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Saturday Night Live is a sketch comedy show that, despite its near-constant changing of cast members and writers and occasional dips in quality, has remained on NBC for well past 30 years (as of this writing, the show is in its 37th season). And it stayed around because of its ability to turn out funny sketches and moments (some funnier than others).

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1975-1979

• "Jane, you ignorant slut." "Dan, you pompous ass."
• From the original cast, the Ronco Bassomatic '76 commercial.
• Lorne Michaels trying to bribe the Beatles to come on the show...with $3,000. "You can split up the money however you want. If you want to give Ringo less, that's fine."
  • Turned into a really lost opportunity when you find out that Paul McCartney and John Lennon were in Lennon's New York apartment that night watching the show, and seriously considered taking a taxi down to Rockerfeller Plaza and taking Lorne up on his offer.
• The classic Richard Pryor-Chevy Chase racist word association sketch - taking Refuge in Audacity to a whole new level and forever cementing SNL's reputation as the edgy late-night show where anything can happen (scripted or otherwise).
• From 1978, it's the new live entertainment sensation -- Elvis Presley's Coat! See his coat live on stage and hear the legendary songs! (This Parody Commercial is also Hilarious in Hindsight; in addition to the Elvis merchandising, tribute shows, and so on that persist to this day, the Los Angeles Times's review of Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour compared its approach to this skit's premise.)

1980-1989

• The several times on Weekend Update when Dennis Miller sat next to Dana Carvey...dressed up as Dennis Miller. He seemed to enjoy the satirical image of himself.

Miller: You know...I'm just narcissistic enough to love that.

• The short film starring Martin Short, Harry Shearer and Christopher Guest about aspiring synchronize swimmers.
• The Amazing Alexander, a Broadway hypnotist! "I loved it. It was much better than Cats. I'm going to see it again and again."
• The famous sketch where William Shatner tells a group of nerds at a Star Trek convention to "Get a life!"
  • There was something similar on the Justin Timberlake episode from season 34, in which Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are trying to convince staunch Star Trek fans that the 2009 film version of the series will be faithful to the original 1960s series. In comes Leonard Nimoy (it was really him, not a cast member impersonating him) and reassures them that Star Trek fans will love it. The Funny Moment comes when, instead of going for the obvious punchline of "...not liking it would be illogical," as Seth Meyers expected, Nimoy says, "Not to like it would make them dickheads!" The transcript for that part (it was a Weekend Update segment) is right here.

1990-1999

• "The Chris Farley Show", with Chris meeting Paul McCartney. Also a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
• The Schweddy Balls sketch. Even funnier if you close your eyes during it.
• Any Bill Brasky sketch. "I once saw him scissor kick Angela Lansbury!"
  • Here's one from his funeral.
• "Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball."
• A site devoted to transcribing SNL sketches notes that the "Wake Up and Smile" sketch in Season 21 defined how the show was recovering from season 20 (which, had its moments, but was really suffering from Seasonal Rot in the same way the show was in its 6th and 11th seasons), and indeed it did — the audience response to the revelation of the winner in the battle between the host (Will Ferrell) and the weatherman is one of true, and truly shocked, laughter. Four words: "The weatherman is DEAD!"
• Jingleheimer Junction. Four glorious minutes of Getting Crap Past the Radar. The Junction Gang's inability to see what the big deal is and Jingleheimer Joe's near-violent reactions to what's going on make it even funnier.
• The real Janet Reno appearing in the final "Janet Reno's Dance Party" sketch. "It's Reno time!"
• "I LIVE IN A VAN, DOWN BY THE RIVER!"
• During the 1993 World Series, the opening skit was that poking fun at the Blue Jays/Phillies series. It showed the Phillies in their dugout while "O Canada" was being sung, but each and every one of the Phillies were A) not standing at attention, B) had their caps or helmets on, and C) were chewing Chewin' Tobacco and occasionally spitting on the ground — all spot-on representations of the at-the-time Phillies. Extra points go to Chris Farley, whose impersonation of John Kruk was dead on.
• Chris Farley, in his last SNL appearance before his untimely death, playing El Nino.
• Jimmy Tango's FAT Busters. RIDE THE SNAKE.
• The "lost" ending to It's a Wonderful Life, where Mr. Potter finally gets what he deserves (since the movie in real life didn't show that). This moment also appeared on the same episode as the infamous sketch in which William Shatner tells Star Trek geeks to "Get a life!"
• Chris Farley, David Spade and Adam Sandler as teenaged girls hanging out at a mall food court. Aside from three grown men trying their best to imitate a teenaged girl's voice, one of Farley's reactions is legendary:

Spade's character: Aren't you trying to cut back? Farley's Character: (Farley briefly dropping the teenaged girl routine) LAY OFF ME, I'M STARVING!

• One of the few times Phil Hartman ever corpsed during his tenure. By the end of this skit, he's quite visibly having difficulty keeping it together.
  • Apparently Hartman was thinking about the absurdity of the situation, and how Frankenstein's Monster would deal with it, and then he thought about how the Monster would sound laughing. It just got worse from there.

Frankenstein: FIRE--(realizes he's going the wrong way)--BAD! (smashes through back wall of set)

• The infamous Cowbell sketch. A performance such as Christopher Walken's, in which he got the entire assembled cast to corpse due to his Large Ham performance was an absolute joy to see.
• "OVER THE WEEKEND, YOU STUPID BITCH!" The part that really sells it is Chris Farley's "What now?!" expression, practically daring his co-stars to start corpsing.
• Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze auditioning as Chippendales Dancers. Although it's now considered a Funny Aneurysm Moment thanks to their untimely deaths.
• The first McLaughlin Group sketch with Dana Carvey as host and moderator John McLaughlin who always yells "WRONG!" interrupting a member of the group when they try to give an answer and gives his answer which is usually insane.
• The coffee commercial sketch, spoofing Folger's "We've secretly replaced their coffee" commercials, showing an outtake in which a customer played by Chris Farley goes batshit when he's informed this isn't the coffee he originally ordered.

Knorben Knussen: Mr. Huff, how do feel about your experience on hidden camera? Mr. Huff: An-gry...

• The Sinatra Group is an all-time classic which premise is basically Frank Sinatra (Phil Hartman) hosting a roundtable of music discussions which featured Sinead O'Connor (Jan Hooks), Billy Idol (Sting), Luther Campbell (Chris Rock), Steve Lawrence (Mike Myers) and Eydie Gorme (Victoria Jackson). This sketch's hilarity ranges from Sinatra insisting that Campbell has talent, Sting's pretty dead-on Billy Idol impression, and the numerous Sinead O'Connor nicknames( "Sinbad", "Uncle Fester", "Sign Aid") but the capper is what may be one of the single greatest lines ever uttered on SNL.

Sinatra: You don't scare me, I got CHUNKS of guys like you in my STOOL!

• The Old Glory Robot Insurance commercial wouldn't work in most normal cases, but with Sam Waterston in the sketch as the spokesman, it's one of the greatest commercials in SNL history.
• Compulsion, a spoof of the self-important Calvin Klein perfume ads. Just a hilarious all around performance from everybody involved.
• From the first time Charles Barkley hosted (in 1993), there was the monologue where he challenges Barney the Dinosaur to a game of basketball—and Barney gets his ass handed to him (to the point that stuffing is coming out of tears in the costume and his fake eye is hanging out). Made all the funnier when the two becomes friends in the end and walk off the court to the end theme of Barney and Friends.
• In a fantastic parody of Planet of the Apes, the first fifteen minutes of the episode hosted by Charlton Heston from season 19 (he hosted before in season 12, but that episode never had this sketch), he oversleeps in his dressing room for a very long time and wakes up the show is taken over by apes (really people in ape masks, of course)! The people in the opening credits were all replaced by apes—their names referencing actual characters from the movie series—and even the audience during the monologue were apes!
• From a 1995 "Hollywood Minute" segment of "Weekend Update", David Spade says "Look, kids, a falling star! Make a wish!" as he mocks Eddie Murphy's (then-)lackluster career. Even though this really pissed Murphy off (and it was met with shocked groans from the audience), it's hilariously scathing.
• The "Herlihy Boy" sketch with Adam Sandler and Chris Farley. Farley makes a hilarious "Heh?" sound after each line, while Sandler struggles so hard to maintain composure as Farley loses his temper:

Farley: Can we STOP THIS CRUEL GAME, AND ALLOW THE BOY TO KEEP A SHRED OF DIGNITY?! FOR GOD'S SAKE, I CAN'T STAND SEEING HIM IN SUCH PAIN! YOU! VICIOUS! BASTARDS!

2000-2009

• Everything Sean Connery says in the Celebrity Jeopardy! sketches. "I'll take Anal Bum Cover for 7,000."
• "Jizz — in — my pants!"
• The very first Debbie Downer sketch is so funny, even the entire cast in the sketch starts cracking up.
• D* ck in the Box. 'Nuff said.
• Natalie Portman does a Take That on her squeaky clean image by dropping a Cluster F-Bomb in a hilarious rap number.
• Will Ferrell, in a post-9/11 show, in one skit, was going along with his company's policy of wearing patriotic articles. He comes in wearing a belly shirt with the American flag and a star-spangled thong.
• Anything that comes out of Will Forte's mouth as Zell Miller in the Hardball sketches. PISTOLS AT DAAAAWN, MATTHEWS!
• Will Ferrell as George W. Bush explaining the conditions under which China would return a U.S. spy plane. These include a guarantee that America would get all their top-secret documents back; the Chinese would have photocopies. China also agreed not to share those photocopies with other nations; however, photocopies of photocopies are still allowed...provided they are readable. "I fought hard for that one."
• The Take That Us (or call to arms to continue to be funny despite troubling times, whichever) which opened the first show back after 9/11:

Lorne Michaels: Can we be funny? Rudy Guliani: Why start now?

• The first George Bush / Al Gore debate, where Will Ferrell cements his Bush character by summing up his presidential plan in one word — "Strategery".
• Basically any time Bill Hader shows up as Stefon on Weekend Update. Seth Meyers, Hader (despite his best efforts to hide it and not be like Jimmy Fallon —the most recent time on the second time Jonah Hill hosted, he actually kept it together until he had to describe what a "human Roomba" was), and the entire audience begins cracking up. For good reason.
  • The latest Stefon segment from the Jonah Hill episode where he gives Seth Meyers a St. Patrick's Day pin with the words, "Kiss Me, I'm Irish" on it -- which Stefon takes as an invitation.
• Will Ferrell as Neil Diamond on VH-1 Storytellers:

"Here's a song I wrote after I killed a drifter to get an erection! (sings): Forever in blue jeans..."

• There's plenty of times during the Celebrity Jeopardy! skits where you wonder how anyone managed to keep a straight face. The banter between Will Ferrell as Alex Trebek and Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery is the stuff of legends.
  • Opening with a Noodle Incident:

Trebek: Welcome back to Celebrity Jeopardy!. Before we begin the Double Jeopardy round, I'd like to ask our contestants, once again, please refrain from using ethnic slurs. That said, let's take a look at the scores. Sean Connery has set a new Jeopardy record with -$230,000. Connery: You think you're pretty smart, don't ya, Trebek? What with your dago mustache and your greasy hair! Trebek: Look, what did I just say about ethnic slurs?!

• The entire "Brain Busters" sketch on the season 28 episode hosted by Bernie Mac. Especially the ending.
• Justin Timberlake singing "Rainbow Connection" with Kermit the Frog, only to get into a fight with Kermit's puppeteer.

Kermit: Some day we'll find it, the rainbow connection. The lovers, the douchebag, and me.

• The skit with The Rock as Superman. The idea that the entire staff of The Daily Planet already knows Clark is Superman and just plays along to screw with him is hilarious.

2010-2019

• Norm MacDonald making a surprise cameo as Burt Reynolds for Celebrity Jeopardy! and Tom Hanks playing a moronic version of himself on the last episode of Season 34 (hosted by Will Ferrell with musical guest Green Day).
• Jim Carrey as Lily on the show's parody of "The Black Swan," which showed that Jim Carrey can still do silly physical comedy after all these years.
  • "Sorry I'm late. I had to take numbers three and four."
• Betty White, unsurprisingly, was funny all over the place when she (finally) hosted in 2010, starting from her opening monologue in which she called Facebook, on which the petition to have her host had started, a "huge waste of time," to the "Scared Straight" sketch where she played MacIntosh's badass grandma:

Loretta: Wizard of ass!

• The 2011 season finale with Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga. THE. ENTIRE. EPISODE. including but not limited to It's Not Gay if It's a Three-Way aka Dick in a Box: Part III, Justin and Gaga dressed as a beer bottle and a wine glass making fun of Kristen Wiig for being a teabag, Justin Timberlake appearing on a game show where he doesn't recognize his old bandmate from *NSYNC, Chris Kirkpatrick (played by Taran Killam), and a cameo by Jimmy Fallon for the return of The Barry Gibb Talk Show who made a point of noting he had survived the Rapture said to happen on May 21st.
• The "Who's on Top?" skit.

Host: Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz--who's on top? Contestant: Oprah Winfrey.

• The Merryville Brothers. Also doubles as Nightmare Fuel due to the Uncanny Valley looks of Taran Killam, Jim Carrey, and Bill Hader and the gruesome ending (which was originally supposed to have Kenan's character beheaded onscreen, but it was changed at the very last minute for being too violent. Still, the implication that Kenan's character was going to be turned into one of the Merryville robots by being murdered was there.
• Seth Meyers' latest installment of "Really?!" (about Congress declaring pizza as a vegetable in public schools) with Kermit the Frog.
• The Ann Hathaway as Mary Poppins sketch. Turns out, Mary isn't the Purity Sue you'd think she is.
• The SNL Digital Short from the Steve Buscemi episode (season 37, not season 23) with Batman (Andy Samberg) stalking Commissioner Gordon (Buscemi). Parts of note:
  • Batman (and Aquaman [played by Paul Brittain]) in Commissioner Gordon's shower (with Gordon telling Batman and Aquaman to put some pants on). Your Mileage May Vary on that part, as it is also as squicky as you can imagine from the Fan Disservice.
  • Batman taking a picture of Commissioner Gordon's prostate exam (and the doctor posing for it)
  • The end with Batman poorly disguised as a supervillain called "The Squirrel," followed by Batman snarling, "I always loved you!"
• "Michael Buble's Christmas Duets" on the season 37 Christmas episode hosted by Jimmy Fallon. Highlights include: Fallon's dead-on impressions of Justin Beiber (which actually put Fallon's notorious mugging to good use) and Russell Brand (not only in appearance, but his rambling about a man named Angel who's high is exactly what you'd expect to come out of Brand's mouth), M.I.A (Nasim Pedrad) blasting holes in the ceiling with her gun during "Up On The Rooftop," Ke$ha's (Abby Elliott) take on "The 12 Days of Christmas," and Kanye West (Jay Pharoah) upstaging Michael Buble and claiming that he's better than Jesus right in the baby Jesus doll's face in autotune.
  • Also in the Jimmy Fallon Christmas episode: The monologue in which Fallon finally admits that his cracking up ruined a lot of the sketches he was in that were already established to be crowning moments of funny (like The Cowbell Sketch and the Debbie Downer in Disneyland sketch).
  • Also also from the Jimmy Fallon episode, but not featuring Fallon was "Tommy Palmese, Half-Jewish, Half-Italian, All Neurotic." Basically Fred Armisen portraying a very bizarre one-man stage show where he acts out the very weird story of his life, with the narrator reading excerpts from various reviews of the show such as "The whole thing just stressed me out from beginning to end" and "It's a show that can only be described as...four hours".
    • Heck, the entire Fallon episode was basically a Funny Moment, so it's not surprising it's the highest rated episode of the season.
• Daniel Radcliffe as a washed up Harry Potter still hanging around Hogwarts ten years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (while everyone else has moved on with their lives, including Hagrid [Bobby Moynihan] who married one of the students).
• The Channing Tatum episode (with musical guest Bon Iver) has two:
  • The cold opening of Newt Gingrich (Bobby Moynihan) as President of the Moon, played out like a B-grade sci-fi flick from the 1950s.
  • The monolgue, in which Channing Tatum mentions that he was a stripper before he became an actor—and points out the former customers he had in the audience, one of which is a man named Leslie, who denies ever seeing him. Tatum tries to refresh Leslie's memory by doing his stripper moves—and Leslie ends up dying happy. The kicker: Tatum also recognizes the doctor (played by Andy Samberg) who pronounced Leslie dead as one of his customers.
• The "High School Musical 4" sketch from the season 34 episode hosted by Zac Efron. All of it.
• The "Real Housewives Of Disney" sketch from the Lindsay Lohan episode

Princess Jasmine:(sobbing) I had sex with Iago! Snow White: The parrot? Jasmine: I thought it was Aladdin! He was mimicking his voice!

A Camp Gay Prince Charming: "Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Burn that dress! A ha ha ha."(smirks) Snow White: (Talking Head)Looks like my stepmother isn't the only evil 'queen' in town!(gets high fives from all seven dwarves who are below the screen)

Belle: Who does your hair? Birds? Snow White: At least I'm not married to a beast! Belle(angrily): His name is Kelsey Grammer!

• • Also the outtakes and deleted scenes of the skit.

Cinderella: Oh no! Did we forget to invite Mulan? (Rapunzel, Jasmine, Belle and Snow White all laugh) Cinderella: (laughing)We didn't forget! We didn't forget!

• The "Scared Straight" bit from the same ep (with Lindsay Lohan playing herself as a convict) was pretty funny as well ("Every kiss begins with rape!")
  • From the same episode, during the monologue: Kenan Thompson admitting that he's been stoned since Good Burger.
  • Also, Lindsay Lohan getting "patted down" by Kirsten Wiig whilst hugging and Wiig trying to cover it up by saying that "I'm a lesbian now" to which Lindsay responds "Been there done that."
  • Also from the Lindsay Lohan/Jack White episode: "Rude Buddha," a one-shot sketch depicting Buddha as a Jerkass who cracks jokes about his disciples, has a part where the title character (played by Andy Samberg) uses the lyrics to The Facts of Life as sage advice.
  • James Carville's (Bill Hader) story of how he dressed in drag and tricked Newt Gingrich into dating him, especially the line, "Now, it doesn't matter why, but I am friends with some alligators."
• The delightfully insane 2-episode wonder known as Lord Wyndemere. Basically it's an 18th-century scamp in modern times who charms the hell out of a girl and her father (played by Jason Sudeikis). Along with his creepy assistant Turlington (with a tiny harpsichord), hilarity ensues.
• Host Sofia Vergara in a sketch where she's playing herself and Penelope Cruz (played by new feature player Kate McKinnon) shoot a Pantene shampoo commercial. They both have to say their lines to a camera and move sexily on a couch while a wind machine blows. Penelope becomes increasingly annoyed that her lines are complicated like "Follicular development" and "Arteriovenous Plexus" which are hard to understand with her thick Spanish accent. Meanwhile Sofia gets easy words like "glossy" and "Yaaay!" The director (Jason Sudekis) tries to teach Penelope how to say "Phytomorphogenesis" but what comes out of her is "refrigerator" and "Jeff Bridges."
• From the Josh Brolin episode (the second time he hosted with musical guest Gotye): a teacher (Bill Hader) shows a new student (Vanessa Bayer) around the high school and the most popular couple, a blonde jock (Taran Killam) and cheerleader (Nasim Pedrad) walk in slow motion down the hall as "We Got More Bounce in California" plays. As the sketch goes on, it's revealed that the whole sketch is parodying the "slow motion power walk" cliche used in many a high school teen movie (or TV show): the hallway is either some sort of scientific anomaly or... The end reveals that it's actually the work of a witch's curse.
• From the Eli Manning episode: a fake commercial for Amazon.com showing men getting Mother's Day gifts for their wives and elderly mothers, only to find them jerking off to the book "Fifty Shades of Grey." Two standout moments: the little girl singing into her mom's (Kristen Wiig) vibrator like a microphone and an adult son (Taran Killam) finding his elderly mom (Nasim Pedrad) with her crotch pressed against a vibrating washing machine with a picture of Joel McHale on top and the mom telling her son that it's his father.
  • Also from the Eli Manning episode: The "Little Brothers" mentor program fake commercial, where little brothers can hire Eli Manning himself to beat up their older brothers. Funniest parts are: Eli Manning giving an older brother a wedgie while playing video games, Eli tackling an older brother (Andy Samberg) to the ground and a couple of scenes later where the same boy is locked in the trunk of a car and Eli calls him "Peyton".