‘SNL’ Season 46: The 20 Best Sketches, From “Tiny Horse” to “Titanic”

The pièce de résistance of a John Mulaney-hosted episode is his “only in New York” musical tribute set to the greatest hits of Broadway. In each of his previous stints hosting, he revealed the inner workings of diner menus at Big Nick’s Greek Diner with “Diner Lobster,” asking to use the bathroom at Big Nick’s Bodega in “Bodega Bathroom,” and what happens when you want to eat packaged sushi at LaGuardia with “Airport Sushi.” Always the customers, Chris Redd acts reasonably while Pete Davidson makes the outrageous request of Mulaney’s store owner, and Thompson starts the musical medley. And this time, they’re in Big Nick’s Souvenirs store in Times Square, where Davidson inexplicably wants to try on a pair of “I ❤️️ NY” tighty-whitey underpants. Cue the music! Cue the Times Square mascots! It’s Halloween, so it’s gotta be mascots, right? Right! With Bowen Yang as Batman, Melissa Villaseñor as Minnie Mouse, Lauren Holt as Elsa, Alex Moffat as Elmo, Kate McKinnon as the Bubba Gump shrimp, Beck Bennett as the “diddler on the roof,” Maya Rudolph as the Statue of Liberty, Chloe Fineman as the woman from Westchester with obvious COVID-19 symptoms, and Mikey Day as the guy looking to mug Rick Moranis again? It’s not the best of the four New York Musicals, but it’s the one we got this season.

During the height of the pandemic, the pre-taped bits really outshined the live sketches (in truth, this should be the norm, as they have so much more control over the execution of the premise) and this music video from Ego Nwodim, Pete Davidson and an assist from musical guest Bad Bunny really drove home how much staying at home in self-quarantine melted our brains.

Amazing to think how much we laughed at the Christmas 2019 ad campaign for Peloton (what with the woman who makes a video of her enjoying her gift as a gift to her husband a year later?!), then to suddenly have lots of people buying the bikes for their quarantine workouts, then see the company’s 2020 rah-rah ads cheering us all on. “Pelotaunt” allows SNL to go all Black Mirror on the concept, with the riders receiving both negative reinforcement and relentless criticism. No pain, no gain?

It’s more than about time we really took a moment to reflect on why so many of us are watching documentaries about serial killers, as if that’s comforting anyone.

From Cecily Strong’s introduction and saunter straight into the camera, into Aidy Bryant’s slurring through the award presentation, all the way to tend, somehow all of these barflies seemed like somebodies we could imagine ourselves happily stuck next to. Maybe that’s the way Maya Rudolph, Kenan Thompson, Alex Moffat and Kate McKinnon and more are selling it. Maybe that’s just testament to the crazy year we’ve survived. Either way, it’s an honor just to nominate this sketch.

And then Rudolph, as Sally O’Flappy, took home multiple trophies at this year’s Barfly Awards, including Wildest Claim at the bar as well as Most Bummer Detail. Congrats?

It’s rough going out on “The Farm,” but when Beck Bennett and Heidi Gardner decide they have to sell everything to survive, that means Timothée Chalamet is going to lose his pride and joy. As he breaks into song, we eventually learn that he’s going to miss his tiny horse most of all. What can he do? Let Tiny Horse run free and live his best life! “Go on, git!” Absurd to the core, but damn, if they don’t tear up anyhow with tears of joy, buying what these kids are selling.

When Kristen Wiig returned to host, we knew we’d get to see some of her recurring characters once more. But the bigger laughs came from her new explorations, such as this fast-talking medic entertaining Army troops in Europe on Christmas Eve 1944, who brings up “the toughest guy in the unit” (Bowen Yang) for a duet called “Love Fight” that time travels into the late 1980s/early 1990s, has Wiig and Yang switch gender roles in the song, invites Dua Lipa into the mix for advanced choreography, while the troops all go with the flow. “Doing me wrong ain’t doing me right,” indeed.

“You get one a year. Make the most of it.” This trailer parodies Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Ammonite and other seaside films “starring two straight actresses who dare not to wear makeup” with little dialogue (Carey Mulligan and Heidi Gardner), one actual lesbian as the stone-cold ex (Kate McKinnon) “and of course, there’s a drawing scene.” And of course, of course, sex so graphic it reminds you a man directed this movie. Scathing satire. It’s funny because it’s sadly true.

In another pre-taped bit with Heidi Gardner and Beck Bennett as the married couple, and host Timothée Chalamet as their son, this one is much more realistic than “Tiny Horse,” targeting the annual Lexus Christmas ad campaign. Because sometimes the surprise gift car with a big bow on top bites back. “Did you seriously buy a car without asking me???” Where did we get the money for this? What about the monthly payments? And there’s so many more reasons they’re gonna remember this December. Surprise!

Ad parodies have been SNL’s bread and butter for decades now, so it’s no surprise that we’ve listed a number of them here already. From the Dan Levy-hosted episode, this one for Zillow is perhaps the most devastatingly topical yet timeless of them all, mocking elder millennials and Gen-X for transitioning out of online porn videos to online home listings for their late-night seduction.

From the season premiere hosted by Chris Rock, this may have been the only live sketch tackling the pandemic that has as much lasting power as the pandemic. Thanks mostly to the evergreen concept of funny names. Yes, SNL took the concept of contact tracing to the “name-change office,” where Rock announced the folks they hoped to track down. Rock attempts to keep a straight face while calling out the names, all while an inappropriately masked Pete Davidson had no qualms about cracking up behind him.

Paging Edith Puthie, Irma Gerd, Mike Rodick, Jeffrey B. Epstein, Burton Ernie, Alma Holzhert, Ben Lauden, Dee Perdadi, Duncan Dixon-Coffey, Finn Gerbangh, Moe Lestin Jr., and Tess Tichol.

Regina King’s hostage negotiator may have lost her touch once she ate all of the drug-infused gummies from Bowen Yang’s evidence bag, but somehow, bringing the gummies to life in the persons of Pete Davidson and Aidy Bryant, and all of the hallucinations that followed have such a hippie-dippy dreamlike quality that they’re even more rewarding on a second viewing.

Of all of the short films SNL produced this year, none will have the staying power, nor the timelessness, of this Christmas morning music video, which depicts a typical White family rapping about their gift hauls. Except there’s dear mom, played by Kristen Wiig, trying to make the most out of her one and only gift. A robe.

A voiceover tag provided by Kenan Thompson implores all of us to be better to our moms this Christmas and get her more than just one gift. If you didn’t heed the warning in 2020, please do so this year!

We knew we were in for something special when the first thing we saw after the first ad break was host Dave Chappelle, still onstage after his monologue, there to introduce the next sketch. Something about that segue not only reminded us of the power of live TV, but also put us in the right frame of mind to enjoy the premise: Black mascots of corporate America losing their jobs thanks to progress. Alec Baldwin as the corporate exec executing the layoffs may come off as too much on the nose for white privilege, but Maya Rudolph showing up as Aunt Jemima made everyone and us included start to giggle. Kenan Thompson as Uncle Ben only upped the laughter ante, and Chappelle as  “the Allstate guy” couldn’t contain himself. By the time we saw Pete Davidson as Chocula, even Chappelle couldn’t resist breaking the fourth wall and simply calling him Pete. Fun times for all! FIVE STARS!

What’s more surprising than SNL breaking the fourth wall? How about SNL bringing back The Muppets (who appeared in the very first episode of SNL back in 1975)! Only this time, it’s not the actual official muppets, but Kyle Mooney voicing Kermit, and Mikey Day and Beck Bennett as hecklers Statler and Waldorf. Melissa Villaseñor brought a rich Lily Tomlin impersonation to the sketch (Tomlin indeed hosted The Muppet Show in the 1970s), but it’s host Keegan-Michael Key and Kenan Thompson as the venue’s security detail who steal the show, quite literally interrupting multiple times to stop Statler and Waldorf, before eventually joining in the fun.

The Keegan-Michael Key episode also featured this gem, diving back into one of the most meme-able scenes from the 2020 docuseries on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. With Key as Jordan, we’re back in the bowels of the United Center, where he challenged one of his friendly security guards, to tossing quarters closest to the wall. SNL plays fast and loose with the timing (shifting from 1998 to 1993 to incorporate Kenan Thompson’s Charles Barkley), but even with Chris Redd’s Dennis Rodman and Alex Moffat’s Phil Jackson, all eyes are on the late John Michael Wozniak, played to the hilt by Heidi Gardner. This time, Jordan took the now famous shrug personally, and exacts his financial revenge on the helpless Wozniak. It’s precision, it’s perfection. Give Gardner a special Emmy for the emotional journey she took us all on.

In this parody of the webseries turned truTV game show Hot Ones, Mikey Day as host Sean Evans fires interview questions at Beyoncé while she eats chicken wings covered in diabolically hot sauces with names such as Hitler’s Anus and Devil’s Diarrhea. She tries to play it cool, so to speak, but eventually crumbles to the point of begging her stylist (played by Kenan Thompson) to remove her wig — on camera, even — and put six ice cubes on her head. Eventually, her publicist and agent (played by Ego Nwodim and Alex Moffat) have to intervene and shut it all down. Just watch it already!

John Krasinski played the straight man in what turned out to be the best sketch of the night he hosted, as well as one of the best all season. If you think your Zoom or Skype session went poorly, just watch what happens when Krasinski, as an economist weighing in on live TV about the GameStop stock squeeze, finds his twin children (Kate McKinnon and Mikey Day) upstage him their increasingly terrifying behavior. Also kudos to the writers for getting so specifically weird. One twin is “stingy with the mustard” because the other is “indulgent with the mustard.” So bizarre. So unexpected. So great.

If you’re going to leave SNL, you best go out with a bang, as Cecily Strong most certainly did in a way that’s truly tremendous and inspiring to behold.

Her take on FOX News host Jeanine Pirro always has been a smashing success, but this time, she not only tosses her wine in Jost’s direction, but also drowns him in it. And also herself! When she stood and began singing, “My Way,” my god, how we all realized this really was her final countdown. When they rolled out that giant glass box of wine, complete with enormous straw, we thought, wait, would she? Could she? She could, and she would. Belting out “My Way” the whole way. God bless Cecily Strong. We shall miss her when she’s gone from SNL.

Look. Nothing could top this. Not even Strong’s stirring farewell. Because nothing came at us in quite a surprising, delightful way as Bowen Yang’s breakthrough performance as the iceberg that sank the Titanic 99 years ago.

“This is always a weird time of year for me,” he revealed. He didn’t want to talk about that incident, but if you provoke him into it, he’ll vociferously defend his role in the Titanic sinking. But that’s not what the deal was with his publicist, Colin Jost, and you knew that. “I’m here to promote my album.” Wait, what? “Yes, it’s a hyper-pop EDM new disco Fantasia.” As a treat, he also sang his first single, “Loverboy.”

Behold, a new SNL star before us. His name is Bowen Yang. We shall be fine no matter what Season 47 has in store for us.