The Best and Worst of SNL‘s 50th Anniversary Special

After months of hype and a plethora of lavishly produced specials and documentaries reminding viewers of Saturday Night Live‘s significance, Sunday night finally brought the promised jewel in the crown: the show’s three-hour primetime anniversary special. Here are our picks for the best and worst moments of a star-studded, appropriately up and down three hours.

Worst: The Cold Open

It’s cranky to complain about something so warm as the cold open’s pairing of Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter for a stripped down duet of Simon’s “Homeward Bound.” But as a kickoff to the biggest night in SNL history (so far), the low-key nostalgia of seeing an 83-year-old Simon singing a marginally thematic greatest hit set a strangely somber tone for the evening to come.

Simon, apart from being Lorne’s best friend, has been intimately connected to Saturday Night Live since its second-ever episode, and also notably opened up the first post 9/11 episode with a stirring (if, again, thematically shaky) “The Boxer,” so the precedent had been set, I suppose.

But for a show that’s gotten anniversary cold opens very right in the past, this time around it seemed to show show its age. (Partly redeemed by Simon’s line about his words being quoted back to him “in shades of mediocrity,” which I can only assume is a reference to the decades of water cooler comics misquoting Wayne’s World sketches.) 

Best: A Belated Tribute to Sinead

33 years later, Sinead O’Connor’s controversial 1992 performance, which she concluded by tearing up a picture of then-Pope John Paul II, got a powerful if oblique apology in the form of a duet of the Prince-penned “Nothing Compares 2 You” from Brittany Howard and Miley Cyrus.

Nobody mentioned O’Connor, but the message echoed the reappraisal of the singer’s action in the wake of the myriad child abuse scandals that O’Connor was trying to bring to light. And Howard and Cyrus, while not having the majestic upper vocal register to soar like Sinead (to be fair, who does?), dug into the classic song’s soulful growl and sorrow with reverent gusto.

Worst: Misjudged Nostalgia

Recurring sketches are Saturday Night Live‘s lifeblood. And while repeating old premises is understandable when you’ve got 90 minutes to fill every week, trotting out played out, decades-old sketches with the same punchlines but a few new guest stars is more questionable.

Kristen Wiig‘s tiny-handed Lawrence Welk Show singer Dooneese and Rachel Dratch‘s Debbie Downer were laugh out loud phenomenons when they first aired and went stale every time the show tried to capture lightning in bottles thereafter. Even newly minted viral sensation Domingo wilted under the hot lights, despite the injection of energy brought by new additions to the single-joke lore Pedro Pascal and Bad Bunny.

With the show running long (as announced to no doubt irritated TV stations mere hours before broadcast), this felt like filler on a night that should have been pure gold. As it was, SNL 50 at times felt like just another of the sort of repeater-and-ringer lazy episode the show’s been criticized for in recent years.

Best: Properly Judged Nostalgia

But then again, when a recurring sketch is good enough, it never completely wears out its welcome. Sure, Kate McKinnon‘s perennially unimpressed and unfortunate alien Abductee Colleen Rafferty got the perfect sendoff along with McKinnon herself back in Season 47, but damned if seeing McKinnon doing very inappropriate demonstrations of her ordeal on the privates of gamely keeping-it-together guests Pedro Pascal and Woody Harrelson isn’t still hilarious. (And if you want to toss in Meryl Streep of all people as Colleen’s equally grimy mother, who’s to argue.)

On “Weekend Update,” the reveal that personal favorite characters Drunk Uncle and The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With At a Party have improbably coupled up gave both Bobby Moynihan and Cecily Strong the opportunity to remind us how much we miss them. (Same goes for Vanessa Bayer, although the whispering old friends of questionable people—Lorne this time—schtick isn’t as beloved.)

And both “Black Jeopardy” and “Scared Straight” benefitted immeasurably from full-on powerhouse turns from Eddie Murphy who, having apparently and finally forgiven David Spade for a few long-ago jokes, is now happily in the superstar alum ranks prepared to pop by and dazzle. I could watch Eddie do Tracy Morgan for the full three hours, and the same goes for Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph gabbling their way through “Bronx Beat” and embarrassing Miles Teller.

Worst: Topical Timidity

There were several jokes about regrettable hosts and musical guests through the night, with John Mulaney noting during Steve Martin‘s monologue that he’s amazed that only two of the show’s hundreds of hosts (“some of the most difficult people I have even met in my entire life”) have committed murder. (That’s O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake for those keeping score.)

Currently incarcerated sex creeps Diddy and R. Kelly were appropriately easy targets as well, even if SNL isn’t really poking itself for much of anything when you think about it—nobody expects the SNL bookers to know about future crime. But there are plenty of others who got a pass.

The two high-profile guest hosts currently working to dismantle democracy as part of a white supremacist grifting spree didn’t get more than a passing mention, and never in the context of Saturday Night Live choosing to platform Donald Trump and Elon Musk when their deeply divisive words and actions were already common knowledge.

The argument that the night was all about fun and paying homage to the show’s legacy falls apart when Tom Hanks introduces an entire segment reminding viewers of the show’s checkered past when it comes to badly aged ethnic stereotypes, homophobia, and misogyny that gleefully hammers on easy, criminally convicted targets but ignores the two most egregious and powerful offenders still walking the streets.

Best: Blaming the Audience

Leave it to old pros Steve Martin and Tom Hanks to lay blame for Saturday Night Live‘s perceived failures squarely where it belongs—on us, the viewers. Martin paused his monologue to turn sternly to camera and scold us for constantly assessing the monologue as the weakest part of any show. “This can’t be Steve’s fault,” Martin urges us to remember, further advising viewers to “ask yourselves, when did I abandon joy and what can I as an audience member bring to the monologue next time?”

Hanks likewise interrupted his into to that montage of regrettable past sketches to tell us all, “You all laughed at them, so if anyone should be cancelled, shouldn’t it be you, the audience?” Replaying these sketches while claiming to be embarrassed about them smacks not a little of having your cake and eating the hell out of it one more time, but if you’re going to try to weasel out of your past mistakes, it’s good to have two of the most beloved entertainers in history in on the joke.

Worst: The Guest List

Following up on a previous entry, reports that both Trump and Musk were invited to attend the anniversary show is yet another infuriating illustration of how far Saturday Night Live‘s proclaimed satirical courage strays from reality.

Details are murky about just how close Trump and Musk came to accepting, but the fact that Lorne Michaels had some VIP seats reserved for two figures actively attacking the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, diversity in every facet of American life, and the very concept of representative democracy (not to mention threatening the show itself) is the sort of blasé, above the fray both-sides-ism that traditionally renders SNL‘s satire so toothless. Is that a partisan judgement? Sure is. SNL should remember what that’s like and not roll out the literal red carpet for those it rightfully and lucratively jokes about being terrible, harmful people.

(And if you want to mention the appearance tonight from a guy recently accused of sexual misconduct and a recent host under fire for rampant transphobia, well, you’ll probably get called out for being a spoilsport.)

Best: Sandler Gets Us, Again

Famously former disgruntled SNL writer turned comedy (and then dramatic) icon Bob Odenkirk referred to Adam Sandler‘s style as “just dicking around.” Odenkirk wasn’t being mean, it’s just that Sandler’s mugging, muttering, and occasional seemingly tossed-off guitar ditties were as loose and silly as they were enduringly popular. And yet, latter day Sandler has found his groove as a sneakily effective song stylist when it comes to mixing that silliness with heart-tugging sincerity.

“The Chris Farley Song” feelingly paid tribute to Sandler’s cast mate and pal, and his new song for the big night, the on-the-nose-titled “50 years” ended up on the same choking-back-the-tears note by name-checking Farley and the late Norm Macdonald to cap off a roster of long and short-tenured SNL cast members.

The song was alternately sweet and silly, with plenty of gentle backstage dirt about cast members ripping on Jaws after watching Lorne’s pal Steven Spielberg not laugh at their sketches and chickening out on their way to finally tell Lorne off for their lack of airtime. The perfect song for the occasion.

Best: Garrett and Laraine Get Their Due

Unquestionably the two original Not Ready For Prime Time Players done dirtiest at the time, it was lovely to see both Garrett Morris and Laraine Newman get such prominent roles tonight. Laraine played second fiddle to Pete Davidson‘s Chad, but she was great sending up the months-long parade of self-important SNL retrospectives, her own intended backstage reveries interrupted by Chad’s perennial blank agreeableness and exquisitely timed incompetence.

And giving the now 88-year-old Morris a comfy recliner from which to introduce yet another screening of Tom Schiller’s ever more poignant, John Belushi-starring “Don’t Look Back in Anger” was a nice touch, with Morris’s joke about not imagining he’d have to attend so many damned SNL reunions over the years a testament to hard-won survival. (I unironically wish the show would give us a “Best of Garrett Morris” special.)

Worst: Loss of Momentum

No, not the show itself. (Although three hours-plus was perhaps unnecessary.) I’m talking about the montage of physical comedy through the years, which gradually crept to a crawl thanks to some baffling editing choices.

It was fun seeing Molly Shannon—herself a battle-scarred practitioner of the pratfall arts—reprise her defiantly 50-year-old Sally O’Malley alongside Emma Stone for the show’s own 50th anniversary, but the montage itself started out with an appropriate chaotic crash before slowing things down for some reason.

I’m never going to complain about seeing Steve Martin and Gilda Radner’s deliriously nimble footwork in their “Dancing in the Dark” number, but it comes at the end when rollicking, wall-smashing turns by Shannon, Farley, Belushi and the like gave way to a sludgy sequence of slower-edited pieces. As these bombastic prop-bashers demonstrated, pace is everything, and this inexplicably sort of fizzled out.

Best: The Crew Gets Their Due

A new SNL Digital Short: Every single person who ever worked at SNL had anxiety. #SNL50 #SNL #SNL50thAnniversary #TheLonelyIsland pic.twitter.com/PwoQragsPE

— LateNighter (@latenightercom) February 17, 2025

While cue card maestro Wally Feresten has become a comic character (and occasional LateNighter contributor) in his own right, it was fun to see NBC Director of Production Health Services (introduced by Adam Sandler in song as “Nurse Theresa”) and longtime dresser Donna Richards (revealed as having seen everyone in attendance in their underwear by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler) get their onscreen due.

Richards even demonstrated some comic timing, leaping in to name Jason Momoa has her favorite before the question was out of Poehler’s mouth, something that the in-attendance Momoa jokingly appreciated. And while Michael Che joked about all the “Tonys” on the crew getting their January 6 pardons, there were some fleeting backstage photos through the night that hard working union members’ families will no doubt play back forever.

Best: Bill Murray as Himself

Bill Murray may have disqualified himself from his “Weekend Update” ranking of the best Update anchors (he was on PEDs, apparently), but I’ll go on record as loving Murray’s brief, long-ago turn behind the desk. (Doing a season-long bit as the guy who knows nothing about the news he’s reporting gave Murray’s jokes a spin nobody else ever really had.)

A highlight of that tenure was always his Oscar rankings, inevitably upended by the fact that he didn’t even watch any of the movies, but here Murray was vintage Murray, playfully jabbing at the roster of Update anchors with customary deadpan aplomb.

With current anchor Colin Jost as inevitable target throughout (Jost didn’t make the list, with another Colin bumping him from the 10th slot), Murray batted around the both the whole ranking concept and the memories of cast members past like a particularly mischievous kitty.

Jost’s final indignity? The top spot going not to him after a long set-up, but to Bill’s Brother Brian, who apart from holding down the Update desk for one undistinguished season, is apparently a “very considerate lover” with Jost’s wife, Scarlett Johannson.

Best: 50 Years of Saturday Night Live

When it comes right down to it, the fact that people are still writing best and worst lists about SNL only justifies all this hoopla and self-celebration. Sure, there have been 50 years of ups and downs, clinkers, and classics and the occasional fascist dictator or sexual predator in the ranks. But the show is still here, and we’re still watching it. Here’s to the next anniversary.

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