SNL Celebrates The Christmas Candle

NBC's "Saturday Night Live" is celebrating its 50th season this year, and we've been celebrating the show for several years now by posting a classic SNL holiday sketch every Saturday from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day. This one comes a little late for this year's holiday shopping season, but it's never too early to start planning for next year . . .

Steve Martin and Martin Short Team Up As Santa and Sprinkles (Pringles?) the Elf

Steve Martin and Martin Short make a heck of a good team, and for further evidence of that one need only watch this clip from Season 48 of Saturday Night Live (SNL), which aired on December 10, 2022. It features Martin as Santa and Short as Sprinkles the Elf, who's in a foul mood and a little confused, as at one point he mistakenly refers to himself as "Pringles." ("Why," he asks? "I don't know, I like Pringles!")

We post a classic SNL holiday sketch every Saturday from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, and this one's certainly worth seeing again. Don't miss Bowen Yang's appearance as Santa's helper, who comes through with a most unusual gift idea at Sprinkles' suggestion.

Check back next week for the final SNL Holiday Flashback of 2024,

Meet Matt Foley, the Mall's Latest Motivational Santa

Every Saturday from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, it's been our tradition to post a classic holiday sketch from the golden days of NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL) to provide a few minutes of respite from the stress you're likely feeling during the holidays. Hard as it is to believe, that gives us 50 years' worth of holiday sketches from which to choose. 

Today's selection features the late great Chris Farley as a Motivational Santa who can't quite seem to get it together. After frightening a group of children and their parents at the mall, Santa is left to prepare for Christmas Eve in a van down by the river. This one's from SNL Season 19, and it debuted on December 11, 1993. Truly seems like another time and place, no? Enjoy!

Join us again next Saturday for another SNL Holiday Flashback.

Appalachian Hospital Emergency Room Offers a Different Kind of Holiday Spirit

We open our video vault every Saturday from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day to share a classic holiday-themed sketch from NBC's venerable favorite, Saturday Night Live (SNL). This week's sketch from 2005 offers a look inside a busy hospital emergency room in Appalachia over the Christmas holiday, which includes visits from a man with a lawn dart stuck in his hand (Jason Sudeikis), another who injured himself defiling a watermelon (Chris Parnell) and a sketchy couple whose son (Neil Young) has a drug problem. Jack Black, Johnny Knoxville, Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler also star.

Be sure to return next Saturday for another SNL holiday flashback!

SNL Celebrates Christmas with ABBA

Once again this year I'll be posting a classic holiday clip from NBC's Saturday Night Live every Saturday between now and the end of the year as part of our regular "SNL Holiday Flashback Saturdays" series. This is SNL’s 50th year, and there’s no shortage of memorable holiday-themed sketches in the show’s extensive vault. 

Our first clip of the season is from the show's December 16, 2023, episode, which was hosted by former cast member Kate McKinnon. McKinnon joined former cast members Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph and current cast member Bowen Yang in a portrayal of the Swedish supergroup Abba touting their fictional Christmas album.

Enjoy!

This One's About Cowbells, Not Sleigh Bells, But It's One of the Best SNL Sketches Ever

Every Saturday from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, we open the vault to share a classic Saturday Night Live holiday-themed sketch to bring some fun and laughter to your holiday season. With Christmas now over and New Year's Eve just one day away I tried to find a funny SNL New Year's sketch, but there aren't any. Maybe that's because the show is typically on mini-hiatus from mid-December to sometime in January. Anyway, rather than run yet another holiday bit, I thought I'd share what to me remains one of the best SNL sketches of all time, the fabulous "Behind the Music" spoof of the recording of Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper" from Season 25 (2000), more commonly known as Christopher Walken's "Cowbell" sketch. It stars Walken as fictional music producer Bruce Dickinson, who repeatedly  prods band member Gene Frenkle (Will Ferrell) for "more cowbell."  Chris Kattan, Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Jimmy Fallon are also featured. Enjoy!

Will Ferrell Admits He Ruined Christopher Walken's Life with SNL's "Cowbell" Sketch

Christopher Walken Discusses the "Cowbell" Sketch with Conan O'Brien

What's the Secret to the Enduring Popularity of SNL's "Cowbell" Sketch?

Watch Nine Other Fabulous SNL Sketches Featuring Christopher Walken

Alec Baldwin Reprises His Famous Sales Role Motivating Elves in Glengarry Glen Christmas

Every Saturday from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day we like to crack open the video vault to share a vintage holiday clip from Saturday Night Live. This week's clip is from SNL Season 31 (2005) and features Alec Baldwin reprising his role in the powerful 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross. In the movie, Baldwin plays a sales pro who was brought in to motivate a group of salesmen played by Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Alan Arkin, and Ed Harris. Here, he plays "an elf from the home office" sent by Santa to motivate a group of surprisingly lackadaisical elves. Watch for the moment when Baldwin mistakenly repeats one famous line from the original movie instead of the Christmas line in this holiday adaptation. The film was based on a successful play by David Mamet but despite boasting one of the most incredible ensemble casts ever assembled, was a commercial disappointment. Today, however, it's widely regarded today as a truly first-rate work, and this SNL sketch really measures up, too. Check back next week for our final SNL Flashback of the 2023 holiday season!

Weekend Update's Stefon Offers Tips for a Thrilling New York City Holiday

This week's Saturday Night Live Holiday Flashback features popular Weekend Update City Correspondent Stefon (Bill Hader) with tips for holiday travelers looking to have fun in the Big Apple. Host: Seth Meyers.

Watch Stefon Share 16 Additional Tips for a Fun Time in New York City

Vincent Price Welcomes Classic Hollywood Stars to His 1954 Christmas Special

This week's Saturday Night Live Holiday Flashback features Vincent Price (Bill Hader) welcoming a lively group of Hollywood celebrities to his holiday variety show, including Katherine Hepburn (Kristen Wiig), James Dean (James Franco) and Liberace (Fred Armisen). Two of the guests have an especially festive time. Can you guess which two guests have an especially festive time together?

 

That SNL Holiday Clip with Two Hillary Clintons and a Sarah Palin

Once again this year I'll be posting a vintage holiday clip from NBC's Saturday Night Live every Saturday during the month of December. Our first clip of the season is from 2015 and features two different versions of Hillary Clinton: Amy Poehler as the 2008 version and Kate McKinnon as the "new and improved" 2015 version. The sad truth is that both versions lost, which was OK in 2008 but a very bitter pill eight years later. Tina Fey was also on hand a

s the 2015 version of Sarah Palin, who was every bit as awful as the earlier one (we're talking Palin here, not Fey, of course!).

Enjoy!

Drunk Uncle Has Some New Year's Resolutions

As the curtain comes down on 2022, many of us will be making resolutions with an eye toward improving our lives in 2023. SNL personality Drunk Uncle (Bobby Moynihan) has some resolutions of his own, which he tries his best to describe to Weekend Update's Seth Meyers:

SNL Goes Home for the Holidays with Eddie Murphy, Maya Rudolph and More

It's Christmas Eve, and we know that many families across the globe are enjoying time with their families and trying to stay positive in the face of what might be described as challenging circumstances. In this sketch from 2020, Eddie Murphy, Maya Rudolph, Kenan Thompson, Mikey Day, Chris Redd, and Ego Nwodim gather around the holiday dinner table to reflect on the holiday experience. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

SNL Celebrates Hanukkah

Every Saturday from Thanksgiving through New Year's Eve we dig deep into the vaults of NBC's Saturday Night Live and select a classic holiday sketch to share. Tomorrow is the first night of Hanukkah, and in honor of the festivities this week's SNL flashback is a collection of clips about Hanukkah. Best wishes to all those who celebrate this holiday.

We'll be back with another SNL clip next Saturday on Christmas Eve!

Serial Investigates the Legend of Kris Kringle

 

This week's SNL Holiday Flashback is from Season 40 of Saturday Night Live (2014) and features Cicely Strong, one of my favorite SNL cast members, in a parody of the investigative podcast Serial. In this clip, Serial looks at the story of Kris Kringle, who, according to legend, circles the globe each December 24 to leave presents for hundreds of million of children. But what evidence is there to back up this longtime story?

As luck would have it, tonight's episode of SNL will be hosted by Steve Martin and Martin Short, whose successful Hulu series Only Murders in the Building features its own parody of the Serial podcast stylized as "All Is Not OK in Oklahoma" with Tina Fey playing the role of Serial host Sarah Koenig that Cicely Strong plays in this week's flashback. I've just about given up on this season of SNL but as a longtime fan of Martin and Short I'm planning to tune in at 11:35 tonight. Whether I'll still be awake by the time Weekend Update begins is anybody's guess!

Watch the Classic 1986 SNL Sketch "Steve Martin's Holiday Wish"

Cicely Strong on Christmas as The Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With

Watch Martin Short's Classic 1984 Synchronized Swimming Sketch

Consumer Probe Reporter Investigates Irwin Mainway's Dangerous Christmas Toys

For this week's SNL Holiday Flashback we had to dig way down in the vault all the way back to Season 2 and a sketch that ran on December 11, 1976 featuring guest host Candace Bergen as a stoic consumer reporter interviewing toy company executive Irwin Mainway (Dan Aykroyd). It seems some of the toys Mr. Mainway's company produces have been found to be just a little unsafe:

SNL Critic Jebidiah Atkinson Reviews Holiday Classic Movies

One of our little holiday traditions has been to dig into the vaults of NBC's Saturday Night Live every Saturday from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day to find a vintage holiday-themed sketch we can all enjoy together. While this season's incarnation of the show seems to lack the popular appeal it formerly enjoyed, we've been through more than a couple of SNL rebuilding seasons, and, besides, we're looking for vintage sketches and after nearly 50 seasons on the air we're confident we can find some decent material. Our first clip this year is from Season 39 of SNL (2013) and features 1860s critic Jebidiah Atkinson (Taran Killam) reviewing several classic holiday movies:

 

Martin Short and Paul McCartney Try Out for the Christmas Pageant

On Saturdays during the Christmas season we typically rummage around our video vault to find an old  holiday-based sketch from Saturday Night Live to share. Today's sketch is from December 15, 2012 featuring guest host Martin Short and musical guest Paul McCartney, It's immediately followed by Paul McCartney performing "Wonderful Christmastime," which, in my opinion is one of the worst holiday songs and wost Paul McCartney songs ever. The sketch is pretty good, though. Enjoy!

Chevy Chase Gives Us a Look at Christmas in the White House Under President Gerald Ford

As in previous years, I'm planning to dig back into the video archive each Saturday during this festive season to feature a classic holiday bit from NBC's Saturday Night Live. This year, let's start off with a sketch that aired on December 20, 1975, starring Chevy Chase portraying President Gerald Ford celebrating Christmas in the White House:

John Malkovich Is Filled to Overflowing with Holiday Cheer

We've taken to celebrating the gift of holiday comedy each year by posting a classic clip from Saturday Night Live each Saturday from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day. This week's clip features the monologue from actor John Malkovich's third appearance hosting SNL back on December 6, 2008. This one's filled to the brim with holiday cheer as Malkovich subjects the children of various SNL staff to a toneless rendition of the holiday classic "Twas the Night Before Christmas," complete with a series of gloomy observations that may send viewers straight to the liquor cabinet:

George H.W. Bush Appears Lincoln-esque Offering 1991 Holiday Gift Ideas

This week's clip is a flashback to 1991, when the late George H.W. Bush was in the White House and the economy was slipping into the recession that many observers believe helped Bill Clinton defeat him the following year. Some economists are predicting a global recession for 2019, although one can safely expect that the current President's response will be a good bit less dignified:



I wasn't much of a fan of George H.W. Bush in 1991, but I'd take either Bush, Nixon or James Buchanan over the moronic fraud we've currently got in the White House. Happy holidays, everybody!