SNL50 marked a major moment for NBC’s landmark sketch comedy series, as it brought together actors from various eras of the show together for one night. I personally had a great time seeing so many familiar faces, including Bobby Moynihan. While Moynihan only returned briefly, he certainly made the most of his time on screen. His return to the series was quite funny but, for the star himself, it sounds like it was nerve-wracking due to the presence of series creator Lorne Michaels, Meryl Streep and more.
Moynihan appeared on Weekend Update during the anniversary, reprising his role as Drunk Uncle and mixing it up with the likes of Colin Jost and Cecily Strong. The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins co-star opened up about the experience during his recent appearance on the NCIS: Partners and Probies podcast. As seen in an Instagram clip, Moynihan recalled his nerves being elevated amid the TV special (which is streamable with a Peacock subscription) due to the presence of such A-listers, and his story is stressing me out:
Lorne [Michaels] was sitting in the audience, which I’ve never seen Lorne during a show. You know what I mean? He’s in the bleachers. You don’t look at him. He was right next to the cue cards. And then Meryl Streep and all these people [are there], and I was just like…. If you watch it, I grabbed [Colin] Jost, and I ripped his jacket. I ripped all the buttons off his jacket. He goes, ‘You ripped my buttons.’ Because I was in a different place. It was ten years of like, ‘Oh man, I hope I get to go back! And it all came out in two minutes. That was an insane experience.
I can certainly understand how that would be such an “insane” experience, and it’s wild to think that the Saturday Night Live’s creator and Streep were only a few of the A-listers present. Believe it or not, Andy Samberg previously spoke about the experience being “stressful” due to the uncertainty of whether he’d be in the special and the presence of so many stars among other factors. Veteran cast member Pete Davidson also admitted to the audience being “terrible” because it was full of famous people.
So Bobby Moynihan apparently wasn’t the only SNL alum feeling the pressure that night at Studio 8H. Moynihan joined the show in 2008 and, before he left the cast in 2017, he became a true fan favorite. As the Star Wars Resistance alum shared on the podcast, he’d returned to the show ahead of his appearance in the special in 2025, yet he still understood the gravity of the moment:
I had gone back, and I did a David Pumpkins thing with Tom Hanks, and that was pretty amazing. But that 50th was…. I feel like that show healed a lot of people that night and let a lot of people let things go. And some people had a wonderful experience with it. SNL’s hard. It’s a really hard show to do.
Not everything was “healed” after that evening, though, as OG cast member Chevy Chase still had beef with the creative team for not featuring him in some way. Chase’s lack of screen time was even mentioned by podcast co-host Brian Dietzen during the podcast interview. For Moynihan, he just feels grateful to have been involved at all:
It wasn’t lost on me. I, for two weeks, just kind of moped around and sat in silence and went, ‘I can't believe that I had two solid minutes during the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live.
I’m also grateful Bobby Moynihan received that call and that he was able to power through with so many major celebrities watching him. Let’s hope he returns to the show again at some point but, in the meantime, stream his best performances using a Peacock subscription. And look forward to Saturday Night Live’s Season 52 premiere, which hits NBC on September 26 amid the 2026 TV schedule.
