Saturday Night Live celebrated its 50th anniversary with a concert, documentary, and a three-hour anniversary special that aired on Feb. 16.
Usually, celebrity guest hosts and musical performances attract people to watch the latest episode, even if they aren’t avid show fans. This anniversary show had an absolutely star-studded audience of A-list celebrities and past SNL cast members, which made the people watching at home anticipate their favorite cast member possibly appearing in the next segment. Variety reports that the special had “14.8 million viewers, 202% above the average number of viewers watching SNL weekly.”
To name a few of the many stars at the special, current cast members such as Kenan Thompson, Heidi Gardner and Bowen Yang helmed most of the skits. At the same time, the occasional celebrity like Kim Kardashian, Adam Driver and Pedro Pascal would spice up a skit. Even as an anniversary special, many of the skits felt like a hit-or-miss. However, with the laughs, this anniversary special was more consistent than usual.
In recent years, SNL has mainly gathered a “hate it” or “love it” reputation, as some watch it consistently every week or don’t bother because of the comedic style. The comedic style is almost an acquired taste at this point, with its raunchy and over-the-top jokes about pop culture and the current happenings in the world, seeming eye-rolling or mundane at times. Even as an anniversary special, many of the skits felt like a hit-or-miss, but by and large, this anniversary special was more consistent than usual with the laughs.
For better or worse, these skits had the recent SNL flavor but shined with a few well-timed jokes, and when a previous cast member committed to the bit, it showed why they have reached a level of fame that rivals SNL itself. One of the best skits of the night was the recurring “Black Jeopardy” skit starring Kenan Thompson, Leslie Jones, Tracy Morgan and Eddie Murphy playing an exaggerated version of Tracy Morgan. The skit would briefly stop because of all the lingering laughter from the audience after watching Murphy’s Tracy Morgan impersonation.
There were a few outstanding moments in the show. People were speculating that this anniversary special would have some kind of “In Memoriam…” segment as my personal favorite cast member, Norm Macdonald, had passed away since the last anniversary show. During the Weekend Update skit, anchor Michael Che mentioned Norm being a previous anchor for the skit and got fired for making O.J. Simpson jokes, to which Che facetiously said, “he’s obviously one of my heroes, so if you’re watching up there, we love you O.J.”
There was an actual “In Memoriam…” segment introduced by Tom Hanks, which wasn’t for the previous cast members and guests no longer with us, but rather, a memorial for the “questionable” and “problematic” moments from the past that certainly haven’t aged well. This comedic misdirection featured cringe-worthy moments like Adrien Brody wearing dreadlocks, simulating Jamaican Patois while introducing Sean Paul; the various “canceled” guests such as P. Diddy and Jared Fogle; and the use of “questionable” make-up such as “blackface” while censoring the performers in the make-up. Before the montage started, Hanks humorously said that if anyone should be canceled, it should be the audience for laughing at these jokes throughout the years.
However, a song celebrating the past of SNL was performed by Adam Sandler. The song “50 years” was performed with an acoustic guitar backed up by the SNL show band. He mentioned in-jokes such as not being allowed to use producer Lorne Michaels’ office toilet and hastily preparing for a skit. This was funny and charming as he highlighted long-time crew members like “Nurse Theresa” and “drunk Wally.” It became heartfelt when celebrating cast members like Will Forte and remembering late members Chris Farley and Norm Macdonald, which visibly affected Sandler, who worked with them on SNL and in films.
Perhaps the highlight of the special was the musical performances, as a varied selection from SNL’s past performers were paired with, sometimes, surprising combinations such as Sabrina Carpenter with Paul Simon and Miley Cyrus with Brittany Howard. Lil Wayne and The Roots did the last two performances, and the show ended with Paul McCartney, showing how varied and diverse these musical acts can be for the SNL pop culture institution.
Paul McCartney’s performances of the last few songs from the spectacular “Abbey Road Medley” gave the special a grand finale. The celebration of 50 years of SNL paired with some of the last songs The Beatles wrote and recorded together, and the entire audience was on their feet and singing along during the aptly titled song, “The End.”
As mentioned, with SNL existing since 1975, it has become an institution of pop culture, dictating what is important enough to laugh at, and it seems to have no signs of slowing down. As the closing goodbyes started, the entire audience was on stage, showing the star power that SNL attracts. No matter your opinion on the show and with the 50th anniversary having some great run-of-the-mill laughs and moments, SNL is here to stay.
