Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Just a few days later, a profoundly tragic chapter in world history began to unfold.
Thankfully, whatSNLdidnt satirize was only one piece of this season.
There were major surprises, like Shane Gillisgetting to hostafterbeing firedfour years earlier without ever appearing on the show.
(Decidedly less surprising:Gillis and the show ended up not being a great fit.)
(Culture circle jerk would be more accurate.)
Oh yeah there were also some phenomenal sketches.
A lot of them, even!
Here are the 17 best sketches from this past season.
When they did, it instantly became theSNLsketch with the largestcultural impactin some time.
Ryan Gosling and Dayeven reprised their rolesat the premiere ofThe Fall Guy.
(They are, though.)
This is the one that season 49 will be remembered for, and the excessive hype is justified.
An instant Christmas classic.
The resultingscorched-earth shit-talk-athonessentially condensed five years ofBrian Coxlevel hatredinto three hours.
No one who ever crossed paths with Williams was spared.
But Ego Nwodims Williams just had too much juice to keep off TV.
Jumanji
Wiig hadhelp from some A-list friendswhen she hosted one of the seasons top episodes.
Sketches like Jumanji, though, suggest that she didnt need em.
She cantbelievethe naive nitwits around her are so cavalier about playing board games in a world governed byJumanjirules.
A lesser sketch would have milked the others skepticism for longer before the inevitable turn.
In this game, the viewer wins.
But the straight face she maintains while slipping Happy Birthday into this extended cut ofthe love medleyfromMoulin Rouge!
(for the third time) probably will have earned her the gig anyway whenWickedcomes out in November.
Fans of mules and those seed-filled juice balloons known as tomatoes might not have enjoyed the proceedings.
(They quietly did so again months later,bringing theirSNL-royalty dadsonstage for the Mothers Day episode.)
Beyond all the hard truths, it also has plenty of jokes.
(Namelythat one about Devon Walker.)
In her fourth-ever episode, themusical-comedianplays an Annie-esque orphan who turns out to be quite rightly unadoptable.
But everything is not all right.
(Technically, theyre actual crimes.)
Punkie Johnson is unable to contain herself as she unfurls it, and really, who can blame her?
Washingtons Dream
What is leftto sayabout Washingtons Dream that hasnt alreadybeen said?
Seth Meyers called it a perfect sketch.
It has nearly 9 million views on YouTube.
According toIndieWires oral history, it was originally intended for an unnamed dramatic heavyweight who had hosted last year.
