SNL

Modern SNL has one of the strongest female line-ups in the show’s history, so it’s always a pleasure when the writers give this group of extremely funny ladies a chance to shine together. This sketch is a weird one because it feels like such an odd and specific concept that must have been a real pain in the butt to pitch in the writer’s room, but the execution is simply sublime: a group of women start being brutally honest with the people in their lives and immediately celebrate to the impossibly catchy sounds of Sara Bareilles’ “Brave.”

SNL episodes are hard, often frenzied work, so you can imagine the sort of time and dedication and stress that went into the SNL 40 show, which featured new and former cast members along with several guest stars. One of the highlights of the three and a half hour event was the return of “Celebrity Jeopardy!” with Norm MacDonald, Will Ferrell and Darrell Hammond reprising their iconic sketch roles alongside fellow SNL stars, including Kenan Thompson doing a hilarious (and timely) Bill Cosby impression. But according to MacDonald, Thompson wasn’t originally supposed to be in the sketch: Eddie Murphy was.

A few key members of the SNL cast and crew must love “The Californians” because the much-derided sketch was brought back to life for the show’s star-studded 40th anniversary special. For those of us who have always enjoyed this bizarre sketch (and there are about three of us), it’s a welcome return and we will greedily drink up the angry tears of everyone else.

What would a SNL 40th Anniversary Special be without Celebrity Jeopardy, one of the most popular recurring sketches of the modern SNL era. Alex Trebek was back and he brought with him some of his most frustrating contestants including Sir Sean Connery, Justin Bieber, Tony Bennett, Matthew McConaughey, Christoph Waltz, and, of course, Turd Ferguson.

The SNL 40th Anniversary Special started off like you thought it might with two of its most popular modern day partners, Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake. The two took the stage for the show's cold open and sang, danced and rapped their way through 40 years of SNL history (with a few special guests, of course).

One of the best character actors of the past few decades, J.K. Simmons has always been one of the world’s most beloved ”that guys.” Everyone knows his face, but not everyone knows his name. However, the fact that he’s the current frontrunner for Best Supporting Actor at the 2015 Academy Awards for ‘Whiplash’ has started to change that, earning him a well-deserved moment in the spotlight and guest hosting duties on ‘SNL.’ Although much of last night’s episode saw him blending in with the rest of the cast, there was one big moment where he was called upon to poke fun at his work in ‘Whiplash.’ It was inevitable.

Super Bowl commercials are still a big, huge, massive, crazy deal, with major corporations shelling out absurd amounts of money on ads designed to win over the most reliably large and receptive audience in all of televised sports. So of course ‘SNL’ was going to contribute its own commercial parody to the mix...but man, no one was expecting something this mean, scathing or on-point.

Oh you knew this was going to happen! Everyone I was talking to was eagerly anticipating Saturday Night Live because we knew that SNL would give us something on Inflategate and they didn't disappoint, nor make us wait long, as the open was devoted to a press conference by Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and Assistant Equipment Co-manager Dougie Spoons...

It's probably safe to say that Justin Bieber won't be appearing on Saturday Night Live anytime soon, especially after they skewered him in a mock up of his Calvin Klein underwear commercial!  I kept tallying up points while the skit ran, and I unofficially had a total of SNL 6 Biebs 0...

Martin Freeman was the guest host last night, on December 13, 2014 on Saturday Night Live. There were some great sketches!  I loved Keenan Thompson in Sump'n Claus. Everybody's getting Sump'n!   After saving Middle-earth, Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Bobby Moynihan), Gollum (Taran Killam), Legolas (Kyle Mooney) and Tauriel (Kate McKinnon) take up office jobs WNBA athlete Alberta (Leslie Jones)