Sesame Street is taking over the Saturday Night Live writers’ room—and apparently no corner of the show’s 50-plus-year history is off limits.
A new two-minute crossover brings some of Sesame Street’s most beloved characters together with SNL cast members Mikey Day, Kenan Thompson, Ashley Padilla, and Sarah Sherman for a rapid-fire collection of references to sketches and characters past and present.
The premise finds Day presiding over a writers’ meeting with Sesame Street’s newest additions to the staff. Before long, Cookie Monster is channeling Chris Farley’s Matt Foley, Padilla and Grover are sporting bad haircuts, and Elmo is pitching “Elmingo”—a Muppetized take on Domingo.
The references go considerably further back, too. Oscar the Grouch inadvertently earns himself the “Debbie Downer” sound effect, while Padilla dons Garth’s blond wig and joins Elmo in turning “Wayne’s World” into “Elmo’s World.”
Perhaps the most inside-baseball joke comes when Day announces that Lorne has cut the Three-Headed Monster sketch for time, giving Elmo an excuse to show off his impression of SNL boss Lorne Michaels.
“Well, you know, it’s the first time we were all together, Paul and Paul and Snuffleupagus,” Elmo says in Michaels’ unmistakable cadence.
We’re not sure the new Saturday Night Live writers will be able to make it to showtime! 😴 https://t.co/6OxkAzb3bg
— Sesame Street (@sesamestreet) October 26, 2026
Of course, this is hardly the first time the worlds of Sesame Street, the Muppets, and SNL have collided.
Jim Henson’s Muppets were part of the show from its very first season, appearing in the recurring “Land of Gorch” sketches beginning with SNL’s 1975 premiere. The relationship has continued in the decades since, with familiar Sesame Street faces occasionally turning up on the show as themselves.
Big Bird memorably appeared alongside Seth Meyers on “Weekend Update” in 2012, days after becoming an unexpected talking point in that year’s presidential debate. And in 2015, Taraji P. Henson’s Empire spoof featured the actual Cookie Monster, Elmo, Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, the Count, and other Muppets opposite the host and SNL cast.
