The 10 Best Sketches of SNL's Season 49

How many yards to a mile? Nobody knows.

Saturday Night Live just wrapped their 49th season this past weekend. In preparation for the upcoming semicentennial celebration (and we will be celebrating plenty here on Feature Presentation), I'd like to countdown my favorite sketches from the most recent season: 

10. “Bowling Pins” - Jacob Elordi

This is definitely me sneaking in a niche interest of mine in the tenth slot. But it's my list! I think we've all seen the silly cartoons on the bowling alley screens and wondered what it would be like if they were more violent or profane. I love to go bowling and I think of it...every single time. 

Is this sketch just 95% concept? Yes. But most of Jacob Elordi's episode revolved around the joke "Look at how hot and tall this guy is" and I appreciated that this was different. And yes, niche. 

9. “Make Your Own Kind of Music” - Emma Stone

I'm sorry, but I'm a total sucker for putting the host in a goofy wig and costume and making them dance around. Emma Stone actually pulls off this ridiculous '70s fro and mustache. She's such an interesting actor and game performer that she pulls off the character too. 

This was also just an excuse to have Chloe sing, which they found excuses for on more than one occasion. She's damn good!

Also, I'm going to tell my grandchildren that this was the Off-Broadway run of Stereophonic. 

8. “Immigrant Dad Talk Show” - Rami Youssef

I think that Marcello was the real stand-out for me this season. In the same way that I watched James Austin Johnson and Sarah Sherman for two years and every week thought, "They need to just promote these guys midseason," I've thought the same thing about Marcello. 

A lot of his sketches to this point have been scripted-out versions of his stand-up and this was the sketch where I thought he was finally getting comfortable doing something else. This is totally in his wheelhouse and the exact kind of thing that I want to see more going forward. He needs repertory status!

7. “Detectives” - Sydney Sweeney

I believe that Saturday Night Live is an excellent test of an actor's ability. Playing in front of a live audience with limited prep and constantly changing variables is a hell of a lot different than studio moviemaking exemplified by something like Madame Web. Some are up for the challenge, while others (I'm sorry Dakota Johnson, I still love you!) show that their skill sets do not translate. 

Sydney Sweeney proved herself with her hosting duties. I could've chosen a couple of her sketches, but I limited myself to one per host so we will go with the one that made me laugh out loud the most. Turns out Sweeney is a character actor in a lead's body. This episode aired a few weeks before the release of Immaculate and all of a sudden I found myself thinking, "Damn, she can act!" 

6. “Scooby-Doo” - Jake Gyllenhaal

I'm also a sucker for perfect casting. One of the reasons I love SNL is the repertory troupe, seeing one of your favorite performers align perfectly with a part. You wait all week to see Bowen play George Santos or Devon as Tim Scott or James as Trump - even though I can find that one a little exhausting and repetitive. 

Casting the Mystery Gang with Jake Gyllenhaal as Fred, Sabrina Carpenter as Daphne, Sarah as Velma, Mikey as Shaggy, and a terrible-looking CGI Scooby is simply pitch-perfect. It's the kind of thing you dream about. This gross-out parody should be sacrilegious for any Scooby fan who likes to complain as much as I do, but I don't think any of this was malicious, just silly fun. 

5. “Church on Vacation” - Shane Gillis

Shane Gillis bombed so terribly in his opening monologue that I thought the rest of the show was over before it began. Turns out I was wrong. Not only was the rest of the show one of this season's better episodes, but Shane showed what he could've done if he had actually become a cast member. He's perfect here as the dopey Midwestern dad and the rest of the family matches up perfectly.

I also just love it when Ego gets to play a great character. She's always excellent and so funny here. 

4. “Teacher PSA” - Maya Rudolph

My day job is teaching middle school English and while I hate to be that guy who says "You just don't get it," I truly believe that no one outside of education understands how freaking weird things have been since the pandemic. But someone at SNL gets it. The kids won this year. 

When you hear them joke about students cooking a rotisserie chicken over a urinal, you might think they're being over-the-top and silly. I am telling you right now that if I saw that, it wouldn't crack my top ten of crazy shit from that day. 

3. “Weekend Update: Colin Jost and Michael Che Swap Jokes for Season 49 Finale”

Technically this is from the Gyllenhaal episode but since he's nowhere to be found, I'm not breaking my own rule. 

The joke swap has become so synonymous with the Jost and Che era of Update that some casual viewers think that's what they do full-time. I wish! Every time I think that their record-breaking runs behind the desk are getting stale, they pull me right back in with another great joke swap.

This is the best one yet. Che messing with Colin is such a staple of the bit, but this is the farthest he's ever pushed it. And Colin is so lame that his jokes normally don't match up, but he got Che better than ever before with this one. Just look at Che’s face when he reads "Kendrick Lamar" on the cue cards. 

Rabbi Jill is a hell of a trooper!

2. “Beavis and Butt-Head” - Ryan Gosling

Some cast members built an entire tenure around giggling through sketches (cough Jimmy Fallon - hell, he's made an entire career of this), while some guest hosts have decided that's going to be their entire approach to hosting duties (cough Ryan Gosling in this and every other episode.)

But there's something so special about a genuine break. Heidi is always a consummate professional and in the rare event that she does laugh, you know that something is actually funny and it just caught her totally off-guard. Not only is this sketch pretty ludicrous and perfectly cast to begin with (I love Mikey and yes, I am begrudgingly saying that about Gosling), the look of terror on Heidi's face when she sees a real-life Butthead before her makes this one I will never forget. 

1. “Washington’s Dream” - Nate Bargatze

Could there be any other option for Best Sketch of the Year? When Nate Bargatze was announced as host, the entire internet sighed with a collective "Who?" and as a long-time Nate fan, I can't say that my reaction of "This can't be a good idea”  was any better. 

Damn, I was wrong. Not only was the episode as a whole one of the season's better shows, this sketch instantly entered the pantheon of all-time greats. Joking about America's aversion to the metric system is nothing new, but something about this just clicked perfectly. Nate's affable qualities made him the perfect everyman for this dimwitted version of Washington and his inability to read a cue card effectively somehow made the timing even better. The rest do a great job of filling it out.

And everyone agreed. That same doubtful internet ran amok with praise like "I haven’t loved an SNL skit this much in a long time" and "Best SNL skit in recent memory" and "This skit just came out of nowhere to be a legit long-term classic. It’s rare, maybe one every like 5 years? But this one feels like it’ll be remembered for a long time." I just wish all of those quotes didn't call it a skit! As Nate Corddry once said on Studio 60 (and yes I still quote Studio 60), "Skits are when the football team players dress up as the cheerleaders and think it’s wit. Sketches are when some of the best minds in comedy come together and put on a national television show watched and talked about by millions of people!"

I enjoyed this 49th season well enough - here's to the upcoming 50th season of the best minds in comedy coming together to put on a national television show watched and talked about by millions of people.