Saturday Night Live
Forty, though just an unassuming even number, can often prove to be a very significant one. Forty was the age your uncle turned when he liquidated your cousin’s college fund and bought that Ferrari he always wanted. Forty is a composite number and an octagonal number. Forty is the maximum number of players a major-league baseball team can have on its roster. Forty serves as the atomic number of zirconium. In more recent news, 40 also happens to be how old the famed sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live is turning this year.
Such a big birthday obviously merits a big celebration. If the three-hour special Saturday Night Live is already planning to air on Feb. 15 wasn’t enough, then the 19-day SNL marathon that VH1 Classic has just begun definitely sets the occasion apart from other televised anniversaries.
Throughout its 40-year run, Saturday Night Live has allowed its audience to take a break from — and laugh at — the realities of daily life. Although viewers might have had a paper due in the morning or an assignment for work that they had yet to complete, at 11:30 on a Saturday night, sometimes all that mattered was Tina Fey’s funny accent or Chris Farley wearing a blonde wig.
Saturday Night Live has been the starting point for the careers of many of the most beloved actors. The list is exceedingly long; many comedy greats acquired their fame while donning costumes and doing absurd accents on the SNL stage. From Chevy Chase to Eddie Murphy to Amy Poehler, Saturday Night Live’s ability to turn a simple aspiring comedian into a well-known (and, almost always, well-liked) actor is a testament to SNL’s selection process.
I can remember some of the first SNL episodes I viewed. Back then, it was amazing if I was still conscious by the time “Weekend Update”rolled around. Watching Tina Fey and Amy Poehler tag-team the segment was undoubtedly one of the forces that piqued my interest in the world of sketch comedy. Saturday Night Live taught me that when writing comedy, no idea is too stupid or too strange. If it weren’t for SNL, I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to audition for and participate in sketch comedy groups here at this university.
Each episode of Saturday Night Live serves as a snapshot of what was going on in pop culture and politics at the time it aired. I can remember my fits of laughter the first time I watched Rachel Dratch make faces at the camera as she starred as “Debbie Downer.” Or watching as Will Ferrell impersonated George W. Bush, as Mark Zuckerberg met Jesse Eisenberg (who portrayed him in the film The Social Network) or, more recently, as Cecily Strong did her best Sarah Koenig impression in order to parody the hit podcast Serial. The “Weekend Update” segment alone is enough for viewers to tell exactly what absurdities were taking place in and around the U.S. when the episode aired.
The music segment on SNL has always been an important complement to the sketches that take up the majority of the program. The Saturday Night Live stage has been home to countless musical greats throughout the years, including the Grateful Dead, Elton John, Madonna, Neil Young and Lady Gaga.
Each installment is a package of sorts that manages to capture the essence of life when the episode was made, and it’s all wrapped up with a hilarious, satirical bow.
The bits, jokes and catchy one-liners on Saturday Night Live are a force in themselves. It’s hard to hear the sound of a bell keeping the beat in a song without also thinking about Christopher Walken saying that he’s “got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell.” Upon seeing the logo for Chicago’s football team, no one can avoid trying a Chicago accent and proclaiming that it’s “da Bears.” And, of course, everybody knows that Sarah Palin can see Russia from her house.
Hopefully, the phrase, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!” will always be a familiar one. As surely as Saturday night eventually becomes Sunday morning, Saturday Night Live has always been, and surely always will be, able to entertain its audience. The show has managed to promote the idea that even though politics, celebrities and current events can get a bit dark or strange, there’s a bit of comedy in everything.
So happy 40th birthday, SNL. Here’s to 40 more.
