Saturday Night Live had a very good year, considering all things.
Of course, the show in its current form cannot really compete with the previous eras of SNL. But this is an eternal problem for this show: the public loves to remember better days, often without recognizing the greatness that is in front of them.
A decade from now, we will be swimming in thinkers who hail the talents of Kate McKinnon, Aidy Bryant and Kenan Thompson. The fact is that, SNL it is like many sketch comedy series, in which the result always varies from one sketch to another. Sometimes they are boring and stereotyped (virtually all openings since Donald Trump took office). Other times, they are comic geniuses.
Let’s focus on the latter for a minute. O SNL 2020 gave a great laugh. Here are our favorites.
10. “Bits”
For Mashable’s entertainment team, no day is complete without at least one person going too far. We can’t let you look at our private Slack (no, seriously – it’s full of criminal activity), but we can give you this intensely hilarious musical number by Kyle Mooney about what happens when someone takes a little. .. bit very far.
9. “Del Taco Shoot”
The comedy that depends on repetition walks on the razor’s edge. Go too far and it is more irritating than causing laughter. But get it right, with the perfect amount of strangeness and your gold. This sketch of Adam Driver’s appearance in the 45th season in January hit the nail on the head. Driver and Beck Bennett are managing a photo shoot for Del Taco, and Kyle Mooney just can’t get it right. And then they all say the line, over and over and over again. Everyone is on fire here, even the normally hilarious Chloe Fineman in a small playing role. His frozen expression that we see near the end of the sketch just as the strangeness spikes sells the whole damn thing.
8. “New York Musical”
This was a year that blessed us with not one, but two Episodes presented by John Mulaney and, therefore, two tributes led by Mulaney to Broadway musicals. Since the sketch for “Airport Sushi” is technically from the 45th season, we are highlighting the most recent of Mulaney’s show in October. Fewer surprise guests, but still so ridiculous, hilarious and well organized.
7. “Stu”
Somehow, the SNL The team of writers turned a 20-year-old video clip of Eminem into an incredible almost futile search message from all human video game lovers for a PlayStation 5. In “Stu”, Pete Davidson writes a letter to Santa Claus in hopes to mark one of the hard to find consoles. Everything about this sketch hits, from the parody lyrics that would make “Weird” Al Yankovic proud to the nods back to Dido and Elton John, who both have their own connections to Eminem’s original track.
6. “Sports Report”
If you think about the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic – a difficult proposition in December, I understand – you must remember that SNL staged an experiment with social distance “SNL at home“episodes. This sketch, an absolute highlight led by Alex Moffat, plays with the idea of a Sky News sports announcer stuck at home and trying to make the best of things by making sports competitions at home. From the laptop’s initial run to the showdown popping corn, there is hilarity on every corner.
5. “Coronavirus Vacations”
The launch of our first five is a sketch that imagines the COVID-19 virus as a whole family that is dealing with some of the same struggles as everyone in this challenging 2020. In an incisive turnaround, the family ends up launching a series of ideas and feelings that they would not be out of place at a Donald Trump rally. It’s deeply funny, but I also need to take down anyone who has chosen to minimize the threat of COVID-19.
4. “Election announcement”
In this first of two consecutive fake ads that made it our favorite SNL On the list of sketches, the show’s cast portrays a group of ordinary Americans who are here just to talk about the upcoming presidential election and ponder what life can be like in a post-Trump world. His optimism for a more stable society quickly becomes a concern when everyone realizes that the daily headlines are about to become much more boring and much less dramatic. Clearly, all of these people are great users of social media. That’s the joke.
3. “eBay”
As 2020 kept most of the world’s population stuck at home, we all started looking for new hobbies and things to do to pass the time. This, of course, means spending money on more things. In this fake eBay ad, SNL drags each of us who has experienced something new and then lost interest in it. The auction site is positioned as The where to go to get rid of all the useless crap you thought you would use, but you didn’t because pandemic life is difficult and stressful.
2. “Headless Horseman”
This excellent sketch by John Mulaney shows his Ichabod Crane meeting the Headless Horseman (Beck Bennett) for the first time. But the scary moment quickly becomes comical when Ichabod can’t help asking the vengeful spirit a question: “Do you always use this” – “him” being your own head – “in yourself?” Things only get fussier from there as other locations come on the scene and bombard the Headless Horseman with more questions.
1. “Madame Vivelda”
This extremely funny sketch from the October 2020 episode of Adele takes us back to the final days of 2019. A group of friends appears with a fortune teller, Madame Vivelda (Kate McKinnon) to get an idea of what the coming year has in store for them. But confusion reigns as Vivelda talks about the stressful process of washing a Doritos bag with soap and the unforgivable sin of eating a meal in a restaurant. As bright and smart as six minutes of comedy SNL has managed throughout its 55 years as a series.