17 actors, writers, directors and ‘SNL’ alumni choose their top sketch of all time

With the 50th season of NBC’s landmark sketch comedy show “Saturday Night Live” set to premiere this week, we started wondering: Which sketches do Hollywood’s top creatives love?

So, at the Telluride and Toronto film festivals, on the Emmys red carpet and in assorted interviews along the way, we asked some of your favorite actors, writers, directors and “SNL” alums for their top picks. Check out their answers — and a nifty supercut — below. Plus, submit your own favorite via our reader survey.

×

Check out what film and TV stars such Jude Law, Tilda Swinton and more said were their favorite ‘SNL’ sketches from the series’ first 49 seasons.

Will Ferrell as Gene Frenkle from “More Cowbell,” onstage with musical guests Queens of the Stone Age.

(Dana Edelson/NBCU Photo Bank)

John David Washington, actor (“The Piano Lesson”)

I like [“More Cowbell”]. Christopher Walken’s the producer and Will Ferrell’s coming in with a tight shirt just hacking away at the bell.

Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, composer-lyricists (“Frozen,” “Agatha All Along”)

Anderson-Lopez: The commitment every single person has to that sketch, except for maybe Jimmy Fallon. Christopher Walken’s commitment is really the secret sauce.

Bobby Lopez: His body language, his use of the space. Amazing.

Anderson-Lopez: And then Will Ferrell matches him, he’s like, “You’re gonna go there? I’m taking this to 11 too!”

Jude Law, actor (“Eden,” “The Order”)

My first memory has to be the first time I hosted it. And you’re prepped and ready after a week. And it’s when you’re behind the door and someone comes up and goes [gestures a silent countdown from five on his fingers] and you open the door and out you go. And there’s a kind of silent, terrifying — it’s like diving off a cliff. There’s something about this that blew my mind. Favorite skit has to be “More Cowbell.” Chris Walken [and Will Ferrell], “More Cowbell.”

×

Michael Potts, actor (“The Piano Lesson”)

Well, I’m older than young. The great one when Dan Aykroyd pretends to be Julia Child, cuts himself and bleeds profusely and continues. [Imitates Akyroyd’s Child] “Oooh, oooh, I seem to be bleeding! Save the livers!” And he continued to go, just squirting everywhere, while she was making this chicken. He just continued until he passed out. That was a classic.

Tom Colicchio, chef and head judge (“Top Chef”)

Julia Child and I share a birthday, so years and years ago, a mutual friend of ours brought her in — I was at a restaurant called Mondrian and it was like my 26th birthday — and we kind of hit it off and started talking. And then I ran into her again at the Food & Wine Festival in Aspen and said, “Julia, I gotta tell you, I didn’t grow up watching you. My first experience of Julia Child was Dan Aykroyd cutting off his fingers playing you. And she goes [imitates Child’s trademark high voice], “Oh, that was so funny!” So that one’s totally my favorite, because there’s a real-life application to it.

Buck Henry, left, with John Belushi as Samurai Futaba during the “Samurai Stockbroker” version on the series of sketches.

(NBCU Photo Bank)

John Turturro, actor (“The Cut,” “The Room Next Door”)

First season, I was in college. So John Belushi playing the samurai. Did he have a dry-cleaning place? Or was it a restaurant? [The character, originated as a hotel desk clerk, took on different occupations over the years.] He was like Toshiro Mifune [in “Yojimbo”].

Mike Birbiglia, writer and actor (“The Old Man and the Pool”)

When I was a kid, I had a VHS cassette of “The Best of John Belushi,” and I watched it on a loop. So: “Samurai Delicatessen.”

×

Kristen Wiig, actor (“SNL,” 2005-2012)

Oh my gosh, that is so hard. I’m trying to think of one. I mean, there was one sketch that, oh gosh, I’m trying to remember — hold on, let me just look and make sure I’m saying the right one. It’s a very random one. [Appears to Google something on a computer just out of the Zoom frame.] Oh yeah, it’s called “Dance Rehearsal,” with Chance the Rapper. And Kenan [Thompson] is the dance teacher, and he’s slowly turning into a werewolf. But I can’t pick one, because it’s too hard. Of all the years being there, there’s probably one every show that I — it’s too hard. I can’t even begin to have a favorite. It’s like picking my favorite child. I can’t.

Host Bill Burr during the “Sam Adams” sketch.

(Rosalind O’Connor/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)

Gabriel LaBelle, actor (“Saturday Night”)

I think about the Bill Burr pumpkin spice Boston beer ad often. Where he’s like [imitates Boston accent] “It’s like the kind of beer where you have a party and someone brings a beer, but no one drinks it and then it stays in your fridge for like seven months. And then your friend comes over and is like, “You have a beer?” And like, “Well I got that pumpkin s—.”

×

Lamorne Morris, actor (“Fargo,” “Saturday Night”)

I would say mine is probably “Corksoakers.” Remember that one? With Jimmy Fallon. Janet Jackson was the guest on that day. And there’s this old Italian group of people — Horatio Sanz, and I think Fred Armisen was in it — and they were talking about how you soak cork for wine bottles. But the more they said it, it kept sounding like — he’s like [imitates Italian accent], “My mama, she was the best cork soaker... Sometimes she soak two cork at the same time!” And Janet Jackson couldn’t get through the sketch without laughing. Every time she started, she would cover her mouth and do the tee-hee-hee giggle.

Joe Piscopo, who featured in the “Hidden Camera” sketch, pictured during “SNL Newsbreak.”

(NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)

Morgan Neville, documentary filmmaker (“Piece by Piece”)

There was this “Candid Camera” sketch in the early ’80s. I’ll never forget it because my friend taped it — we were like 14 — and we’d watch it over and over again. We thought it was amazing. People go into a diner and order the specialty of the house, cheesecake. Then you see someone in the kitchen heating up a fork, pressing it on a steak. “Instead what she gets is … seared flesh!” And there’s screaming and shrieking and people jumping up and down. Because, like [“Candid Camera” host] Allen Funt says, there’s nothing more hilarious than people caught in the act of being themselves.

×

Bowen Yang, actor (“SNL,” 2018-present)

I’m going to say, after much thought and consideration, Maya Rudolph singing the national anthem. That is one of the simplest, most straightforward sketches and it’s pure performance and it’s just on one person. Technically, it’s simple, elegant, but so funny. Endless rewatch value. You put it on in a vacation house with a bunch of your friends or strangers and it’ll play. It’s one of the best.

Dan Aykroyd and Margot Kidder during the “Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute” sketch.

(Fred Hermansky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)

Will Ferrell, actor (“SNL”, 1995-2002)

He was a male prostitute, and he never could get to any [sex acts] because would do these poses, and as he started to undress he had this series of — he had a hernia belt he had to undo. It was so elaborate. This is early days. I’m still so little [when it aired] that I don’t even know [what it’s about], but the way he said it — it was way over my head but so funny at the same time. That’s one that sticks with me to this day.

×

Brett Goldstein, actor (“Ted Lasso,” “All of You”)

It was in the last season, so I’m sorry it was so recent — there’s other ones I love — but Please Don’t Destroy did one with Ramy [Youssef] where they are doing a hip-hop song and they’re smoking blunts, smoking blunts and then it cuts to them in the club and they’re like, “I’m so f— high” and they’re paranoid and I was like, “That is some relatable stuff.”

Dana Carvey as Church Lady from the “Church Chat” sketch.

(Dana Edelson/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)

Kiernan Shipka, actor (“The Last Showgirl”)

I grew up watching, like, the Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg, Kristen Wiig [era]. I really did like [Dana Carvey’s] Church Lady, though. When I was younger I would watch YouTube [clips] of Church Lady.

×

Tilda Swinton, actor (“The Room Next Door”)

[‘Problemista’ director] Julio [Torres’] “The Goddesses [of Creation].” I mean, I would never, could never imagine getting tired of watching “The Goddesses.”

×

Christopher Abbott, actor (“Bring Them Down”)

That’s a hard one. But the first one that came to my mind was this Fred Armisen one. He did like a pretend, like a downtown one man show in New York and it’s called like “Half Jewish, Half Italian, Completely Neurotic.” That’s one of my favorites.