keenan Thompson
- Will Ferrell
- Kate McKinnon
- Paula Pell
- Questlove
Who do you think should take over?
