First on LateNighter: Saturday Night Live’s alternate ending to Home Alone was apparently violent enough for NBC to add an additional flag to this weekend’s episode for “intense violence”—and to age-restrict the video on YouTube.
Though SNL typically carries a TV-14 rating for “intensely suggestive dialogue” and “strong coarse language,” last Saturday’s broadcast saw the addition of a “V” symbol, noting “intense violence.”
The sketch “Home Alone” imagined Ariana Grande as Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister. Putting a gory spin on the real film’s ending, the McCallister family’s return home devolves into extreme bloodshed when they encounter all of the traps that Kevin had previously set for the Wet Bandits. Among the injuries sustained: Fuller (Bowen Yang) gets both his arms sliced off by a chainsaw, Buzz (Colin Jost) is shredded head-to-toe by a box fan, while others are engulfed in flames. Though it’s all ultimately deemed to be imagined, Old Man Marley (Andrew Dismukes) winds up killing Kevin and his mother (Ashley Padilla) with a swing of his shovel.
Home Alone pic.twitter.com/PEDyBKWIfC
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) December 21, 2025
Violence deemed “intense” still falls within the parameters of a TV-14 rating, which SNL typically carries. When content rises to the level of “graphic violence,” it calls for a rating of TV-MA, or “mature,” signaling to parents that it “may be unsuitable for children under 17.”
If these distinctions sound vague, it’s because they are. Unlike movie ratings, which are imposed by a Motion Picture Association board, TV Parental Guidelines are a voluntary system. While the rating system was enacted by Congress and the FCC, it relies on TV networks to make their own determinations.
But NBC’s determination that “Home Alone” is suitable for 14-year-olds appears to be at odds with another one of SNL’s key distribution points. Over on the show’s YouTube channel—where a significant portion of viewers consume the show—the sketch has been age-restricted, blocking it from users under the age of 18.
The restriction means viewers will encounter a warning that the “video may be inappropriate for some users” before it plays. To watch the sketch on YouTube, viewers who are logged in may be asked to click a button acknowledging they “understand and wish to proceed.” Users who are not signed in will be required to do so in order to verify their age, and the video cannot be embedded on third-party sites.
None of that has stopped the sketch from reaching nearly 2.3 million views, putting it on track to become one of the show’s 20 most popular YouTube videos this season-to-date.
It’s unclear if the age restriction, which YouTube notes is based on its Community Guidelines, was imposed by the platform or self-imposed as a precaution by SNL. Not properly labeling a video can cause YouTube to demonetize and/or reduce the reach of a video, and reported policy violations can result in the entire channel being removed.
Over the years, SNL has uploaded numerous gory videos that haven’t triggered YouTube’s age-restriction flag. From “The French Chef” and “All-Drug Olympics” to “Gift Wrap” and “Evacuation Alert,” bleeding and dismemberment have been a familiar part of the show for years. Even SNL’s goriest sketches in recent years—“Farewell Mr. Bunting,” “A Christmas Carol,” and “Scooby-Doo,” have skirted the YouTube restriction.
While including the violence indicator on the TV broadcast is not the norm for SNL, it does reflect proper use of the content rating system. In fact, shows will go so far as to up the age rating entirely when necessary. That’s what The Daily Show did for a single episode earlier this year, allowing Jon Stewart to react to Stephen Colbert’s cancellation with a string of unbleeped F-bombs.
England’s upcoming SNL adaptation will aim for the country’s closest equivalent of a TV-14 rating. SNL UK will be rated “15,” meaning it’s recommended for viewers aged 15 and up. It will, however, allow more profanity than the US version.
