43 Times Things Went Hilariously Wrong On "Saturday Night Live"

Yahoo

17-02-2025

In honor of Saturday Night Live celebrating 50 seasons, I decided to round up the most unforgettable, iconic times things went hilariously wrong on air. From wardrobe malfunctions to character-breaking, here are 43 of those moments that live in my head rent free:
1.When Kristen Wiig almost ran Maya Rudolph over with a golf cart in "Super Showcase Spokesmodels" and literally everyone was losing it, but the show went on:
2.When Jason Sudeikis unexpectedly ate guacamole off of Fred Armisen's shoe in "New Girlfriend," thus making Fed absolutely lose it:
3.When Candice Bergen messed up her line in "Extremely Stupid" and couldn't stop laughing long enough to recover, so Gilda Radner delivered this gem:
4.When nobody could keep a straight face while delivering their lines in "The Love-ahs With Barbara and Dave," because Jimmy Fallon was snickering the whole time:
5.This "Africa Tourism" sketch, where you can quite literally watch Adele start to break, like, five times before she completely loses it:
6.Honestly, the whole first "Close Encounter" sketch, because Ryan Gosling is a millisecond from full-on laughing the entire time, and it's absolute perfection:
In my humble opinion, this one goes down as one of the character breaking greats. 10/10, no notes.
7.And the second one — "Another Close Encounter" — where Kate McKinnon used Ryan for a ~demonstration~, and he literally forgot how to function:
8.When Alec Baldwin was genuinely surprised by Paul McCartney making an appearance in this "Platinum Lounge" sketch and went through every emotion in the span of five seconds:
It's Martin Short's face of absolute delight here for me, TBH.
9.Truly any "Debbie Downer" sketch, but the way every single person breaks in "Debbie Downer: Disney World" (bonus points for Horatio Sanz literally hiding his face in a Mickey-shaped waffle) makes it the very best:
10.When Will Ferrell sent Sean Hayes and Jimmy Fallon into hysterics when he pulled out the tiniest flip phone known to man in "Jeffrey's":
11.When Aidy Bryant's wardrobe assistant made the best possible mistake and ran on set too early in "Inside the Beltway," thus making Aidy laugh so hard, she barely made it through the rest of the sketch:
Bonus points for Cecily and Kenan similarly fighting for their lives not to break character, too:
12.When Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig spent a solid 20 seconds trying (and failing) desperately not to laugh when Kristen got a littttle messy in "Hollywood Dish With Scarlett Johansson":
13.When Christina Applegate and David Spade tried their best to hide their laughter in "Matt Foley: Van Down by the River," but Chris Farley was just too damn funny:
14.When Kristen Stewart accidentally dropped an f-bomb in her monologue and Kate McKinnon was positively delighted:
15.When Ego's line readings and over-the-top steak cutting in this "Lisa from Temecula" sketch made every single person at this table — including herself and Pedro Pascal — lose it:
16.When Bill Hader ran into the table and nearly took out Melissa Villaseñor not once, but TWICE in "Girlfriends Game Night":
17.When Will Ferrell's character in the "Dr. Beaman's Office: Test Results" sketch was so funny, it had him hiding a smile behind his hands and made Molly Shannon laugh so hard, she struggled to regain her composure for a hot minute:
Shout out to "Dr. Poop" who made them all start cracking right before this, too!
18.When Brittany Murphy fell victim to a pair of noisy leather pants and couldn't help but laugh during "Leather Man":
19.The forever iconic "Californians" sketch, in which Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and even Fred Armisen were constantly on the verge of breaking:
20.When Larry David gets the giggles in this "New Wife" sketch and ends up whispering his lines, which makes Kate start laughing, too:
21.When Adam Driver tried to hit a fake bird with his cane for ~emphasis~ in "Career Day" and accidentally skewered it instead, making us all crack up just as hard as Pete Davidson was:
22.When Janet Jackson couldn't control her giggle after this line in "Corksoakers:"
23.When Tracy Morgan and Kenan Thompson had every last person in the "Scared Straight: Underage Drinking" sketch fighting for their lives not to break (and, evidently, losing):
24.When Jimmy Fallon was all of us watching Will Ferrell be hilarious in the "More Cowbell" sketch:
25.When Emily Blunt nailed this line delivery a little too well and had to slowly lower this lampshade to hide her giggles:
26.When Kate McKinnon — QUEEN of not breaking character — was taken down by how gosh darn disgusting the basket of meat in the "Weekend Update: Smokery Farms" smelled:
27.When Beck and Kyle's physical comedy in this "Brothers" sketch was so exquisite, it had Aidy making this face the whoooole sketch and had Cecily struggling to say her lines altogether:
28.When the adorable pup in "Dog Court" got a little too wiggly, resulting in a good 30 seconds of Cecily Strong hilariously breaking and getting lots of puppy kisses:
29.When Billie Eilish makes it halfway through this "Hotel Ad" sketch before starting to lose it, only for Kate McKinnon to notice and go even harder:
30.Like, literally every time John Mulaney surprised Bill Hader with new lines when he played Stefon on "Weekend Update," giving us his iconic ~I'm definitely not laughing~ pose:
31.When Leslie Jones was laughing so hard over Jonah Hill's performance in "Benihana" he started laughing, too:
32.When Will Ferrell literally just started improvising in "Space, the Infinite Frontier: Dr. Kent Wahler," leaving Jeff Goldblum deeply but hilariously confused:
33.When Justin Timberlake literally mustered up all his energy to keep himself from losing it in "The Barry Gibb Talk Show: Bee Gees Singers":
34.When Pete Davidson was literally all of us watching Kenan Thompson and John Mulaney in "Diner Lobster," aka he was full out, not-even-trying-to-hide-it laughing when the camera switched over to him:
35.When Kenan Thompson and Pete Davidson simply couldn't take Leslie Jones breastfeeding Dave Chappelle's character in "Football Party":
TBH, Pete's cookie deserves an honorary Emmy for the work it's doing to hide that laugh.
36.When Seann William Scott put up a good fight, but even he wasn't immune to cracking up over Will Ferrell's patriotic look in "Short Shorts for the USA":
37.When Megan Thee Stallion tried her best, but Kenan Thompson fighting off a deer had her giggling all through this "Deer" sketch:
38.When EVERYONE started cracking in this cut-for-time "Gus Chiggins, Old Prospector" sketch because, as usual, of Will Ferrell:
39.When Ryan Gosling couldn't help himself when Aidy Bryant went to pull a gun out of his pants...while dressed like this in "Henrietta":
40.When Kenan Thompson made such a bonkers face in the "So You're Willing to Date a Magician" sketch that Awkwafina and Leslie Jones couldn't get their lines out without laughing:
41.When Tim Robinson made the perfect entrance in "Barnes and Noble Firing," sending Kevin Hart into a fit of laughter that lasted through the end of the sketch:
42.When Fred Armisen improvised this bit with his jacket in "Short Term Memory Loss Theater" just to make Bill break:
43.And finally, this cut-for-time "Cast List" sketch that I recommend you watch twice — once for the actual sketch (which is peak theater kid drama), and a second time to watch each and every cast member fighting for their lives not to laugh (spoiler alert: they all do, more than once):
You can watch SNL's 50th-anniversary celebrations — which include a concert on Friday, 2/14, a re-airing of its first episode on Saturday, 2/15, and a three-hour anniversary special on 2/15 — on NBC and Peacock.