25 Lesser-Known Facts About SNL’s Five-Timers Club

Few institutions in Saturday Night Live lore are as revered as The Five-Timers Club, the show’s unofficial society for repeat hosts.

Since Tom Hanks first introduced viewers to the club in 1990, the recurring sketch has evolved into a showcase for cameos, callbacks, and increasingly flexible rules about who qualifies—and what membership even means.

As Jack Black prepares to join the club’s ranks this weekend, here are 25 lesser-known facts about SNL’s most exclusive institution (actually, second-most exclusive—see #23 below).

1. Despite its status in SNL lore, the Five-Timers Club has only been depicted on screen five times: in 1990 (when Tom Hanks was inducted), 2013 (Justin Timberlake), 2018 (Jonah Hill), 2022 (John Mulaney), and 2024 (Martin Short).
2. Although Tom Hanks was the first to take viewers inside the club, five other hosts had already reached the milestone by 1990: Steve Martin, Buck Henry, Elliott Gould, Candice Bergen, and Chevy Chase.
3. Two of those hosts—Steve Martin and Elliott Gould—appeared in the original Five-Timers Club sketch. They were joined by Paul Simon, who was introduced as a member despite having hosted the show only four times—the first of many instances of fuzzy math in the Five-Timers tradition.
4. In the 2024 sketch, Tom Hanks claimed he “created” the Five-Timers Club. In reality, the concept originated with writers Conan O’Brien, Bob Odenkirk, and Robert Smigel.
5. In the original sketch, Tom Hanks is required to show his membership card to gain entrance—a detail repeated for Timberlake and Mulaney, but dropped for Hill and Short.
6. The 1990 sketch introduced several pieces of club lore—including a swimming pool (via Elliott Gould emerging from it) and a red phone connected directly to the studio—details that have never been revisited.
7. That same sketch also established a “secret” Five-Timers handshake—a detail that wouldn’t return until it was revived more than three decades later by Martin Short and Paul Rudd in 2024.
8. The original club set was designed by longtime SNL production designer Keith Raywood, who told us in a 2022 interview that he modeled it after a private English gentlemen’s club.
9. In 2013, Jonah Hill requested that the club’s familiar leather couch be swapped with a velvet one to make it “more female-friendly.”
10. Conan O’Brien played the doorman in the original Five-Timers Club in 1990, later replaced by Mike O’Brien in 2013. The position would not be filled in 2018, 2022, or 2024.
11. Jon Lovitz played a waiter in the original sketch, a few months after leaving the cast. Future Five-Timer Martin Short took over the position in 2013, with James Austin Johnson doing the same in 2022 and Bowen Yang assuming the role in 2024.
12. Food orders in the club are often named after cast members, with early sketches featuring items like a “Chevy Chase” or “Joe Piscopo.”
13. In later sketches, those orders evolved into increasingly elaborate drinks tied to performers—including a Kristen Wiig-themed drink styled after her Gilly character, and a “Five-Timers Fizz” made with Justin Timberlake’s tequila, Dan Aykroyd’s vodka, and Tracy Morgan’s “club soda”—which turns out to be aquarium water.
14. The Five-Timers Club has gone through some renovations over the years, with the entrance to the club stationed on the right side in 1990 and 2013, before moving to the left in 2018, 2022, and 2024.
15. In 2013, a bookshelf was added to the lounge featuring photos of Five-Timers—among them John Goodman, Christopher Walken, Steve Martin, Paul Simon, and Tom Hanks. The display has remained in all subsequent sketches.
16. The sketch has been staged in four different parts of the studio over the years, starting on Stage 5 up against the balcony. Timberlake’s sketch was staged in an area called “The Kane” (named after a Citizen Kane sketch that was done there), Hill’s on Stage 4, and Mulaney’s on Stage 3 (aka homebase).
17. The Five-Timers jacket—now synonymous with the milestone—appeared in the original sketch and then not again until 2013. The jacket would not be used outside of the club until Scarlett Johansson hosted for a fifth time in 2017.
18. Since then, Melissa McCarthy (2017), Dwayne Johnson (2017), Paul Rudd (2021), Woody Harrelson (2023), Emma Stone (2023), and Kristen Wiig (2024) have all received their jackets outside of the club.
19. Will Ferrell quietly joined the club in 2019—but was never given a jacket and has yet to appear in a Five-Timers sketch.
20. Paul Rudd’s planned 2021 induction sketch was scrapped when a COVID outbreak forced the episode into a near clip show—creating a “lost” Five-Timers moment.
21. Danny DeVito was inducted on what the show treated as his fifth time hosting—though it was technically his sixth, after a co-hosted episode with his then-wife Rhea Perlman was apparently excluded from the count.
22. Tina Fey‘s induction, on the other hand, counted her co-hosted 2015 episode with Amy Poehler. Similarly, Martin Short reached the milestone despite two of his appearances coming as co-host—first alongside Chevy Chase and Steve Martin in 1986, and later with Martin again in 2022.
23. The club has an even more exclusive offshoot: the “Platinum Lounge,” introduced in a one-off 2006 sketch for 12-time hosts. Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, and John Goodman all qualify—though only Martin and Baldwin have ever been shown inside.
24. In 2023, musical guest Jack White was also given a Five-Timers jacket—hinting at a parallel club for repeat musical performers (one that would also include Randy Newman, James Taylor, Tom Petty, Dave Grohl, Sting, Beck, Foo Fighters, Dave Matthews, Eminem, Kanye West, Coldplay, Maroon 5, Rihanna, Gwen Stefani, Arcade Fire, Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Nick Jonas, and Lady Gaga).
25. Jack Black’s path to five—more than 24 years since his first hosting gig—ties Drew Barrymore’s journey to the day (8,841 days). Only Woody Harrelson (33 years) and Martin Short (38 years) waited longer.