Everyone has a favorite Saturday Night Live bit, from the Jaws parody featuring a “Land Shark,” to “Schweddy Balls,” or even the Adam Driver Undercover Boss sketch in which he pokes fun at both his Star Wars character and the long-running reality show. While you could watch the entire episodes these segments come from with a Peacock subscription, you can also find them on SNL’s YouTube channel.
However, most of the more popular videos on the official Saturday Night Live channel have only come out within the last decade, which is easy to understand for numerous potential reasons – recency bias being one of them. They’re also pretty damn funny. So, which modern favorites have proven to be the most popular? The following is a list of the Top 10 most-watched sketches on the official SNL YouTube channel.
10. Sean Spicer Press Conference (2017) - 41 Million Views
During its 42nd season, fans were pleasantly shocked to see Melissa McCarthy introduced as SNL’s resident Sean Spicer. The Oscar nominee portrayed the then White House press secretary as a fed-up loudmouth ready to wage war on the press by dodging questions with unhelpful visual aids, putting CNN in a “time out,” and almost swallowing a whole pack of Ice Breakers Ice Cubes for some reason. Even on an episode when host Kristen Stewart was caught dropping an F-bomb during the monologue, this sketch proved to be the most hilariously outrageous and controversial that night.
9. New Disney Movie (2015) - 43 Million Views
Sometimes, a fake movie trailer on SNL, while funny, leads to disappointment. Exhibit A: this parodic promo in which host Dwayne Johnson stars as the title character of Bambi, reimagined as a Fast and Furious-style action thriller also starring Vin Diesel (Taran Killam) as Thumper. Just why is this disappointing? Because this is exactly what Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of Bambi should be, yet there is very little chance of it being this badass.
8. Celebrity Jeopardy! Kathie Lee, Tom Hanks, Sean Connery, Burt Reynolds (2009) - 46 Million Views
When Will Ferrell returned to host the show that made him a star for the second time in Season 34, he reprised his role as Alex Trebek for SNL’s “Celebrity Jeopardy!” As usual, his version of the beloved game show host would be subjected to much frustration when dealing with contestants Kathie Lee Gifford (Kristen Wiig), Tom Hanks as a hopelessly infantile version of himself, and Trebek’s archenemy, Sean Connery (Darrell Hammond in, arguably, his single funniest SNL sketch). Also featuring a brief cameo by the late Norm Macdonald as Burt “Turd Ferguson” Reynolds, this truly star-studded edition of one of Ferrell’s most memorable recurring SNL sketches is also one of its all-time funniest.
7. SNL40: Celebrity Jeopardy (2015) - 46 Million Views
A more recent time when Ferrell dusted off the old mustache for some more “Celebrity Jeopardy!” was during Saturday Night Live’s 40th Anniversary celebration. What starts off a decidedly normal match between Tony Bennet (Alec Baldwin), Justin Bieber (Kate McKinnon), and returning mischief maker Sean Connery (Hammond, again) quickly spins more out of control than ever when Burt “Turd Ferguson” Reynolds (Macdonald, again), Christoph Waltz (Taran Killam), and Matthew McConaughey (Jim Carrey) show up uninvited.
6. Close Encounter (2015) - 62 Million Views
Even longtime Saturday Night Live cast members will be the first to admit that some of the show’s funniest moments involve performers breaking character on air, such as this segment from a December 2014 episode which is regarded as Kate McKinnon’s all-time best sketch by us. First-time host Ryan Gosling could not stop laughing while listening to McKinnon’s character, Colleen Rafferty – who became a recurring staple – recall to the NSA her encounter with a UFO, which proves to have been a far less pleasant experience than his or Cecily Strong’s tranquil abductions.
5. Undercover Boss: Starkiller Base (2016) - 67 Million Views
For his first Saturday Night Live hosting gig, Academy Award nominee Adam Driver took the liberty of shamelessly poking fun at his character from the Star Wars movies, Kylo Ren, in a sketch framed as an episode of Undercover Boss. The moody First Order commander covertly observes what life is like for his subordinates aboard the Starkiller Base by not-so-convincingly disguising himself as a blonde, timid radar technician.
4. Spider-Man Kiss (2014) - 73 million views
The Amazing Spider-Man films were, at least, blessed by a Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy with great romantic chemistry, given that they were played by then real-life couple, Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. However, this Saturday Night Live sketch imagines that host Garfield and visiting all-time great SNL host Stone (both appearing as themselves) had an unusually difficult time capturing how normal couples kiss on set of the 2014 sequel, which is not exactly considered one of the best Spider-Man movies, by most. At least we can associate it with this hilariously cringe-worthy bit that ends with a killer cameo by a musician who comes in to help them finish the scene.
3. Harry Potter: Hermione Growth Spurt (2004) - 76 Million Views
This 2004 sketch sees Harry Potter (Rachel Dratch) and Ron Weasley (Seth Myers) reunite at Hogwarts with Hermione Granger (then 17-year-old Lindsay Lohan in her hosting debut), whom they cannot help but notice has changed quite a bit over the summer. While being the oldest out of the 10 most-watched clips on Saturday Night Live’s YouTube page, it likely remains such a hit because it sends up the enduringly popular Harry Potter movies and features an A-lister like Lohan.
2. Black Jeopardy With Tom Hanks (2016) - 83 Million Views
Without Ferrell's Alex Trebek, SNL’s most successful recurring game show sketch as of late is Black Jeopardy!, hosted by Kenan Thompson’s Darnell Hayes. While the show is predominantly structured to appeal to Black culture, the segment’s most popular edition sees the program finding a new champion in Doug: a MAGA hat-wearing, white elder played by the nearly unrecognizable host, Tom Hanks. That same night also saw the debut of another one of Hanks’ most iconic SNL characters, David S. Pumpkins, but his segment, surprisingly, does not have as many YouTube hits as this politically charged gut buster.
1. Porn Teacher (2015) - 105 million views
The current record-holder for the most-watched Saturday Night Live clip on YouTube with more than 100 million views is this sketch framed as a cheaply produced adult video called Hot for Teacher 8. In it, high school instructor Ms. Dayworth (host Amy Schumer) is about to give her “bad boy” student, Ricky (Kyle Mooney, star of plenty more great sketches), an after-school “oral exam” but find themselves repeatedly interrupted by a student (played by Aidy Bryant) who just wants help to earn a better grade. Bryant’s character does not seem bright enough to pick up on the scandalous activity unfolding right in front of her but, in her defense, Schumer’s character does not seem to realize she is supposed to be a teacher, either.
Now that SNL Season 50 is in progress, the Top 10 most popular clips could change. Until then, why do you think these particular Saturday Night Live sketches have such a huge following online?
