There have been 150-plus “Saturday Night Live” cast members during the 50 years that the iconic sketch-comedy show has been on the air, some of them lasting for less than a single season, others sticking around for a decade or more. Since its inception, “SNL” has been a reliable launching pad for successful comedy careers, and many former “SNL” cast members have gone on to become major movie stars.
While there have been a number of movies based specifically on sketches and characters from “SNL,” the show’s alumni have mostly done well by coming up with new creations, including some long-running cornerstones of pop culture. To celebrate "SNL" season 50, here are seven of the best comedy movies from some of the most remarkable talents in the long and lively history of “SNL.”
‘Wayne’s World’
The best movie based on an “SNL” sketch succeeds by expanding its scope, giving its cartoonish characters recognizable personalities and motivations. Mike Myers and Dana Carvey reprise their “SNL” roles as suburban Illinois slacker metalheads Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar, who host a weekly public-access TV show from Wayne’s basement. The movie takes them out of the basement when a sleazy TV producer (Rob Lowe) offers to bring their show to a wider audience.
Director Penelope Spheeris balances the sketch-like structure of the story with a surprisingly sweet central romance between Wayne and musician Cassandra Wong (Tia Carrere) and an even sweeter bond between best friends Wayne and Garth. Myers and Carvey are hilarious as the exuberant duo, whether enthusiastically headbanging to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” or making juvenile jokes about their show’s unwitting sponsor.
‘Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy’
Will Ferrell’s post-“SNL” career is full of characters who would easily be at home in “SNL” sketches, perhaps none more so than pompous TV news anchor Ron Burgundy. Set in San Diego in the 1970s, “Anchorman” stars Ferrell as the proudly out-of-touch newsman who is horrified by the prospect of working alongside female anchor Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate). The movie mocks the era’s rampant sexism while also making Ron and his male chauvinist colleagues weirdly endearing.
Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and “SNL” alum David Koechner play Ron’s boneheaded fellow broadcasters, and the movie is full of “SNL” players in small roles. “Anchorman” is an absurdist comedy that has spawned dozens of internet memes and holds up remarkably well to repeat viewings. It’s easy to see why Ron remains one of Ferrell’s most enduring characters.
Watch on Paramount Plus
‘Coming to America’
Eddie Murphy was a bright spot during one of the low points in the history of “SNL,” and this good-natured comedy shows off his range as he plays multiple roles. Murphy stars as Akeem Joffer, the prince of a fictional African nation, who rejects the arranged marriage his parents have planned for him and travels to New York City, determined to find a woman who will love him for who he is, not for his royal status.
That leads to lots of gentle fish-out-of-water comedy, as the pampered Akeem and his loyal assistant Semmi (Arsenio Hall, also playing multiple roles) must adjust to their undercover working-class life. “Coming to America” is one of Eddie Murphy's best movies because it is heartwarming without becoming cloying, always opting for common ground rather than mean-spirited humor, and Murphy’s charm makes it all work.
Watch on Paramount Plus
‘Bridesmaids’
Kristen Wiig was nominated for an Oscar for co-writing this ode to female friendship, but it’s far from prestigious awards bait. It’s a raunchy comedy about an insecure woman (Wiig) whose life spirals out of control after she finds out that her best friend (Maya Rudolph) is getting married. Wiig and Rudolph were both “SNL” standouts, and they have excellent chemistry as longtime friends navigating a major life change.
They’re also often overshadowed by Melissa McCarthy in her breakout performance as the bride’s overzealous future sister-in-law, but “Bridesmaids” is a true ensemble piece, giving each main cast member their moment to shine. Wiig and co-writer Annie Mumolo come up with some outrageous comedic set pieces, and director Paul Feig stages them with perfect comic timing.
‘Ghostbusters’
Early “SNL” stars Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray team up for this 1980s classic, which has led to an ongoing franchise. The original movie is still the best, though, a goofy supernatural comedy starring Aykroyd, Murray and Harold Ramis as three disgraced college professors who turn their interest in the paranormal into a business ridding New York City of its ghost infestation. Ernie Hudson plays the fourth member of the team, with Sigourney Weaver as a client/love interest and Annie Potts as the Ghostbusters’ secretary.
Director Ivan Reitman effectively combines large-scale action and special effects with the stars’ offbeat sense of humor, never sacrificing laughs for scares. “Ghostbusters” is a thrilling blockbuster spectacle that’s also consistently funny, a tone that its various follow-ups have never quite been able to recreate.
Watch on Starz
‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation’
Chevy Chase has a fraught relationship with “SNL,” even while participating in retrospectives and reunions, but he’s also the first “SNL” player to go on to a successful movie career, most notably in the “Vacation” series. The third “Vacation” movie finds Chase’s Clark Griswold and his family staying home for the holidays, visited by various family members including Eddie (Randy Quaid), the uncouth cousin of Clark’s wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo).
Chase’s gift for physical comedy is on full display in “Christmas Vacation,” which puts Clark through a variety of humiliating situations as he desperately tries to give his family the perfect Christmas. Quaid, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (as Clark’s snooty neighbor) and Brian Doyle-Murray (as Clark’s insensitive boss) all had brief stints on “SNL” as well, and “Christmas Vacation” mixes manic, sometimes naughty humor with nostalgic family togetherness.
‘Palm Springs’
Andy Samberg found his post-“SNL” groove playing lovable doofuses, which is exactly what he does in this ingenious time-loop rom-com. Samberg and Cristin Milioti play two disaffected guests at a destination wedding in Palm Springs, California, who find themselves repeating the same day over and over again. Samberg’s Nyles gets stuck in the loop before inadvertently drawing in Milioti’s Sarah, and the two of them make a connection while forced to constantly relive Sarah’s sister’s wedding day.
“Palm Springs” is a witty comedy, a clever sci-fi story, and a winning romance, with Samberg and Milioti perfectly cast as the central opposites-attract couple. Director Max Barbakow and screenwriter Andy Siara equally embrace and subvert the conventions of the time-loop movie, leaving the audience guessing about the outcome of both the central love story and the cosmic conundrum.
Watch on Hulu
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