The Best SNL Sketches of 2021
In honor of the announced return of Saturday Night Live this weekend, after a shorter-than-usual holiday break, I consider it fitting to do one more retrospective look at 2021: the best SNL skits from the year. Last year was another unique one for the show. In a telling reflection of the year that was, the season began with a limited, masked live audience watching jokes about the insurrection, proceeded to witness the return of a full live studio audience once more, right up until the very last show, which saw no audience, and next to no cast and crew. But through it all, though, the now 47-year old program never failed to find new, creative ways to make us laugh and perhaps briefly forget the sobering realities of the world around us.
Whether it was one per episode, or five, just about every episode 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, and I made that task even more difficult on myself by adding a wrinkle: Weekend Update bits are now eligible to be ranked in this list. Because Weekend Update as a whole is never eligible to be counted as a sketch of the night in my weekly SNL Scorecard, I don't tend to even consider individual guest appearances for sketch of the year. But, with so much of the year's funniest and most creative work coming in the form of cast members' appearances on Weekend Update, it felt wrong to further that exclusion.
All this being said, with the recognition that there are several decent skits that will not receive the shoutout they probably deserve, here are my Top 25:
25. "Season 46 Finale Cold Open" (Anya Taylor-Joy, May 22nd)
Cecily Strong, Kenan Thompson and Kate McKinnon, three vets of the cast, were rumored to be out the door for at least the last 4 seasons. So naturally when the show began with these four standing on stage, emotionally soaking up the applause of the live audience, it sure seemed to hint at an incoming farewell speech. Fortunately, that proved not to be the case, as the cold open eventually incorporated every single cast member, and later we would find out all the above would return for Season 47. Anyways....what a delightful, original idea for a cold open! Like the Mother's Day open two weeks before it, it was equal parts sweet, sentimental, and funny, but this one really brought the funny. My personal favorite: the "highlights of the year" exclusively featuring Elon Musk dancing as Wario.
24. "Lotto Drawing" (Kim Kardashian, October 9th)
This was utterly ridiculous, in the best way, and felt like a 10-to-1 sketch; I’m amazed at how early in the show it aired. The somewhat weak interplay between Kenan’s and Chris’s characters prevented this from being a total knockout, but man, Cecily and Kim’s robotic personalities just killed me every time; it felt like a delightful mixture of Dawn Lazarus and ‘Shonda and Vonda' (noticing a theme?).
23. "Boomers Got The Vax" (Maya Rudolph, March 27th)
Speaking as someone who, over the years, has been sucked into the generational battles and thus is experiencing PEAK Millennial pride, I found this very satisfying. This song did a great job calling out an oft-protected generation without being too harsh on our elders, was funny as hell, and as has become commonplace, was also extremely catchy. Also, how good is Ego Nwodim? In a song featuring appearances by what seemed like the whole cast and Maya Rudolph, she gets the last verse and (at least from me) the loudest laugh.
22. "Weekend Update: Goober the Clown on Abortion" (Kieran Culkin, November 6th)
This particular Weekend Update segment was massively helped by an appearance from Cecily Strong, whose emotional, layered performance of a “clown” who had to use the front of “clown things” to have an honest, vulnerable discussion of abortion is going to be replayed many, many times across the country.
21. "HomeGoods" (Paul Rudd, December 18th)
Despite the sudden change to Paul Rudd's bizarre, COVID-affected episode, I don't think it's a stretch to say the pre-taped bits he starred in would have stood out even in a normal episode. The first one, wherein Kate McKinnon and Aidy Bryant play grandmothers with one thing and one thing only on their mind ("grandCHILDren"), felt like a vintage bit from those two.
20. "Calling Angie" (Kieran Culkin, November 6th)
Yes, this is a Please Don’t Destroy fan site now. I’m sorry, I don’t make the rules. I know it might make me seem like an average white dude, but whatever. Everything they do cracks me up.
19. "Murdur Durdur" (Elon Musk, May 8th)
To be clear, I love Philly, and can’t help but feel like this is a cast full of New Yorkers taking advantage of an opportunity to mock their neighbors. That said, the Philly accent is one of the weirdest in America, and all of the stereotypes they referenced are, from my limited experience, dead on. This was hilarious.
18. "Birthday Gifts" (Regina King, February 13th)
I could kind of tell where this one was headed early on, when Aidy Bryant was continually pulling out house signs with no real punchline. But my anticipation just made the payoff that much more fun. This is one of those niche things SNL does that I think is so funny: take a seemingly heartwarming, innocuous thing and just slowly turn it increasingly dark.
17. "The Loser" (John Krasinski, January 30th)
It’s definitely not new territory for SNL, but I’m a sucker for this kind of humor— the ‘hero standing up to the bully’ that actually just makes everything worse. Andrew Dismukes finally started getting some solid airtime the last couple episodes of 2020, and it was nice to see his momentum carry over into this year; some of his interjections killed me.
16. "Weekend Update: Laughintosh 3000" (Jonathan Majors, November 13th)
New featured player Aristotle Athari wrapped this Update segment up brilliantly with an unbelievably good 'stand-up robot' bit that frankly, I don't think got nearly as much laughter as it deserved.
15. "Minnesota News Cold Open" (Carey Mulligan, April 10th)
This was perhaps the best cold open Season 46; if I’m not mistaken, it was the first cold open to win Sketch of the Night that season! This had shades of the brilliant “Mid-Day News” sketch two years ago, but with an added wrinkle of discussing real current events. I appreciated how delicately they poked fun at the different opinions of prejudice in the legal system, and how it just turned to unabashed humor when the other topics came up.
14. "The Job Interview" (Regé-Jean Page, February 20th)
Wow. SNL had great pre-taped sketches last year, obviously, and some bona fide weird ones (“Tiny Horse,” anyone?). But none were as successfully weird as this one. This felt like a throwback to Beck Bennett’s “Good Neighbor” days, where every time you thought you knew the direction a sketch was going, it went elsewhere. Beck and Page were both great, but Bowen Yang stole this one for me; the constant interjections with the handwritten notes, and then his last line… just hilarious.
13. "Universal Tram" (Dan Levy, February 6th)
Dan Levy was terrific in this one— definitely his best role of a consistently good night for the host —but shoutouts are also warranted for Ego Nwodim, whose little interjections had me rolling. This was a pretty simple premise, but the lines just kept cracking me up; it was great from start to finish.
12. "Kyle's Holiday" (Billie Eilish, December 11th)
This was just a vintage, quintessential ‘Kyle’ sketch. If you generally think him funny, you will have loved this one, if you don’t, you probably just found it random or stupid. Fortunately, I happen to be in the camp that finds Kyle Mooney hilarious, and accordingly, I was laughing my butt off from start to finish.
11. "Man Park" (Jonathan Majors, November 13th)
This was a simple enough idea, but executed so so well. I laughed at all the delightful little remarks the different men made, both to each other and to their girlfriends. And lest you think this is just "man stupid and bad" humor, it actually has a pretty touching undercurrent of sympathy, calling out the ways toxic masculinity affects men, too.
10. "Science Room" (Jason Sudeikis, October 23rd)
This is the third time they’ve done this sketch, and each time has been absolutely terrific. I always hope SNL will refrain from running sketches I love into the ground, but so far, this one is still batting 1.000. For the first while, I thought this may be the weakest edition yet, as Jason’s consistent impatience wasn’t proving as funny to me as the slow burn of Sam Rockwell’s and Adam Driver’s anger. But man, things really kicked up to a next level the last couple minutes, and by the end, I was rolling. Who knew ‘dumb schoolkids’ was such a gold mine of a premise?
9. "AMC Theatres Commercial" (Anya Taylor-Joy, May 22nd)
If you had asked me before Season 46 began what I wanted the last sketch of the season to consist of, I wouldn't have really known how to answer the question. But give me enough time, and I think I would have arrived at "Traditionally random and hilarious 10-to-1 sketch essentially just letting Beck Bennett do his thing." This is of course is bittersweet now, knowing it was to be the last sketch that featured one of my all-time faves, but what a great note to go out on.
8. "Bug Assembly" (Rami Malek, October 16th)
God, I love Bowen Yang so much.
7. "Hard Seltzer" (Kim Kardashian, October 9th)
Words can’t describe how excited I was to see the words “a please don’t destroy video” pop up on the TV screen for the first time last year. These guys were some of my favorite Twitter comedians, and although much of Twitter was crying about nepotism (2/3 of the crew are sons of former SNL writers), I was delighted to hear they’d been added to the writing staff. I’m not at all surprised that their video short format translated to SNL, a la Lonely Island and Good Neighbor; this was short and sweet. Not unlike, I imagine, the sweet taste of a Desk seltzer (™). Here’s to many more digital shorts in the future!
6. "Weekend Update: Sarah Sherman Roasts Colin Jost" (Jonathan Majors, November 13th)
On the same Weekend Update segment that featured Laughintosh 3000, another new featured player also shone: Sarah Sherman absolutely burned the place down with a hilarious take on 'the show through a newbie's eyes,' which was really a front for skewering Colin Jost.
5. "Twins" (John Krasinski, January 30th)
This is NOT where I thought this was sketch was going. This was a brilliant blend of timely commentary with good ol’-fashioned SNL absurdist humor. Krasinski played his role perfectly, as did all cast members involved, and in the first episode of 2021, this wild, eerie sketch already became a contender for the best of year.
4. "Lonely Christmas" (Billie Eilish, December 11th)
Just absolute pre-taped brilliance. The reveal of Kate McKinnon’s seemingly harmless, lonely old lady actually being sinister was worth the buildup, and the jokes stayed funny from there on out, even when I was worried it might run dry. One of the best of the season, without a doubt.
3. "Cancelling Cable" (Kieran Culkin, November 6th)
Cable companies and their awful customer service are an easy target for humor, but still, this was just gold. The various types of characters on display and directions this sketch was going could have just been distracting, but instead it just got increasingly hilarious, culminating in an ending in which all parties could barely hold it together.
2. "Mattress Store" (Rami Malek, October 16th)
This was just delightful. This felt like old-school sketch comedy, an everyday situation with normal-seeming characters that quickly turns absurd. Aidy Bryant excels at this brand of humor— this almost felt like a sequel to “New Paint” —and this was the most emotive we saw Malek the whole night.
1. "Weekend Update: The Iceberg on the Sinking of the Titanic'" (Carey Mulligan, April 10th)
Bowen Yang….what else can be said. I loved every single second of his appearance on Weekend Update as The Iceberg, and the audience clearly did too. This might be his best material yet-- I mean, it essentially landed him a historical Emmy nomination --and it was easily the most memorable SNL bit from 2021.
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