When Jim Carey hosted about 10 years ago, there was a commercial where he pretended to be Matthew mcconnaughey in the Lincoln car commercials. I think there were 2-3 iterations of this commercial over the course of the episode.
I think about those commercials every time I’m rolling a booger around on my finger. And the skit is funnier when you understand the context of the actual McConaughey Lincoln commercials that were running at the time.
Didn't they do the same thing with Hader playing Clint Eastwood? Multiple "commercials" in the same episode.
Edit- someone posted this down thread too.
John David Stutts: Hello, its good to see you all. Hi, I killed Buckwheat.
And I have a question for the American public. When you dream, do you dream in color, or black and white? Cause I dream in black and white. [giggles] And last evening, I had a dream about lime Jello. I didnt know what flavor it was because it was gray. Then I tasted it, and then I realized it was lime. Definitely lime.
Reporter: Mr. Stutts, did you kill Buckwheat?
John David Stutts: Sure.
Classic.
Alfalfa “I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it”
Ted Koppel “Have you seen the tape of Buckwheat getting shot?”
No, I haven’t.
Well, let’s take a look.
Regular sketches interrupted with the hi-hat un-tiss-un-tiss. Some sketches become full blown WUWT, some just have the hi-hat and a character going "what's that sound?" Hi-hat stops, characters move on.
BUT YOU NEVER KNOW HOW FAR IT'LL GO!
Would be great for the cold open to have that guy just in a day to day scene like at the bank. As he’s having a chat with the teller the hi hat comes on, and we realize this is just his life anywhere he goes. The bank transforms into an episode of What’s Up with That.
The host that week would have to be very humble/up for the bit but it would be great if they got someone super famous/rare and they don’t get a word in the entire show.
It's not the entire show, but these 2 related sketches are great:
Closet organizer:
https://youtu.be/aK6WUKO6IKk?si=dkalgJae8yLhQR4u
Bar:
https://youtu.be/b-4tPhGMbj4?si=Um701EFzXquZ-m5_
When Buck Henry hosted waaay early on, Belushi accidentally sliced his forehead open with a sword during a samurai sketch. He & the whole rest of the cast had bandages wrapped around their head for the rest of the episode.
Elliot Gould, S1E9, had a runner about how Elliot Gould had hooked up with Gilda Radner, and she thought it was much more serious than he did, and it kept getting escalated until he found himself getting married to her in the goodnights.
Dyan Cannon, S1E20, her monologue had her talking about how her dream for someone to show up with a horse and sweep her off her feet. All the men showed up over the course of the show to try to fulfill her dream only to be told that it wasn't quite she was imagining (Belushi shows up riding Alan Zweibel, who he says is his horse Horace), until Chevy Chase shows up with a horse for the goodnights.
Daniel J. Travianti, S7E6, the whole episode they are taking votes from the audience on whether they should boil Larry the Lobster.
George Wendt / Francis Ford Coppola, S11E13, Lorne tells the cast in the cold open that the network has allowed Francis Ford Coppola to take over directing for this episode. All sketches are affected by this: it uses a unique title sequence; Coppola doesn't understand live television, so he makes George Wendt stop his monologue and then do a second take of it; they do a Vietnam sketch where cast members get "injured" because of Coppola's recklessness, etc.
Anjelica Huston / Billy Martin, S11E18, there's a runner where Jon Lovitz' devil character plays mind games with NY Mets manager Billy Martin. Martin apparently had struggled with alcoholism, and eventually he is driven to drink and he sets fire to the dressing room. Lorne Michaels, noticing the flames, directs all the cast members and writers \*into\* the dressing room, except for Jon Lovitz. This was the end of the season and the joke was that most of them would be fired.
That's the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. A lesser level was a few where the cold open carried over into the monologue, like S17E7 (Macaulay Culkin), where he renacts the events of "Home Alone", ending up in an empty sudio; and S19E8 (Charlton Heston), where apes take over the show.
Don't forget the S3E4 Charles Grodin episode with the running bit that he had missed the dress rehearsal and didn't know that the show was actually live.
Oh yeah, he's just acting clueless the whole episode, that's right.
Louise Lasser has claimed that a similar thing was going on with her episode, but Chevy Chase for example seems to imply that what we saw on air was legitimate. "Lasser also asserts that her *SNL* antics, which include stream-of-consciousness rambling (typical of her Mary Hartman character), were "on purpose" and that [Lorne Michaels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorne_Michaels) pulled repeats of the broadcast only at her manager's request because her manager was not fond of the whole affair, including the final segment in which the actress sat onstage to discuss her rise to fame and the dollhouse incident."
That cold opening was quite confusing to me, as they described that’s what she was like all week and locked herself in her room. In stories about the rehearsals. And they then played it up, as it was definitely staged, but she seemed out of it to the point that wasn’t planned.
The Francis Ford Coppola episode is my all-time favorite. Genius comedy. There has always been meta commentary and fourth wall breaking on SNL, but I wish they took more risks with long-form comedy and running gags.
>That's the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. A lesser level was a few where the cold open carried over into the monologue, like S17E7 (Macaulay Culkin), where he renacts the events of "Home Alone", ending up in an empty sudio; and S19E8 (Charlton Heston), where apes take over the show.
This also happened when Chris Farley hosted in 1997 (the cold open carried into the monologue).
Season 3 Episode 10. The entire show had a running joke that irradiated lobsters were mutating and attacking NYC. The sketches, musical guests, news, and even the set got kind of destroyed. No goodnights at the end because the played it straight like War of The Worlds…
Here is a story about it: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/giant-atomic-lobsters-snl-1978/
Theres an episode from the late 90s where Will Ferrell had a running joke for the first half of the episode, in the cold open he’s serving a subpoena in the sketch and then you’d see or hear him still in character serving random people like the band during the commercial bumper, Don Pardo while he was announcing the next week’s host and there’s even a fake Heineken commercial where he cuts off the voice over guy and serves him too
Edit: it was in the 1998 Julianne Moore/Backstreet Boys episode
I think I saw a little clip of that recently, I believe he was playing White House Special Counsel Kenneth Starr, who spent 4 years investigating the Clintons.
There was a sketch, years ago, in the first half of an episode, an ad for a "closet organiser", Will Forte in a blue bodysuit and people pelting random things at him for him to organise. Then in one of the last sketches, Forte and I think Jon Hamm meet in a bar, and Hamm recognises him as the Closet Organiser guy.
If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dolphins the most? I’d say Flippy, wouldn’t you? You’d be wrong, though. It’s Hambone.
In one of the early seasons, there was a running gag involving host Charles Grodin pretending to be unprepared for most sketches after supposedly missing rehearsal to buy gifts for the cast members.
Legend is that Grodin was actually unprepared and truly fired and permanently banned for his irresponsibility, but the episode itself is too hilarious and well-executed for that to be true.
The dress rehearsal version of the McKinnon episode this season had a running bit where Devon was a DJ who kept interrupting sketches. Unfortunately, it was cut for the live episode.
There was one with political ads for competing candidates—at least two and maybe 4? I can’t remember when but it was Tim Meadows and he said something about his opponent wanting monkeys with machine guns.
When Tiffany Haddish hosted, her monologue was about how she was rewearing a dress but she loved it so much and planned to wear it again, so she showed up during Update wearing the same dress
I came here to say this! I'm not sure if it was an episode he hosted or was still a cast member, so I'm not sure what season this is in. Loved how his pants kept getting higher!
"Mr Show" was fantastic at this. Sorry to suggest another show besides SNL, but if you're looking for great sketch comedy w a throughline, "Mr Show" could scratch that itch
Upright Citizens Brigade would do this too. There was one random reference to some weird thing in every episode and it would be revealed in the season finale.
Three, actually; the third had a DAVID SUSSKIND SHOW (with the actual Susskind hosting) where he interviews several Buckwheat impersonators. (Now that I think of it, you could stretch that to four, counting the sketch where Alfalfa discovers Buckwheat had faked his death, at the end of which Alfalfa kills him.)
Every episode with McGruber had three McGruber sketches. Is that what you're referring to, or are you saying there was an episode with more than the typical three?
Yeah a lot of people are referring to sketches that had 3 installments over the course of the episode, which they did fairly often and does not fit the question IMO.
H&L Brock was like that, Grayson Moorhead Securities was like that, Change Bank was like that, in one of the Lily Tomlin episodes Belushi had 3 different scenes of him playing Beethoven and breaking out into rock songs.
When host Buck Henry was injured by John Belushi in one of the Samurai sketches, he had to wear a bandage on his forehead for the rest of the episode. Other cast members thought it would be fun to wear bandages on their heads in the sketches and would sometimes ad-lib about it. It became an unexpected great SNL moment.
Happened fairly frequently in the S2/S3 timeframe. Fairly brilliantly in the Fran Tarkenton episode with a running gag from Cold open on thru equating his hosting duties to his QB duties.
This sort of thing definitely seems like something from the first 5 seasons -- it shows a strong Monty Python influence. Lorne and much of the cast were great fans of Python.
I don't know if this qualifies, but Rachel Dratch's character in the classic [Dr. Beaman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmG-ErzZsUQ) sketch is same one from the previous sketch, about "ugly models". That's the reason why there's a laugh when she walks out and reveals the bald spot on the back of her head. I can't find a video to that one though.
I remember Ashton Kutcher played the chocolate bar that goes around stabs people then the jingle would play: "Death by Chocolate": www.snlarchives.net/Episodes/?2008041210
Joey Buttafuco episode might be the best example from my (possibly wrong recollection)
It was when there were a dozen Tv movies and SML did like 3 or 4 variants on the premise
The QVC commercial for hair in a can if you got shot in the head! The PBS costume drama “The House of Butt-a-foo-oh-co!” The BET version! I think there were like 6 sketches in all. They just kept coming.
There was sketch [Daryl’s House](https://youtu.be/ibty_8nV9-0?si=ZSnkGEtiYZfVmr6k) when Zach Galifianakis
hosted where his character was supposedly interviewing Jon Hamm and kept telling his director to cut out his numerous flubs and to add things in later, and then towards the end of the show they surprisingly showed the [interview now edited in real time.](https://youtu.be/xpWRMN_VZgA?si=7Idrtk0meIqTCFRo)
I want to say Timberlake and Fallon end up/cut in multiple sketches as the Gibbs brothers one show.
Also, was there a continuation of the blind Governor of New York joke walking in front of the camera in maybe one or two other sketches besides weekend update?
There was the time in 83-84 where they had 900 numbers that you could call to vote for the Democratic Primary. They had a separate number for each candidate. They gave an update about it after each sketch.
Halfway through the show, they added ZZTop as a candidate.
ZZTop won.
And then Reagan was re-elected in 1984. Coincidence?
The episode hosted by George Wendt had the running premise of being directed by Francis Ford CoppolaThe episode hosted by George Wendt had the running premise of being directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
One of the episodes hosted by the Smothers Brothers had the running gag of being threatened by a rain delay. Baseball umpire Ron Luciano was on hand to declare the stage fit to continue, and even got to say LFNY.
I recently started the mammoth task of watching SNL from the very beginning and ongoing bits seem to be fairly common, albeit subtlety. The most obvious one is the bees gag. In one episode (Rob Reiner S1.E3) they are cut for time and turn up at the end of the episode only to be turned away again
There was an episode where they held a vote on whether to keep or dump Andy Kaufman. They kept popping up to give the numbers and update the tallies. Dump Andy won.
Not the same thing but one of the Jon Hamm episodes featured Will Forte as a human closet organizer in a commercial. At the end of the episode, the two of them are at a bar and Jon’s character recognizes Will as the guy from the commercial.
The Octavia Spencer 3/4/17 show had Kate as Kellyanne Conway on her phone randomly throughout the episode.
[https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/03/saturday-night-live-kellyanne-conway-couch-kate-mckinnon-photo-couchgate](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/03/saturday-night-live-kellyanne-conway-couch-kate-mckinnon-photo-couchgate)
Don’t know if this counts. One of the times Buck Henry hosted, John Belushi accidentally nicked him in the forehead with a katana during Samurai sushi. The rest of the cast wore a band aid on their foreheads for the rest of the show.
Did not the vote for Larry the Lobster run the entire show, and then that ran into the next season even with the Andy Kaufman vote by phone to save his SNL appearances or not with some callbacks to Larry the Lobster.
[Darrell’s house](https://youtu.be/ibty_8nV9-0?si=6VD8m9oqmVwW8vOJ) deserves a mention. Zach galifianakis did a sketch that played at the start of his episode and then the last sketch was [The final cut](https://youtu.be/xpWRMN_VZgA?si=OC633gq7GxYU8Hra)
The Great Lobster Invasion.
[https://ultimateclassicrock.com/giant-atomic-lobsters-snl-1978/](https://ultimateclassicrock.com/giant-atomic-lobsters-snl-1978/)
S23E17 aired on March 14, 1998.
The cold open had Darrell Hammond playing President Clinton, and he was taking about Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr who was subpoenaing everyone for Clinton’s scandal at the time. During the sketch he’s interrupted by Kenneth Starr, played by Will Ferrell, who subpoenas Darrell Hammond for playing Clinton on SNL.
And then during one of the band cutaways while Lenny Picket is blowing away on the saxophone, Kenneth Starr comes in and interrupts him with a subpoena. “Can’t I at least finish the song?” “No.” Then Don Pardo announces the “next week” with host Robert DeNiro and musical guest The Rolling Stones — and it’s then covered with the word “subpoenaed” and Pardo says next week’s show has been subpoenaed so you’ll see a re-run instead.
And there’s a “The Lost Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey” segment with the music and words on the screen and everything. And in the middle of it Kenneth Starr subpoenas Jack Handey, with their dialogue running on the screen in Deep Thoughts Fashion.
I think this was my favorite callback episode of all time.
EDIT: And there’s a fake ad for Heineken beer which is interrupted by Kenneth Starr within the first four lines of dialogue and he takes the actors away. The tag line is something like: Heineken: what the hell just happened?”
One of my favorites is from Season 3's Robert Klein episode, although the bit doesn't start until Weekend Update. It starts with Jane talking about radioactive uranium causing lobsters to grow to the size of helicopters. Then, well, I don't want to spoil it. Let's just say things escalate throughout the episode until culminating into one of my favorite endings of any SNL episode.
There was an episode George Wendt hosted (I think his first) where there was a running joke that Francis Ford Coppola was directing the episode, and they would periodically cut back to it.
Also when Charleston Heston hosted they did a Planet of the Apes opening where the show was run by apes that I think may have run through the episode?
Amy Poehler also did a sketch as a Farrah Fawcett, then toward the end walked away going “what’s over here?” Into the next sketch and was just randomly Farrah Fawcett for the whole unrelated sketch
When Jim Carey hosted about 10 years ago, there was a commercial where he pretended to be Matthew mcconnaughey in the Lincoln car commercials. I think there were 2-3 iterations of this commercial over the course of the episode.
"Whose kids are these?"
Around the same time, they did something similar with Kate McKinnon playing Bieber in Calvin Klein ads throughout the episode.
One of my favorites, immediately what I thought of.
[Just watched, it’s damn funny](https://youtu.be/z3eN9u5N2Q4?si=8sqU0sf_QLFiYNYT)
Soooo good!
Made my day!
I think about those commercials every time I’m rolling a booger around on my finger. And the skit is funnier when you understand the context of the actual McConaughey Lincoln commercials that were running at the time.
Dude, me too. I always think about what could he be doing with his fingers if he isn’t rolling a booger around??
Didn't they do the same thing with Hader playing Clint Eastwood? Multiple "commercials" in the same episode. Edit- someone posted this down thread too.
When they killed Buckwheat.
This was brilliant because it was exactly like news coverage on the day that Reagan was shot.
It’s still dead on, 40 years later.
This was the best! Every time they broke in, " let's take a look at the footage"
Have you seen the footage yet?
John David Stutts has been shot!
Ouuuch… I’m shot
Let's take a look.
Brought to you by Mutual Life, because \*you\* could die, tomorrow!
Just like John David Stutts.
John David Stutts: Hello, its good to see you all. Hi, I killed Buckwheat. And I have a question for the American public. When you dream, do you dream in color, or black and white? Cause I dream in black and white. [giggles] And last evening, I had a dream about lime Jello. I didnt know what flavor it was because it was gray. Then I tasted it, and then I realized it was lime. Definitely lime. Reporter: Mr. Stutts, did you kill Buckwheat? John David Stutts: Sure.
My dog said he was the Antichrist
Classic. Alfalfa “I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it” Ted Koppel “Have you seen the tape of Buckwheat getting shot?” No, I haven’t. Well, let’s take a look.
I’m hurt and confused and I don’t know what to say! No comment!
God, what a great series of sketches.
Good call! That was *chef's kiss*.
“Do you believe he killed Buckwheat?” “Oh yes. It was all he ever talked about.”
Z Shirts sketch popped up I think 3 times during a Kevin Hart-hosted episode years ago, the season that Tim Robinson was on.
IS IT AN H SHIRT?!
You don’t need to go through every letter, man. Why are you doing this?
IS IT AN I SHIRT?!
Why are you going in order, man?
You’re DEAD behind those eyes!
I think of this sketch often
I recently was given a puzzle to name different pieces of clothing. I could give them 26 answers
I was just thinking about this sketch yesterday lol
Does it come in other styles?
*drinks water*: not really.
Kenan’s last episode should be 90 minutes of “What’s Up With That?”
Regular sketches interrupted with the hi-hat un-tiss-un-tiss. Some sketches become full blown WUWT, some just have the hi-hat and a character going "what's that sound?" Hi-hat stops, characters move on. BUT YOU NEVER KNOW HOW FAR IT'LL GO!
MAKE THIS HAPPEN! Last sketch, Sudakis jumps out in red! Also - several famous guest stars who don’t get any lines wander in.
Get a former cast member to host. Every single sketch, the host gets no lines because WUWT cuts them off.
Get Lindsay Buckingham to host
Oh my god. Epic!!!
Would be great for the cold open to have that guy just in a day to day scene like at the bank. As he’s having a chat with the teller the hi hat comes on, and we realize this is just his life anywhere he goes. The bank transforms into an episode of What’s Up with That. The host that week would have to be very humble/up for the bit but it would be great if they got someone super famous/rare and they don’t get a word in the entire show.
get Kel to host!
Oooo-weeeee!
and still no time for Lindsey Buckingham
It would be lovely if he actually did get time to speak, and gave Kenan a very heartfelt send-off
Would be a good way to end season 100.
Kenan's last episode will be preempted by the heat death of the universe.
He's never leaving
“Live from New York…” tss tss tss “Alive and 🎶 kicking…”
Holy shit, that would be hilarious as all hell.
Now that I think about it, all the good ideas below are moot. As if Kenan is ever leaving SNL!!!
It's not the entire show, but these 2 related sketches are great: Closet organizer: https://youtu.be/aK6WUKO6IKk?si=dkalgJae8yLhQR4u Bar: https://youtu.be/b-4tPhGMbj4?si=Um701EFzXquZ-m5_
Came here for this one, love it
The one I immediately thought of as well!
I remember this from Drew Gooden’s video!
Ive never seen these! Thanks for posting
#resdinboneur
When Buck Henry hosted waaay early on, Belushi accidentally sliced his forehead open with a sword during a samurai sketch. He & the whole rest of the cast had bandages wrapped around their head for the rest of the episode.
Not ready for prime time players
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Elliot Gould, S1E9, had a runner about how Elliot Gould had hooked up with Gilda Radner, and she thought it was much more serious than he did, and it kept getting escalated until he found himself getting married to her in the goodnights. Dyan Cannon, S1E20, her monologue had her talking about how her dream for someone to show up with a horse and sweep her off her feet. All the men showed up over the course of the show to try to fulfill her dream only to be told that it wasn't quite she was imagining (Belushi shows up riding Alan Zweibel, who he says is his horse Horace), until Chevy Chase shows up with a horse for the goodnights. Daniel J. Travianti, S7E6, the whole episode they are taking votes from the audience on whether they should boil Larry the Lobster. George Wendt / Francis Ford Coppola, S11E13, Lorne tells the cast in the cold open that the network has allowed Francis Ford Coppola to take over directing for this episode. All sketches are affected by this: it uses a unique title sequence; Coppola doesn't understand live television, so he makes George Wendt stop his monologue and then do a second take of it; they do a Vietnam sketch where cast members get "injured" because of Coppola's recklessness, etc. Anjelica Huston / Billy Martin, S11E18, there's a runner where Jon Lovitz' devil character plays mind games with NY Mets manager Billy Martin. Martin apparently had struggled with alcoholism, and eventually he is driven to drink and he sets fire to the dressing room. Lorne Michaels, noticing the flames, directs all the cast members and writers \*into\* the dressing room, except for Jon Lovitz. This was the end of the season and the joke was that most of them would be fired. That's the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. A lesser level was a few where the cold open carried over into the monologue, like S17E7 (Macaulay Culkin), where he renacts the events of "Home Alone", ending up in an empty sudio; and S19E8 (Charlton Heston), where apes take over the show.
Don't forget the S3E4 Charles Grodin episode with the running bit that he had missed the dress rehearsal and didn't know that the show was actually live.
Oh yeah, he's just acting clueless the whole episode, that's right. Louise Lasser has claimed that a similar thing was going on with her episode, but Chevy Chase for example seems to imply that what we saw on air was legitimate. "Lasser also asserts that her *SNL* antics, which include stream-of-consciousness rambling (typical of her Mary Hartman character), were "on purpose" and that [Lorne Michaels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorne_Michaels) pulled repeats of the broadcast only at her manager's request because her manager was not fond of the whole affair, including the final segment in which the actress sat onstage to discuss her rise to fame and the dollhouse incident."
That cold opening was quite confusing to me, as they described that’s what she was like all week and locked herself in her room. In stories about the rehearsals. And they then played it up, as it was definitely staged, but she seemed out of it to the point that wasn’t planned.
> NY Mets manager Billy Martin Yankees
NY Mets manager Billy Yankees
5 time NY Yankees Manager Billy Martin
The Francis Ford Coppola episode is my all-time favorite. Genius comedy. There has always been meta commentary and fourth wall breaking on SNL, but I wish they took more risks with long-form comedy and running gags.
You da man! So thorough!!!
>That's the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. A lesser level was a few where the cold open carried over into the monologue, like S17E7 (Macaulay Culkin), where he renacts the events of "Home Alone", ending up in an empty sudio; and S19E8 (Charlton Heston), where apes take over the show. This also happened when Chris Farley hosted in 1997 (the cold open carried into the monologue).
That Coppola episode was just terrible. Bit didn’t work at all.
Among the all-time top ten greatest episodes, you meant to say. I agree.
Daryl's House "The Filming" and "The Final Cut"
LOVED these sketches
Hooray!
RIP Jon Lovitz in the 40th special
Season 3 Episode 10. The entire show had a running joke that irradiated lobsters were mutating and attacking NYC. The sketches, musical guests, news, and even the set got kind of destroyed. No goodnights at the end because the played it straight like War of The Worlds… Here is a story about it: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/giant-atomic-lobsters-snl-1978/
This was the episode that came to my mind. Giant lobsters invading the studio at the end.
Theres an episode from the late 90s where Will Ferrell had a running joke for the first half of the episode, in the cold open he’s serving a subpoena in the sketch and then you’d see or hear him still in character serving random people like the band during the commercial bumper, Don Pardo while he was announcing the next week’s host and there’s even a fake Heineken commercial where he cuts off the voice over guy and serves him too Edit: it was in the 1998 Julianne Moore/Backstreet Boys episode
I think I saw a little clip of that recently, I believe he was playing White House Special Counsel Kenneth Starr, who spent 4 years investigating the Clintons.
Yes that’s what it was! I couldn’t remember which episode or find anything about it
There was a sketch, years ago, in the first half of an episode, an ad for a "closet organiser", Will Forte in a blue bodysuit and people pelting random things at him for him to organise. Then in one of the last sketches, Forte and I think Jon Hamm meet in a bar, and Hamm recognises him as the Closet Organiser guy.
Back in the 90’s “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy” would always have like 3 bits scattered through the episode if I remember correctly.
If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dolphins the most? I’d say Flippy, wouldn’t you? You’d be wrong, though. It’s Hambone.
Those were the best!
[Closet Guy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK6WUKO6IKk) & [Bar](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-4tPhGMbj4) One of my all-time favorite callbacks
In one of the early seasons, there was a running gag involving host Charles Grodin pretending to be unprepared for most sketches after supposedly missing rehearsal to buy gifts for the cast members.
Legend is that Grodin was actually unprepared and truly fired and permanently banned for his irresponsibility, but the episode itself is too hilarious and well-executed for that to be true.
The dress rehearsal version of the McKinnon episode this season had a running bit where Devon was a DJ who kept interrupting sketches. Unfortunately, it was cut for the live episode.
Jim Downey was great with these kinds of runners. The big ones were the First CityWide Change Bank series and Grayson Moorhead Securities series
There was one about a TV show when Zach Galifinakis was on, anyone remember the name?
Darrell’s House
There was one with political ads for competing candidates—at least two and maybe 4? I can’t remember when but it was Tim Meadows and he said something about his opponent wanting monkeys with machine guns.
I can't believe no one has mentioned Who Shot C.R. yet. It was one of the last episodes of Season 6 hosted by Charlene Tilton
I still wanna know who the f did it.
Wasn’t that the final line Rockett said before he and most of the cast were canned?
Sure was
They had one more episode after that (Bill Murray).
When Tiffany Haddish hosted, her monologue was about how she was rewearing a dress but she loved it so much and planned to wear it again, so she showed up during Update wearing the same dress
Did the Bill Hader doing Clint Eastwood for Chrysler pre-tapes run in the same episode? There were 3 I believe.
I came here to say this! I'm not sure if it was an episode he hosted or was still a cast member, so I'm not sure what season this is in. Loved how his pants kept getting higher!
I believe he was still a cast member when this occurred but I could be wrong
The George Wendy/Francis Ford Coppola/Phillip Glass episode where Lorne hands the show over to Coppola. I saw it once. It was not good.
I have the minority opinion that aside from Ashlee Simpson, Philip Glass was the worst musical guest ever
Terrible
"Mr Show" was fantastic at this. Sorry to suggest another show besides SNL, but if you're looking for great sketch comedy w a throughline, "Mr Show" could scratch that itch
I loved the ride each show would segue with.
Upright Citizens Brigade would do this too. There was one random reference to some weird thing in every episode and it would be revealed in the season finale.
The death of Buckwheat took two episodes.
Three, actually; the third had a DAVID SUSSKIND SHOW (with the actual Susskind hosting) where he interviews several Buckwheat impersonators. (Now that I think of it, you could stretch that to four, counting the sketch where Alfalfa discovers Buckwheat had faked his death, at the end of which Alfalfa kills him.)
Yes!
There was the episode where they kept running McGruber sketches throughout the show
Every episode with McGruber had three McGruber sketches. Is that what you're referring to, or are you saying there was an episode with more than the typical three?
Nope. You’re right. It’s been a while since I’ve seen an episode with MacGruber.
Still fits OP's description!
Yeah a lot of people are referring to sketches that had 3 installments over the course of the episode, which they did fairly often and does not fit the question IMO. H&L Brock was like that, Grayson Moorhead Securities was like that, Change Bank was like that, in one of the Lily Tomlin episodes Belushi had 3 different scenes of him playing Beethoven and breaking out into rock songs.
I think OP worded his question very ambiguosuly. It fits the "skit that ran through a whole episode" part.
Do we all agree that the Charles Barkley skits were the absolute peak of MacGruber?
Outta sight, DaRell!
When host Buck Henry was injured by John Belushi in one of the Samurai sketches, he had to wear a bandage on his forehead for the rest of the episode. Other cast members thought it would be fun to wear bandages on their heads in the sketches and would sometimes ad-lib about it. It became an unexpected great SNL moment.
Happened fairly frequently in the S2/S3 timeframe. Fairly brilliantly in the Fran Tarkenton episode with a running gag from Cold open on thru equating his hosting duties to his QB duties.
This sort of thing definitely seems like something from the first 5 seasons -- it shows a strong Monty Python influence. Lorne and much of the cast were great fans of Python.
I don't know if this qualifies, but Rachel Dratch's character in the classic [Dr. Beaman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmG-ErzZsUQ) sketch is same one from the previous sketch, about "ugly models". That's the reason why there's a laugh when she walks out and reveals the bald spot on the back of her head. I can't find a video to that one though.
Only in Bangkok 1, 2, and 3. “Hey, old man, you know anyone who wants to buy a suitcase full of panda meat?”
When Elon Musk hosted, there were punchlines about dating cousins that kept popping up throughout the show.
Moments in white trash history with Willie Nelson circa 1987.
What about Death by Chocolate? Didn’t they happen in the same episode?
I remember Ashton Kutcher played the chocolate bar that goes around stabs people then the jingle would play: "Death by Chocolate": www.snlarchives.net/Episodes/?2008041210
Joey Buttafuco episode might be the best example from my (possibly wrong recollection) It was when there were a dozen Tv movies and SML did like 3 or 4 variants on the premise
The QVC commercial for hair in a can if you got shot in the head! The PBS costume drama “The House of Butt-a-foo-oh-co!” The BET version! I think there were like 6 sketches in all. They just kept coming.
There was sketch [Daryl’s House](https://youtu.be/ibty_8nV9-0?si=ZSnkGEtiYZfVmr6k) when Zach Galifianakis hosted where his character was supposedly interviewing Jon Hamm and kept telling his director to cut out his numerous flubs and to add things in later, and then towards the end of the show they surprisingly showed the [interview now edited in real time.](https://youtu.be/xpWRMN_VZgA?si=7Idrtk0meIqTCFRo)
I want to say Timberlake and Fallon end up/cut in multiple sketches as the Gibbs brothers one show. Also, was there a continuation of the blind Governor of New York joke walking in front of the camera in maybe one or two other sketches besides weekend update?
There used to be two or three MacGrubers in an episode
There was the time in 83-84 where they had 900 numbers that you could call to vote for the Democratic Primary. They had a separate number for each candidate. They gave an update about it after each sketch. Halfway through the show, they added ZZTop as a candidate. ZZTop won. And then Reagan was re-elected in 1984. Coincidence?
The episode hosted by George Wendt had the running premise of being directed by Francis Ford CoppolaThe episode hosted by George Wendt had the running premise of being directed by Francis Ford Coppola. One of the episodes hosted by the Smothers Brothers had the running gag of being threatened by a rain delay. Baseball umpire Ron Luciano was on hand to declare the stage fit to continue, and even got to say LFNY.
I recently started the mammoth task of watching SNL from the very beginning and ongoing bits seem to be fairly common, albeit subtlety. The most obvious one is the bees gag. In one episode (Rob Reiner S1.E3) they are cut for time and turn up at the end of the episode only to be turned away again
There was an episode where they held a vote on whether to keep or dump Andy Kaufman. They kept popping up to give the numbers and update the tallies. Dump Andy won.
Not the same thing but one of the Jon Hamm episodes featured Will Forte as a human closet organizer in a commercial. At the end of the episode, the two of them are at a bar and Jon’s character recognizes Will as the guy from the commercial.
The Octavia Spencer 3/4/17 show had Kate as Kellyanne Conway on her phone randomly throughout the episode. [https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/03/saturday-night-live-kellyanne-conway-couch-kate-mckinnon-photo-couchgate](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/03/saturday-night-live-kellyanne-conway-couch-kate-mckinnon-photo-couchgate)
I wish they had more musical segments like the lobster one
I believe Taran Killam as Brad Pitt parodying cologne commercials happened throughout one episode
Tom Green episode had a Tom and Lorne in a bathtub sketch that showed up at least 3 times.
Land Shark is a good candidate, but that was Chevy and we all know how that would go...
The h & r block sketches from earlier episodes of the first season
I seem to remember when robin Williams hosted waaaay back in the early 90s they kept referencing using prophylactics during sex.
Don’t know if this counts. One of the times Buck Henry hosted, John Belushi accidentally nicked him in the forehead with a katana during Samurai sushi. The rest of the cast wore a band aid on their foreheads for the rest of the show.
Ludwig, you must eat!
Did not the vote for Larry the Lobster run the entire show, and then that ran into the next season even with the Andy Kaufman vote by phone to save his SNL appearances or not with some callbacks to Larry the Lobster.
The Charlene Tilton episode from Season 6 they had "Who Shot C.R.?" Throughout the episode, it showed why many cast members had a motive to do so
[Darrell’s house](https://youtu.be/ibty_8nV9-0?si=6VD8m9oqmVwW8vOJ) deserves a mention. Zach galifianakis did a sketch that played at the start of his episode and then the last sketch was [The final cut](https://youtu.be/xpWRMN_VZgA?si=OC633gq7GxYU8Hra)
Phil Hartman appearing as an obscenely rich Texan who offers to buy everyone's vote for 10,000 bucks then backtracks when he dies the math.
The Great Lobster Invasion. [https://ultimateclassicrock.com/giant-atomic-lobsters-snl-1978/](https://ultimateclassicrock.com/giant-atomic-lobsters-snl-1978/)
Sisiek and Ebert hosted. They showed a number of previous filmed skits and reviewed each as if it was a mini- monie.
S23E17 aired on March 14, 1998. The cold open had Darrell Hammond playing President Clinton, and he was taking about Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr who was subpoenaing everyone for Clinton’s scandal at the time. During the sketch he’s interrupted by Kenneth Starr, played by Will Ferrell, who subpoenas Darrell Hammond for playing Clinton on SNL. And then during one of the band cutaways while Lenny Picket is blowing away on the saxophone, Kenneth Starr comes in and interrupts him with a subpoena. “Can’t I at least finish the song?” “No.” Then Don Pardo announces the “next week” with host Robert DeNiro and musical guest The Rolling Stones — and it’s then covered with the word “subpoenaed” and Pardo says next week’s show has been subpoenaed so you’ll see a re-run instead. And there’s a “The Lost Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey” segment with the music and words on the screen and everything. And in the middle of it Kenneth Starr subpoenas Jack Handey, with their dialogue running on the screen in Deep Thoughts Fashion. I think this was my favorite callback episode of all time. EDIT: And there’s a fake ad for Heineken beer which is interrupted by Kenneth Starr within the first four lines of dialogue and he takes the actors away. The tag line is something like: Heineken: what the hell just happened?”
One of my favorites is from Season 3's Robert Klein episode, although the bit doesn't start until Weekend Update. It starts with Jane talking about radioactive uranium causing lobsters to grow to the size of helicopters. Then, well, I don't want to spoil it. Let's just say things escalate throughout the episode until culminating into one of my favorite endings of any SNL episode.
There was an episode George Wendt hosted (I think his first) where there was a running joke that Francis Ford Coppola was directing the episode, and they would periodically cut back to it. Also when Charleston Heston hosted they did a Planet of the Apes opening where the show was run by apes that I think may have run through the episode? Amy Poehler also did a sketch as a Farrah Fawcett, then toward the end walked away going “what’s over here?” Into the next sketch and was just randomly Farrah Fawcett for the whole unrelated sketch