The 25 Best SNL Sketches of 2020
In honor of the announced return of Saturday Night Live a week from today after an abnormally long holiday hiatus, I consider it fitting to do one more retrospective look at 2020: the best SNL skits from the year. Last year was a particularly unique one for the show. As was the case with everything else in America, Saturday Night Live was affected by the pandemic, which effectively ended Season 45 a couple months earlier than usual. Then, in October, unlike most other current TV programs, they were able to return to their studio, albeit with some differences, the most obvious of which was a reduced-capacity, mask-wearing studio audience. Oh, and in between, they pulled together three unprecedented "SNL At Home" episodes, wherein the cast performed sketches, some solo and some in tandem, from their various homes across the country. The end result, as you might expect, was an uneven year with a couple phenomenal episodes, some...not-so-phenomenal. But whether it was one per episode, or five, just about every episode, including the at-home ones, presented at least one candidate for sketch of the year. Honestly, trimming the list to even 25 skits for this article was never going to be easy.
But, with the recognition that there are several decent skits that will not receive the shoutout they probably deserve, here are my Top 25:
25. "Biden Halloween Cold Open" (John Mulaney, October 31st)
Throughout Trump’s administration, I often lamented how stale the parodies of all his press conferences and other appearances were, and asked the writers to come up with more creative political parodies. With Jim Carrey’s Biden already running as stale as Alec Baldwin’s Trump, and three disappointing debate sketches to boot, I had a similar hope for this presidential candidate. It took until Election Weekend, but SNL finally delivered, in a wildly creative cold open whose format roped in Hillary Clinton, Nate Silver, Mitch McConnell, Ice Cube, Li’l Wayne and Kamala Harris in seamless fashion.
24. "Rap Roundtable" (Timothée Chalamet, December 12th)
I don’t think I ended up finding this quite as funny as I initially thought I was going to, just because as soon as I saw Pete Davidson and Timothée Chalamet’s getup, I was prepared to absolutely love this sketch. That said, it was still great, especially when they got into the performance of their song. The hardest I laughed was Chalamet’s response to his rap influences: “Um, like, Fall Out Boys?” In terms of original comedy, it wasn’t particularly anything to write home about, but in terms of a cathartic send-up of TikTok-era “musicians,” it was hugely satisfying.
23. "Michigan Hearing Cold Open" (Jason Bateman, December 5th)
The one political impression I will miss from these god-forsaken 4 years is Kate McKinnon’s Rudy Giuliani— I just never get tired of her perfect unhinged portrayal. It makes me laugh so hard that they really didn’t need to add fart jokes to the sketch; that said, my immature self laughed anyway. I also really love that Cecily Strong heard the clarion call from Twitter and finally made her much-awaited return to the show. I don’t know that it happened that way, but I like to think it did; regardless, it was so good to see her on the Studio 8H stage again. The audience, as it has for much of the season, again lacked what I would consider the appropriate energy, but didn’t ruin the experience for me, especially in comparison to all other cold opens this season.
22. "Let Kids Drink" (SNL At-Home #3, May 9th)
The joke in this sketch was a single one, played out over the entirety of a song, but the punchline perfectly encapsulated the attitudes, both defeatist and optimistic, and dark senses of humor that prevailed in the early days of quarantine.
21. "Canadian News Show" (Issa Rae, October 17th)
This was the sketch wherein I first realized something was off with the audience on Issa Rae's night, because I was dying laughing at a lot of it, and noticed the audience was disturbingly quiet. (Note: SNL appears to have uploaded the dress rehearsal version to YouTube; given that this one included a couple slip-ups that were corrected in the live version, I have to imagine their reasoning was because the dress rehearsal audience reacted way better to this sketch.) This was refreshingly original, and while it wasn’t consistently laugh-out-loud funny, it was at least consistently enjoyable, and one I would be happy to see again in the future. The “Drake Watch” in particular was hilarious.
20. "Zoom Call" (SNL At-Home #1, April 11th)
In the first episode in SNL history filmed completely virtually, it was a smart move to go back to reliable characters from Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon. It was an inspired touch to update their tech-hapless Henriette and Nan to reflect the new virtual workplace everyone found themselves in. I could listen to Kate wail "I'm from hell!!" on repeat.
19. "Accent Coach" (Daniel Craig, March 7th)
Look, I'll just say it: Beck Bennett can do no wrong in my eyes. And sure, this is weird and a little bit dumb, but Beck + absurd accents + references to one of the best movies of 2019 is a winning combination.
18. "Family Charades" (RuPaul, February 8th)
I can’t decide which family reminds me more of my own, because whether we’re the sticklers or the rule-benders, we end up getting in epic board game fights. This was hilarious and perhaps disappointingly relatable.
17. "Neighbors" (SNL At-Home #3, May 9th)
To the surprise of nobody, Beck and Kyle, who saw their comedic breakthrough come via YouTube sketch comedy, seemed to be the most adept at transitioning to the entirely prerecorded format. This was one of the few times we got to see them appear "together," though, and it was a delight. It's not often that Kyle plays the straight man, but he was a perfect foil to Beck's extremely awkward neighbor.
16. "Madden 21" (J.J. Watt, February 1st)
Sure, it was an easy premise, but it was also a terrific use of the host. Watt was great as an exasperated athlete who's tired of the needless shots to his ego....it's almost like he could relate to that from his career or something.
15. "New Hampshire Democratic Debate Cold Open" (RuPaul, February 8th)
I've talked at length how the political writing on the show suffers when it can’t center around a debate. Well, this cold open shows why debates are so much better. Quick hitters from a who’s-who of great political impressions far outweigh a tiresome, low-hanging Trump impression. Other random thoughts: Rachel Dratch was the perfect Amy Klobuchar— consistently great, but always under-appreciated. And the writers sure seemed to love giving Colin Jost as few lines as possible when he played Buttigieg. That would have been real awkward had Mayor Pete become president…
14. "Bits" (Jason Bateman, December 5th)
I thought I’d seen it all, but I hadn’t: Kyle Mooney in a musical bit! This was the same brand of humor we’ve come to expect from Kyle, but stylistically very different. I loved it. This is 100% my monologue any time one of my jokes with friends doesn’t get the reaction I wanted; I need to redeem myself the next time a joke opportunity presents itself. This was one of my favorite 10-to-1 sketch in 2020.
13. "Twitch Stream" (SNL At-Home #1, April 11th)
Mikey Day, whose consistent reliability I think has already become underrated at the show, was another MVP of the At-Home episodes. There were multiple characters he broke out over that three episode stretch that were just perfect parodies of people in everyday life, pop culture, and elsewhere. This was one such example: a comedic take but otherwise dead-on impression of the 'streaming gamer.'
12. "Sam Adams" (Bill Burr, October 10th)
A callback to the legendary Dunkin' Donuts sketch with Casey Affleck, this was the only bit of Bill Burr's night that I enjoyed start to finish. Nobody parodies Boston better than SNL does, and it's nice when their Boston-based hosts are happy to take part.
11. "A Teacher" (Kristen Wiig, December 19th)
Confession: I have seen most of A Teacher. It started as a random binge with a friend, then reached the “eh, I’ve come this far already, might as well finish it” benchmark. And honestly, it is both more interesting and holistic than I would have anticipated from its intentionally steamy advertising. But the main thing that bothered me about it was always the inexplicably fast escalation of the student-teacher relationship, and I found this particular take, and its parting message, a WHOLE lot more refreshing. Ego Nwodim was just terrific here...I’m so glad she seems to have found a foothold in this show.
10. "SoulCycle At Home" (SNL At-Home #2, April 25th)
None of the sequels to the first SoulCycle sketch have been able to fully capture the original's magic, but with source material so golden, that was always going to be a high bar. This was still a riot, and I'm so impressed they both thought up and pulled off this kind of sketch completely in-home.
9. "U.S.O. Performance" (Kristen Wiig, December 19th)
I had some guesses for what this episode might contain. This may shock you, but “Kristen Wiig and Bowen Yang play WWII personnel who break into a choreographed club track while Dua Lipa grinds on Bowen” was not, in fact, among my guesses. But what a delightful Christmas surprise this was! This was quite clearly directly from the mind of Bowen Yang, and we are all the better for it. And how about that cameo from Dua? It was a small sample size, sure, but she’s got some comedic acting chops.
8. "Dad Prank Video" (SNL At-Home #3, May 9th)
Remember when I referenced Mikey Day's "at-home" characters? Yep, here's another perfect one: the well-intentioned but geeky dad who's the unfortunate target of his son's viral video attempt. This sketch both got at the young YouTuber trend(s) perfectly and was also genuinely hilarious, thanks in no small part to Day's real-life son.
7. "December To Remember Car Commercial" (Timothée Chalamet, December 12th)
It makes me so happy when someone at SNL has the same reaction I have to a commercial and it translates to a funny sketch. My first memory of this was when Michael Phelps and co. parodied a T-Mobile ad I found very weird. Anyways, Beck Bennett playing a washed-up bum of a dad and Heidi Gardner his frazzled wife will never not be a winning combo in my eyes. This was a simple enough concept, but hilarious.
6. "Coronavirus Holiday" (Timothée Chalamet, December 12th)
With a stronger finish and without some of the sloppy technical glitches, this could have potentially been the best sketch of the season. I was nervous at the outset that this premise would be too on-the-nose and groan-inducing. I ended up pleasantly surprised by just how witty it was. The jokes were simple enough, perhaps, but had a nice edge; this was some subtly dark humor. Also, how nice was it to have a sketch prominently featuring two of the newbies in the cast for the first time this season?
5. "Stu" (Jason Bateman, December 5th)
This is one of the few times I’ve been able to see how a Pete-centered sketch clearly came directly from his mind (“What if my obsession with getting a PS5 was like Stan’s obsession with Eminem?”). He really shone here, more than he tends to in skits in which he doesn’t just play himself, if I’m being honest. The beauty of this one is that it’s still funny if you don’t get the reference, largely because of how good Pete’s rap is, but if you do know the reference, it makes the sketch— and Eminem’s cameo —that much more enjoyable.
4. "Take Me Back" (Dave Chappelle, November 7th)
This combined three comedy ingredients I love: Beck Bennett, Ego Nwodim, and the premise of a 'well-meaning' white guy who just gets increasingly worse the more we learn about him.
3. "Del Taco Shoot" (Adam Driver, January 25th)
There are two kinds of people in this World: those who find humor in absurd repetition, and those who do not. If you fall into the latter camp, then unfortunately this sketch was probably not for you. But as for me, I laughed more and more each time "Aw man, I'm all outta cash!" was uttered, especially when Adam Driver's bizarre Vice President of Branding was in frame.
2. "On The Couch" (Daniel Craig, March 7th)
As I found out upon showing this to my parents during #Quarantine2020, my whole family is as much suckers for Chris Redd's (usually musical) pre-taped bits as I am. This may not be the strongest entry in his already impressive canon, but wonderfully elevated from "this is fun and silly" to downright hilarious, thanks to the interjections from the women. And for some reason, nothing made me laugh harder than Kenan Thompson's thumbs-up and "Yes!" when being accused of cheating on his girl.
1. "Strollin'" (John Mulaney, October 31st)
I promise I don’t just automatically award Sketch of the Night to whatever pre-taped song Chris Redd fronts, but I understand if it might be starting to feel that way. An inspired blend of 70s funk-rap and timely commentary on voter suppression, this was just terrific from start to finish. “Strollin’” is not only clearly the best skit of Season 46 so far, it's my pick for the best of 2020.
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