The Best SNL Sketches of 2025
- Daniel Woodiwiss
- 20 hours ago
- 11 min read
In honor of the announced return of Saturday Night Live tonight after a month away due to the holidays, I'm finding it fitting to do one more retrospective look at 2025: the best SNL skits (and a handful of Weekend Update appearances) from the year! A year that essentially began with all the attention on the SNL50 celebration, continued on after the well-received special to yield some of the strongest episodes in recent years, saw a huge amount of big names depart the cast and writing staff, an unsurprising uneven start to a new-look SNL in Season 51, and steady progress as the new pieces begin to gel only for another unexpected star departure at Christmas ..... yeah. It's been a big year for the show in more ways than one, and a topsy, turvy, inconsistent ride.
But even with all of the motion, commotion, and inconsistency, there was no shortage of memorable sketches from this year. Whether it was one from the night or five, just about every episode presented at least one highlight to be considered among the year's best. Honestly, trimming the list to even 25 sketches for this article was never going to be easy, and it proved to be the case. But I did it all the same! Because I love you weirdos!
All this being said, with the recognition that there are several decent-to-good bits that will not receive the shoutout they probably deserve, here are my Top 25 from '25:
25. "Pentagon Press Conference Cold Open" (Melissa McCarthy, December 14th)
SNL didn't score a ton of home runs with their political content this year, but this was the exception. It was a shame this one had a little bit of a weak ending, because everything before it was the strongest political cold open of the season, and in a very long time. Colin Jost’s portrayal of Pete Hegseth is the funniest he himself has been on the show in a while, and the writing was particularly sharp. This was a good use of James Austin Johnson's Trump, as well; the sketch was funny enough that it didn’t need to be taken over by him, but his late cameo was an effective button.
24. "Mechanical Bull" (Nikki Glaser, November 8th)
The first minute or so, I was already ready for this sketch to be over- it seemed doomed when even Kenan hamming it up could only get half-hearted laughs from the audience. But then who showed up to rescue it, but....that's right, the criminally underrated James Austin Johnson. The hilarious Johnny Cash-esque narrative song that accompanied Glaser and Sarah Sherman on their drunken journey was hilarious and low-key riveting. I actually can't believe how early in the night this one aired; that this wasn't the 10-to-1 sketch feels like a crime. It was far from the funniest of the year, but it might be one of the craziest and silliest, and that's not much worse.
23. "Big Dumb Line" (Mikey Madison, March 29th)
Sometimes I get a little annoyed about the sketches that feel too ‘inside New York,’ but this is such a believable and understandably infuriating quirk about living in the city that I get why it has viral potential. Despite being pre-taped, this had more energy than pretty much all the live sketches from that episode, and was an example of the host blending in with the cast perfectly. Joe Jonas was a strange cameo, but hey, he’s got pipes, at least.
22. "Surprise" (Sabrina Carpenter, October 18th)
No, it’s fine, I always knew Ashley Padilla would lead a sketch that would kill live, I just didn’t expect it to be fart jokes, is all. Okay, yes, this was basically just an I Think You Should Leave sketch, but I still enjoyed this one immensely, and greatly enjoyed everyone struggling to keep it together at different times. A weak finish, otherwise this could have had a Cinderella run for an even higher ranking on this list.
21. "Wonderful Tonight" (Lady Gaga, March 8th)
Bowen Yang, outspoken Gaga superfan, had to be pinching himself that he was not only seeing one of his favorite pop stars ever helm the show, but starring in a sketch in which they play a couple! And more than that, getting to sing with her (and holding his own, vocally)!! Anyways, this was so much fun. It reminded me of a sneaky fave of mine from the Chance the Rapper episode several years ago, but where that one had me rolling mostly due to technical mishaps and the hilarity that ensued as a result, this one was just written to be out of pocket from the start, and I loved that.
20. "God" (Timothée Chalamet, January 25th)
Never in a million years did I expect the last sketch of this episode to be an animated short, but one of the more exciting developments from this last year was SNL starting to do these animated bits via Streeter Seidell & Mikey Day, and it already feels like a classic series. This is perhaps a hot take, but I was never a big fan of most of the old Saturday TV Funhouse animated sketches. This, though? Really worked for me. It seemed like the crowd was mostly just confused by this point, but I thought this was so cool and random in the best way! It’s good to mix it up with something entirely different now and then, and this was both entirely different and a decently funny bit about some of the absurdities of Creation.
19. "Please Don't Destroy - First Class" (Scarlett Johansson, May 17th)
It’s funny, the reason I missed the Season 50 finale live was because I was at a bachelor party, a party I was late to because of a catastrophic day of travel, which started off with delays for my first flight through? You guessed it, Newark. I ended up going through Chicago instead when a gate agent, attempting to help me rebook a new flight, quietly advised me, “Honestly, man? Between you and me, I’d avoid Newark altogether.” So yeah, this sketch felt particularly close to home. Anyway, it was great! A solid finish to the season from the PDD trio, who featured far less in their final year than I would have hoped. My only real complaint was this went on a touch too long; as delightful as Bad Bunny was in his cameo, I’m not sure we really needed the whole last stanza with his air traffic controller character— besides, it was obvious from the style of the song that an appearance from him was inevitable, so there’s wasn’t a ton of excitement in the reveal.
18. "Hockey PSA" (Miles Teller, November 1st)
This had the same energy as sketches they’ve done before, but again, really creatively written. This was probably Teller’s finest acting of this hosting stint of his; he sold this really well.
17. "Psychic Talk Show" (Amy Poehler, October 11th)
I could tell right away this was going to be a winner. One of the only sketches from her episode that felt like it let Amy Poehler truly star. I was mildly disappointed to learn this was based off a real person, because I was ready to shout out the originality of the conceit. Oh well... this was mostly one bit, but it stayed funny the entire time, and the pace was great. I don’t think enough of the audience laughed at the interaction with Kam Patterson- I cracked up at that one.
16. "Appliance Store" (Sabrina Carpenter, October 18th)
THIS was the energy I had hoped for and honestly expected from the whole Sabrina Carpenter episode! So good to see Veronika Slowikowska, who I am rooting hard for to succeed, be the one to play off Sabrina so well both in humor and in musical energy (she’s got pipes!). A couple timing errors and a weirdly unenthusiastic crowd prevented this from being a classic, but this was the only sketch on the night that felt like an exciting success of a production.
15. "The White Potus" (Jon Hamm, April 12th)
This kind of reminded me of the “Melanianade” sketch in 2016: a really clever, biting way to parody Trump and his people, and an inch-perfect parody of a cultural moment, but probably only actually funny if you know the source material. Otherwise you’re probably left going “WTF was that?” And I know that could go for most show parodies— of course it’s gonna hit harder if you actually know the show it’s parodying —but there are countless examples of SNL and other shows doing homages that are hilarious even to those that haven’t seen what’s being referenced. I watched (and enjoyed!) Season 3 of White Lotus so I was cackling at the various parallels here, but it feels like a good bit of the studio audience hadn’t and was lost, and their lack of energy hampered my overall enjoyment of the bit ever so slightly, as did the unnecessary slight of Aimee Lou Wood's teeth and ensuing online discourse. Still, between the note-perfect parody, clever writing, and all the fun cameos from SNL alums, this was a highlight for me.
14. "Weekend Update: Couple That Just Hooked Up" (Miles Teller, November 1st)
Weekend Update's been a little more inconsistent in this season than its peak of the last several years before it, and the same was true of this particular episode. But it was the delightful comedic chemistry between Ashley Padilla and Andrew Dismukes that ended this sgment on an unquestionable high; “Two People Who Just Hooked Up” was the best bit on Weekend Update we’ve gotten all of Season 51 thus far.
13. "A Long Goodbye" (Lady Gaga, March 8th)
You know, it really should have been a clue that we were in for a completely unhinged night in Lady Gaga's episode by the first post-monologue sketch. A sketch that is, that featured the host in a pseudo romcom in which-- when traveling by rolling suitcase scooter to the airport --she comes upon a friendly rolling suitcase scooter gang who offer her encouragement, only to lead her to reconnect with her true love, who catches her at the airport with dog in tow by... yes, flying down the highway in a rolling suitcase scooter. This is one of the rare sketches from recent years that felt less fit for SNL and more for Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave, and if you know me, you know that’s immense praise. When it transitioned from the green screen to Gaga and Marcello gleefully scooting through the live studio audience, I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes.
12. "CouplaBeers" (Shane Gillis, March 1st)
This was great. It lost a little bit of steam down the stretch (ironically, it could have used a “Lil Bump”) but this was one of the few examples all night of a successful use of Shane Gillis’s ‘bro humor.’
11. "Brad and His Dad" (Nikki Glaser, November 8th)
As mentioned above, these animated bits have been a highlight from this last year; "God" was the first iteration, and a good one, but this was my favorite one yet. Simple, hilarious and surprisingly sweet, and within an episode full of strange and often sardonic humor, it stood out even more so.
10. "Weekend Update: Miss Eggy" (Jack Black, April 5th)
No cast departure this year hit me harder than that of Ego Nwodim, an underappreciated (in my opinion) electric talent during her entire tenure on SNL. So it warms my heart that in her final season, she got a breakthrough Weekend Update character, with a show-stopping performance. Miss Eggy was a riot; yes, it was the unexpected fervor with which the audience responded to her that made for a viral clip, but even without that, this would have been one of Ego’s best ever Update appearances.
9. "Leadership Summit" (Quinta Brunson, May 3rd)
The Lord’s Prayer opening line didn’t get enough laughs, in my opinion, and everything after that was just increasingly hilarious. This had incredible joke after joke, became increasingly weird, and very effectively most of the cast - that's a recipe for my favorite genre of sketch. I wish it had a stronger ending, but thats my only (minor) quibble.
8. "One-Uppers" (Jack Black, April 5th)
This one ended too abruptly, and it took me a little while to get into it, but man, once I was in I was all the way in. A simple, dumb premise, but the increasing diversity in sound effects and ferocity in looks to the camera were killing me.
7. "Guess! The Correct! Answer!" (Jon Hamm, April 12th)
Man, this was great. I can’t think of the last time SNL did a sketch like this— at least early in the show —where it was just a quick hitter of an absolute meltdown, and then roll credits. This was “What’s That Name?” meets “ahhh man, I'm all outta cash!" One of many terrific performances on the night from the host, and by Michael Longfellow in the game show host role.
6. "New Barista Training" (Timothée Chalamet, January 25th)
I can’t explain what prevented this from being an absolute smash- it felt like the crowd took a little while to warm up to the joke, the ending was a little sloppy…I dunno. Whatever it was, it felt like this landed like just a good sketch, but I personally thought it was great. So many different jokes from different directions, and great energy from the host and cast. When Kenan came walking out as the comedian at the end, I lost it. Many people are saying this was Chalamet's finest acting role in the last year.
5. "Goth Kid On Vacation" (Jack Black, April 5th)
It’s felt like a really long time (perhaps since the departure of Chris Redd?) since SNL had a great prepped musical bit. Leave it to Jack Black to be the host to bring that back. Though, in fairness, plenty credit here goes to the writers for this hilarious concept, and to Ego Nwodim and Kenan for setting the stage with their inch-perfect reenactment of a Jamaican reggae track. (Side note: who knew “Welcome To The Black Parade” went so hard with a reggae beat??)
4. "White House Makeover" (Miles Teller, November 1st)
This was, in my opinion, the best writing of the season by far; for the first time this season, a sketch whose hilarity was almost entirely on its writing rather than star cast member performances. That said, James Austin Johnson was of course brilliant, and Melania is Chloe Fineman’s best impression we’ve seen in some time. I think what excites me so much about this one is how often in the age of Trump SNL has struggled how to make comedy from our political reality… THAT’S how you effectively satire this administration, not downplaying his serious fascist streak but also finding a creative and genuinely funny way to skewer him.
3. "Weekend Update: A Guy Who Just Walked Into a Spiderweb" (Walton Goggins, May 10th)
An otherwise pretty forgettable episode gave us probably the best Weekend Update of the year. Che and Jost were in fine form this week, with plenty of great Trump, Pope Leo XIV, Met Gala and even Osama bin Laden jokes. And if they set the bar high, the walk-on guests met that mark, with Marcello Hernández and Heidi Gardner both coming out and crushing. But Mikey Day stole the show for me with a genius bit of physical comedy that I, frankly, didn’t know he was capable of. Without a doubt the funniest Update bit of the year, and some of the best comedy the entire show had to offer in 2025.
2. "Social Experiment" (Sabrina Carpenter, October 18th)
This show marked the uptick in momentum for this season of SNL when it finally hit its stride in the latter half of the episode, and it finished on the strongest note of all: the welcome return of Martin Herlihy! The breakup of Please Don’t Destroy was one of the worst developments to come from SNL’s offseason. and though Ben is now a featured player on the cast, it hasn’t hit the same without his interplay off Martin and John (who has left the show altogether). This brainchild of Martin’s had two things this young season has lacked: a sketch with wire-to-wire clever writing, and a hilarious pre-taped video that has tremendous replay value.
1. "Please Don't Destroy - Missing Person" (Jon Hamm, April 12th)
As soon as I saw Please Don’t Destroy’s title card come up so early in this particular show, I figured we were in for a banger. I was so happy to be right. This was the PDD trio’s best in a loooong while— in the conversation for their best yet, in fact — and the host deserves an enormous amount of credit for it. The writing was hilarious but Jon Hamm played the clueless himbo officer perfectly to accelerate the comedy in this one. This felt like a great I Think You Should Leave bit, which again, is the highest compliment coming from me. The departure of Please Don't Destroy marked the end of a specific chapter at SNL that I really loved, so it warms my heart that in their final season on the show, they gave us perhaps their best video, and the best of SNL in 2025.
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