We asked SNL's head, senior, and supervising writers to guide us through ten of the most notable sketches and moments from the past year
Saturday Night Live season 44. Photo-Illustration: Maya Robinson/Vulture and Photo by NBC Nothing tells the story of a season of Saturday Night Live better than its sketches, the precious gems and oddball curiosities that spring from the minds of its perpetually stressed-out writing staff. And the story of the 44th season of SNL is an interesting one: When the season premiere aired, the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency was already over, but the 2020 election season had not yet begun.
Kent Sublette, head writer: The cold opens are very often written on Fridays because of the news cycle. If for some reason the testimonies were deathly dull and no one cared, we wouldn’t have done that. Colin and I were both very worried about making it something you could laugh at, but also didn’t diminish or ignore the fact that it was very upsetting for a lot of people. It was my idea to approach Matt Damon. I thought he could get that sort of unhinged quality [Kavanaugh] had.
Teacher Fell Down November 3, 2018: Kate McKinnon shined as a teacher who, as the title points out, fell down. A simple concept executed to absurd perfection. Green: The best thing about Kate is, first of all, her talent and, second of all, how collaborative she is. She’s really open. A lot of people feel they can come to her with an idea and the odds of her embracing it and giving it her all are extremely high. That’s the magic ingredient.
Green: We knew the cast had [impressions] they were working. We wanted to make it a showcase for Kate, Melissa [Villaseñor], and Heidi [Gardner]. Doing The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, doing Michelle Wolf, [and] Hannah Gadsby made it feel fresh for us. A lot of those impression sketches are about getting the look right.
Jost: The first one [“Lobster Diner”] was one of the most stressful sketches I’ve ever written because there were so many moving pieces. It’s musical, there’s a bouncing ball, and it got cued at the wrong time on air. I was so irrationally upset. I take sketch comedy so much more seriously than I take my own human life, so when that went wrong, I went in the control room. I was so angry, like, “How did that get messed up?” I thought, I’m a crazy person.
Gillespie: You’re looking at six full sets, animated elements, and then voice-over jokes. The whole point is they’re trying to make a shit-ton of spinoffs. You have to make it a taped sketch, because you have to cover that ground in order to make clear what is funny. As a writer, you’re there for all the decisions and making them with the film units, hair, makeup, all the sets. It’s 100 percent collaborative. In the edit, you can change the voice-over truly until 11:30 Saturday night.
Seidell: They were so fun, so enthusiastic about it. Seeing them get into that Law & Order mode, as someone who’s watched a lot of Law & Order, was fun. “Dire Wolf” instead of Dick Wolf was added, I believe, right before air. I remember being up there and saying “Maybe it says ‘Dire Wolf’?” It was so stupid and we very quickly threw it in.
Green: It was one of those weeks where you just pinch yourself. It just felt like everyone wanted to show up for him. People were breaking out their best material — not just because you want to impress Adam Sandler, but also you wanted it to be good for him. You wanted to show up for him and make him feel secure and happy that he came back.Tucker: He forgot a little bit about how rigorous the schedule is. By Friday, he was like, “How do you guys do this?” “You know, you used to do this.
Drezen: I’m not a fun person. I go on vacation and am like, “I had a bad time.” It’s not the vacation’s fault. I went somewhere with no plans, by myself, and stayed in the hotel room. It took me a couple times to figure that out, but I took it to Alison Gates. She and I have a similar appreciation for these more feelings-based sketches.
Tucker: It dovetailed really well with Adam’s voice. It’s a voice he does well, but not necessarily a voice people know him for. He’s known for being cute and silly, but the way he did that world-weary older man that’s still Adam Sandler worked out great. Anna and Alison Gates did a great job of providing the right kind of visuals. Mostly it’s just a long monologue with a few cutaways to testimonials.
Colin Jost and Michael Che Swap Jokes December 15, 2018 and May 18, 2019: Jost and Che attempted to find the worst, most offensive joke for the other anchor to tell in these two “Weekend Update” desk pieces.
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