50 Saturday Night Live Cast Members on Their All-Time Favorite Sketches

To read all of GQ’s coverage of Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary, click here.

Saturday Night Live turns 50 this year. A scrappy sketch-comedy moonshot launched by a band of Canadians and stoners has become a pop-cultural institution—the longest-running scripted show on TV that isn’t a soap opera or Sesame Street. Late last year, to mark this historic anniversary, GQ interviewed over fifty other past and present SNL cast members—from Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin and Garrett Morris, OGs who were there at the beginning, to newcomers like Ashley Padilla, Jane Wickline and Emil Wakim, each of whom had been on the show for all of eight weeks when we talked. We asked each of them the same eight questions about the show’s broader cultural footprint and their own experiences making it. A feature story drawn from those conversations, “Saturday Night Forever,” will appear in the March print edition of GQ—but all this week on GQ.com, we’re bringing you an expanded, Bill Brasky-size version of that story, along with answers that didn’t make it to the page. Today, SNL cast members talk about some of their proudest, most joyful, and most ridiculous moments on the Studio 8H stage.

Ellen Cleghorne, cast member, 1991–95: It's a toss-up between doing the sketch with Michael Jordan where I played Zoraida the page, and years later, this parody I did of [the Des’ree song] “You Gotta Be.” I was playing OJ Simpson's first wife, and she was singing about how she eluded death. You've gotta be a part-time ninja…”

Kenan Thompson, cast member, 2003–present: “Black Jeopardy” with Chadwick Boseman. That one was special, because he never got panicked about the situation, even though at first we hadn't nailed down the real funny parts of this character or decided how to build it to be funnier and funnier as the sketch progressed. He just allowed the process to find him and then ultimately ended up finding it himself and absolutely nailed it. He scaled and got better and better and the live version was the best that he had done, which was the perfect way for something like that to happen— peaking at the live show.

Chris Rock, cast member, 1990–93: “The Nat X Show” with Vanilla Ice.

Laraine Newman, cast member, 1975–80: In the show order it was called “Beatnik Coffehouse,” but it’s also called “Plato’s Cave.” Steve Martin was the host and every cast member was beautifully represented and the writing was so edgy and specific. Michael O’Donoghue’s voice is embedded in it, but I asked Tom Schiller and he said everyone had a hand in it. Steve played a beat poet, Belushi was the jittery junkie comedian that only the band found funny, Gilda [Radner] was the radical feminist waitress, Garrett [Morris] was the blind blues singer, Danny [Aykroyd] was a bongo-playing MC, and I was a poetry-spouting modern dancer. The jokes are so deeply funny and harsh at the same time.

Molly Shannon, cast member, 1995–2001: The very first time I ever did Mary Katherine Gallagher was just absolutely, mind-blowingly thrilling. That it worked, that people laughed—I felt like I could feel my life was going to change. Jim Breuer was so sweet. He said he had never heard the audience laugh and clap so loud. He said it was like a roar: Aaahhh!

Bill Hader, cast member, 2005–13: It was always fun being in “What Up With That,” because I had no lines, and I would get a laugh. I just sat there. So that was great. I would just get dressed up as Lindsay Buckingham, and I had nothing to do, and I just had to give Kenan a look, and it would get a laugh.

Jim Belushi, cast member, 1983–85: I love “Chess Coach.”

Jay Mohr, cast member, 1993–95: It’s a filmed piece where [Jim Belushi] is on the sidelines yelling Pawn to rook four! No! Why did you give him the queen? Like, kicking chairs over.

Bobby Moynihan, cast member, 2008–17: “David Pumpkins.” Just that it exists makes me laugh and I'm happy about that and I always will be.

Mikey Day, writer, 2013–16; cast member, 2016–present: “Beavis and Butthead” from last season, with Ryan Gosling. “Beavis and Butthead”—I have said it before, but I believe I have peaked with that sketch. It's all downhill from here.

Bowen Yang, writer, 2018–19; cast member, 2019–present: The sketch that I was in that I feel like added years to my life was “Lisa From Temecula.” Just being in the room for that, I felt, like, affirmed that life is amazing, that humanity is capable of incredible things. It just filled me with a sense of infinite joy and possibility.

That Pedro Pascal show—it was one of those shows where I had to fly to London the next day to shoot Wicked. I was so delirious and bleary-eyed that entire time in my life, but I feel like that was a moment I can really tether to, like a really nice memento of that time in my life, where I was thinking, You know what? It's all gonna be okay. I'm happy.

Michaela Watkins, cast member, 2008–09: It was my second week and John Malkovich was hosting, and Seth Meyers said as a joke when we were pitching ideas for the show, “What about a sketch based on Dangerous Liaisons that takes place in a hot tub? And it’s called J’Acuzzi?” I got to do the Glenn Close part. I had done Dangerous Liaisons in college, and so to be in a hot tub in a Renaissance gown with John Malkovich shouting these lines from the film…And then Kristen [Wiig] put her hand on [mine] and she goes, “Can you believe our lives?” And I was like, “I can’t believe our lives. Our lives are sick. This is amazing.”

Kevin Nealon, cast member, 1986–95: The one that makes me laugh the most, and the one I watch every once in a while, I think it was called “Bellissima.” I came into an Italian restaurant with Kirstie Alley, and the waiters are all Italian there. They're very demonstrative with their Italian heritage, like hugging and kissing, and it escalated to the point where one of them is dry-humping Victoria [Jackson] on a table and [they’re saying] ‘No, no, this is what we do, the Italianos…’

And then they're really hitting on Kirstie Alley, my wife, and I am totally aghast at this. Like, "What are you doing?" And she's like, "This is what they do, honey. It's the way they do it." And then, as we're leaving, as we're walking away, they see us through the picture window and they all come running to the window, the waiters. [Adam] Sandler just has a Speedo on—he came out of the kitchen with a Speedo. And I think [Rob] Schneider is kissing the window and licking the window.

Chris Kattan, cast member, 1996–2003: A few other people might agree with me: The Blue Oyster Cult “More Cowbell” sketch. That was unpredictable and we had no idea how popular it would be, and it was very hard to not laugh in that sketch. Everybody in that sketch laughed from Will falling over after I pushed him.

Janeane Garofalo, cast member, 1994–95: Anything with Alec Baldwin, because when he hosted it was one of the best times I ever had. And then one where I got to sit next to George Clooney. Just because I’m a great admirer of George Clooney and always have been. So that was a delight. A sketch where I got to sit next to George Clooney? I was over the moon. And then any sketch I got to do with Alec Baldwin, I would say, are co-favorites.

Tracy Morgan, cast member, 1996–2003: I had Astronaut Jones and I had Brian Fellow. And I have another one that I love doing, that was Judge Judy. Tina Fey, T. Sean Shannon, and Andrew Steele wrote all three, and they let me be me in them, and that's what I loved.

Tracy Morgan's Astronaut Jones meets Kregerlera (Britney Spears), 2002NBC/Getty Images

Robert Smigel, writer, 1985–93, 1996–2008; cast member, 1991–93: I always loved the Cluckin’ Chicken [commercial parody], with the animated chicken mascot who tells you why their chicken is so delicious, and he takes you through this graphic [process] and doesn't skip the part where he gets murdered and plucked and gutted. That one really made me laugh, and I loved the way it came out.

And I was always very proud of “Schmitts Gay,” because it wasn’t making fun of gay people. It was making fun of the exploitation of women and sexualization in ridiculous beer commercials. And it was like a practical joke on the inherent homophobia assumed in those people in the target audience.

And I'll just say one more, which is the “Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight” song, with Steve Martin. I remember I just had chills watching it come off.

Tim Kazurinsky, cast member, 1980–84: Probably Dr. Jack Badofsky, who had a list of ridiculously fake diseases and stuff. Or “I Married a Monkey.” My wife was a live chimpanzee. This was long before I knew that they could rip your face off. But after the fifth time I did it, the monkey attacked me and I said, "That's it. We're done."

Moynihan: The Beyoncé sketch stands out as just the first time I really realized what the power of being on SNL meant, where it was having an idea on a Monday, pitching it, it not happening, them saying no, and then on Friday, Justin Timberlake shows up and then on Saturday you're rehearsing with Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé, and then [the next] Monday you're on the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

Moynihan, second from left, with Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé and Andy Samberg, 2008NBC/Getty Images

Jay Pharoah, cast member, 2010–16: “What Does My Girl Say,” with Kerry Washington. That sketch was a direct parallel of me and a girl that I’d broken up with, and then got back with, and broken up with [again.]I got to sing, and I got to work with Kerry. That was my introduction to her. We became friends after that. And every time she sees me, I kid you not, she's like, "Jay Pharaoh, who that bitch?"

Tim Meadows, cast member, 1991–2000: As the lead, I would say any Ladies Man sketch. Probably the most fun I was having on camera, where I felt like I could do anything. But I would say the best sketch I've ever been in is the “Census” sketch with Christopher Walken. Tina Fey wrote that sketch, and I think it's a perfectly written sketch.

Joe Piscopo, cast member, 1980–84: It was a sketch called “Solomon and Pudge” with Eddie. Any sketch with Eddie Murphy was joy beyond your wildest dreams as an actor. It was fun and it was always funny and just so exciting. But when Eddie and I did two characters that were kind of bittersweet, Solomon and Pudge, two guys in the bar, that was my favorite thing to do of all time on the show.

I loved the SNL Sports guy, I always loved doing the Frank Sinatra stuff, but doing Solomon and Pudge with Eddie was great because with Eddie it was more than just two comics. It was more than just comedy. It was introspection. We basically improvised three to six minutes on network television, generally at the end of the show before we went into our goodnights. Those sketches, to this day, are my favorite.

Ashley Padilla, cast member, 2024–present: So far, I would say the Italian commercial I did with Paul Mescal was just so fun to do. I had fun with him yelling at me, because he's very sweet in real life.

As told to Brittany Loggins, Gabriella Paiella, Alex Pappademas and Zinya Salfiti

SNL50: The Anniversary Special airs at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Sunday, Feb. 16, on NBC and Peacock.