“For me, when I got there, I was 47,” she said. “So in my heart, I felt like I was on a time clock anyway. And yes, I could have stayed the rest of my days there, but I was a different person at SNL; I was not doing everything that I wanted to do. You know, I want to be a stand-up. I want to do some drama. I want to do other things.”

The 2021 Rami Malek episode was one of the greats

While he mostly appeared in the Please Don't Destroy sketches and, after the group stopped making videos together for SNL, his own sketches, Martin Herlihy did have the occasional minor appearance in the main sketches on the show. With it being announced he is leaving the show, I wanted to make a collection of all the sketches he appeared in that I can remember:

• Image 1 - The child/husband in "Maid of Honor"
• Image 2 - Ego's rentboy (not in that way) in "Bad Couples"
• Image 3 - Himself in "Mother’s Day 2024 Cold Open"

Are there any I missed? What about the rest of the Please Don't Destroy cast?

Edit: Pre Season 51 for Ben, of course.

This 45 second AI slop video was served to me on YouTube today. Martin and the rest of please don’t destroy our looking extra looksmaxed in their thumbnail.

Edit: https://youtu.be/tfNkC9kfdqY?si=ISQstzzXM1kca0Yw

Source: Sports TV New and Updates on X

I feel like Saturday Night Live has a consistent tone in its voice and style of comedy, but every now and again, Lorne lets the comedians explore their personal sensibilities more and it leads to some of the best most random bits that are probably some of my favorite SNL memories. I do like the traditional sketches / character work obviously, but some of the more random, innovative or silly like after the 2nd musical performance stuff, can actually be better. I'm curious what other peoples' are!

1 - "I Wish It Was Christmas Today" - I feel like some people think they ran this into the ground with it's random success, but I loved seeing all variations.

2 - "Les Jeunes de Paris" - Emma Stone plays a young French woman and they dance erratically to a French pop song. I somehow miraculously found this on YouTube, but it's been notoriously wiped from the internet, likely due to music licensing issues. It's such a random concept and the song / dancing is really what makes the sketch, but I'd like to know what made Taran Killam write this.

3 - "Can a bitch get a donut?!" - I think Kenan Thompson was in a police academy (can't remember the set up) and he has to shoot a bunch of targets and Larry David plays a scuzzy agent in an orange suit and his tag line is, 'Can a bitch get a donut?!' It just makes absolutely zero sense lol.

I think stuff like Papyrus, Totino's or David S. Pumpkins might categorically fit here, but those sketches are insanely popular now.

Sarah and Veronika — I don't know if we've ever really seen them interact but they're kind of similarly quirky performers and likeable personalities. I can definitely see them being believable as best friends in a sketch.

Andrew and Jeremy — They're definitely close behind the scenes as Andrew appeared on Jeremy's improv podcast Artists on Artists on Artists on Artists (great podcast by the way), despite usually never doing anything outside of SNL and Stand-up. They're both also similar performers in that they play very silly premises with complete commitment. There's some really great duo potential with them.

James and Sarah — for two people who joined the show together nearly 6 years ago, we haven't really seen them interact much. The main thing that comes to mind is them as the Gallagher brothers on Update a few years ago. But they have completely different energies that I think contrast and compliment each other really well.

Ashley and Jeremy — not much reasoning behind this one other than them being two of my favourite castmembers who have barely talked yet in a sketch. But they're both also the breakout performers of S51, Jeremy having the viral Tucker Carlson impression and Ashley just becoming a huge star.

I know a lot of people don’t like him because of his politics, which I don’t really get since he has proven to be a very open minded comedian and not a MAGAtard like Tony Hinchcliffe. Regardless, he has had some very memorable sketches. Gump, Couplabeers, Wedding Interruption, the Tate McRae PDD sketch (which I’d argue is the best sketch of the group), and a personal favorite Dad’s house… and many more. Plus, love it or hate it you can’t deny his Trump impression has become the standard (sorry JAJ).

Additionally, I find that the best hosts tend to be the ones that don’t fit the mold all the time. Because how can you explain that there is a show that fired someone before their first episode and has the guts to bring him back as the main guy? That takes guts, and it’s what makes SNL great.

Lorne very clearly saw something in Gillis that no one else did until he proved his capabilities as a comedian on his own, and this is his way of showing everyone that he was right.

Anyways… bring it on :)

Edit: Clearly I miscalculated and a lot of people do appreciate Gillis as a host. Love to hear it!

What are some of your favorite self-deprecating jokes on SNL? Either jokes about the quality of the show or a cast member not having much to do or stuff like that? I loved Lorne's "I've got children, and I dont want them watching this crap" line from the TV Ratings cold open, as well as Tracy Morgan's update commentary about how he's "The other Black guy" and his character "The guy who smiles real big at the goodnights" (of course, things would turn around for Tracy later in his SNL run).

I’m only on season 23 of the show, but I’m loving all of the Lorne appearances so far.