Opinion: Mari’s top 10 Saturday Night Live sketches

The SNL set with a large 50 in the middle. Art by Basil Allen.

Recently, Saturday Night Live (SNL) celebrated its 50th anniversary of creating satirical sketches, commercials and various parodies that poke fun at American culture. Within those five decades, SNL has won over 100 “Emmy Awards,” three “Peabodies,” and five “Writers Guild of America Awards.” In wake of this celebration, I will be acknowledging my personal thoughts on SNL’s greatest sketches, limiting it to my top 10. 

However, there is one honorable mention that I would like to point out before I get to the list: “Pizza Business.” Melissa McCarthy and Jason Sudeikis do a phenomenal job establishing a scale of emotions within this sketch. Evoking both laughter and pity, “Pizza Business” is a classic sketch that should be watched at least once in a lifetime. While you can watch the less-than-10-minute sketches on YouTube, the full length episodes can be found on Peacock, which is far superior to scavenging them individually. 

10. “Spanish Class”

In this sketch, published just last year, Mr. McIntosh (Mikey Day) is left stunned when two students, Cuban and Dominican, enter his Spanish class and speak fluently in their dialects. McIntosh’s obvious lack of Spanish adds to the humor, whilst also criticizing the U.S. education system. When McIntosh says, “Si, estoy kidding,” his terrible Spanish conveys a feeling many have likely had during their grade-school years, during which they have teachers teaching subjects that they are not fully qualified for. 

9. “2024 Pre-Election Cold Open”

Days prior to the 2024 election, SNL released a sketch that consisted of Chloe Fineman, Maya Rudolph and James Austin Johnson poking fun at the political campaigns of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. However, the best part of the sketch does not come to light until the real Kamala Harris makes a surprise appearance and both she and Maya Rudolph have a “Kamala conversation.” 

8. “Bridesmaid Speech”

At a wedding, a group of bridesmaids sing about their bachelorette trip to the tune of Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” while knowingly exposing the wife’s involvement with another dude. Ariana Grande, Heidi Gardner, Sarah Sherman and Ego Nwodim purposely sing off rhythm and in very irritating voices to amplify the bride’s (Chloe Fineman) desire to wed a different man. This sketch tells a whole story while steeped in humor and a terrible rendition of “Espresso.” 

7. “The Voice” 

In this sketch that mocks “The Voice,” Melissa McCarthy stumbles across the competition to get out of work and sings a short, improvised tune that impresses the judges. She puts no effort into the audition and her crass behavior is hysterical. 

6. “Target Lady”

As obnoxious as Kristen Wiig's character is written, this sketch, which was viewed by 23 million people, is brilliant in many ways. The character’s lack of knowledge and absurd comments to the customers are extremely comical. Not only is Kristen Wiig a recurring character in many other SNL sketches, but her overall presence is overwhelmingly welcomed. 

5. “Parking Lot Altercation”

Surely, we can all relate to parking lot rage, especially during the holidays. But in this incredible and well-written sketch, Mikey Day and Martin Short use sign language to further argue their points. From the two cars facing one another to utilizing hand gestures to articulate their anger, this sketch provides a challenge for these actors, which ultimately ends with Melissa McCarthy’s appearance. 

4. “Outside the Lines” 

A very unconventional women’s basketball coach (Melissa McCarthy) gets interviewed about her teaching while reviewing many videos of her documented abuse towards her players. Her defensive and quite rude demeanor is the reason why I placed this in fourth place. Watching her throw various objects while seeing the fear in people’s eyes is concerning on so many levels, but if you are drawn to this kind of satire, “Outside the Lines” is perfect, as long as you don’t ask questions. 

3. “The Lawrence Welk Show: Introducing The Maharelle Sisters”

This sketch will forever remain one of SNL’s most well-known and best-written sketches. The audio and sketch have been used on TikTok since its inception, and it was recently recreated with the addition of Kim Kardashian, Scarlett Johansson and Ana Gasteyer. What makes this sketch such an incredible piece is Kristen Wiig with her tiny hands, misaligned teeth, and absurdly long forehead — who does not want to witness the humour of this character's appearance? 

2. “Taste Test”

This is for all the ranch-lovers out there. While I don’t share the exact passion for ranch that Linda (Melissa McCarthy) has, this sketch, in which Linda tries way too hard to come up with a description for different ranch flavors, is too hilarious to not see. If you love a good “pouring [of] ranch on your face,” this sketch is meant for you.

1. “I Am Your Mother” 

Fred Armisen plays an actress very well. It progressively gets funnier as the actress deviates from the director's desire for a playful attitude. She overreacts to her fake son’s (Zac Efron) insults to her cooking and becomes increasingly angrier. Her gentle violence had me cackling like a hyena. “I Am Your Mother” replicates every mothers’ frustrating experience with their children and their taste buds as they age. This sketch, along with the other nine, illustrates the talent of Saturday Night Live’s incredible writers and actors as they endure a long week of rehearsals and the final filming.

My laughter was not contained to that final sketch, of course. Despite my ranking, Saturday Night Live does more than create entertaining and comedic sketches. SNL demonstrates the power of teamwork. They have a myriad of writers that create a weekly show utilizing that week’s news and turn it into a satirical sketch, while also being on a time crunch. I’ll conclude my opinion by stating this: I don’t know what you’re waiting for, but if you haven’t seen any SNL sketches or weird commercials, use my ranking to be your guide on immersing yourself with this aspect of pop culture.