You know what they say about opinions and [CENSORED]. Everyone's got at least one, if not two or more, and Saturday Night Live's cast comes up a lot. (Do not try to guess what's behind the censor bar, for your face would turn to dust.) Case in point: a bunch of SNL fans sounded off with a litany of hot takes about the show and its legacy, and a wi-yuld amount of love, hate and questionable taste is on display.
Over on Reddit, where only the most level-headed posts are celebrated — he says with one slightly arched eyebrow — this question was posed: "What Is Your Unpopular SNL Opinion?" and the comments were immediately plentiful, covering a wide assortment of topics, complaints, compliments, and more. Not every post matched up with the assignment, and there were some common gripes in the mix, but even some of those were fun to parse through.
Let's kick off with a banger about one of Will Ferrell's most famous sketches (and one that his tight sweater may have saved from obscurity):
- "I don’t quite get why cowbell is the biggest sketch of all time."
Shot fired at a sketch that is so bizarrely popular it inspired its own behind-the-scenes docuseries episode, and one that's been impersonated horribly by so many people who are terrible at sounding like Christopher Walken.
With that door now cracked open, let's wade through a few more of these heightened opinions. (I especially agree with the top one.)
- "The cast should never exceed 10 people (7-8 rep players, 1-2 featured players). Part of what made the original cast so special was we got to know them all so well because most of them were in most sketches."
- "Loathe when musical guests have elaborate stage set ups/backdrops/effects. You're playing on the iconic SNL stage. Leave it at that."
- "Probably VERY unpopular here but I think they shouldn’t have done anymore Mulaney musical sketches after Diner Lobster. It just felt like a retread of the same joke and the SNL thing of beating a good idea to the ground with diminishing returns each time.”
- “I enjoy recurring characters, but almost every single one of them is literally the exact same format and joke structure with just a find-and-replace plopped in for the actual content, but it is beat for beat identical to the original.”
- "Gary Kroeger was one of the all time greatest cast members in the history of the show, but has been basically entirely forgotten due to being in the Ebersol era and under the thumb of Murphy and Piscopo."
Maybe it's just my fandom of specific sketch comedy troupes in play here, but I also think that when SNL's cast gets too large and unwieldy, it makes it harder for certain stars to get repeat wins week to week, for the sake of making sure others make it on screen.
I also love the one fan out there holding his Gary Kroeger flag high, and waving that sucker as hard as he possibly can, and in a sentence where Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo carry the same weight. The Internet is zany.
How about a quick rundown of pot shots and hype-ups? Does it help if I say...Pat's name is evoked? Because it is...(Pat).
- "I think there's too many pretapes."
- "The 5 Timers Club sketches should be retired."
- "The original cast isn’t even in the top five funniest casts."
- "It’s Pat still makes me laugh."
- "Bobby Moynihan is under sung."
- "John Belushi was not funny."
- "Mango wasn’t that funny."
- "Sarah Sherman is very overrated, does the same gross out humor every time."
And this one below may be the crown jewel of the bunch, since it's a step up from the above claim about John Belushi:
- "Cowards I'll show you a real hot take. I don't really think Chris Farley is that funny. He just yells."
Humor is subjective is the only real takeaway here, since every post about Kristen Wiig being overrated can be paired with a post about Wiig not getting enough original sketches. When one cast is lauded as being the best, another commenter down the line is holding that cast up as the worst of all time.
Now, to wash the taste of that Chris Farley comment out of our minds, here's a perfectly down-the-middle-and-running take.
- "My hot take is that the show has, at least as long as the thirty years I've been watching it, been mostly the same level of quality. Mostly weak, with spikes of hilarity in every episode and a couple of bangers per season. Every single year, basically without fail."
At a point in pop culture when hot takes are basically the norm, sometimes the lukewarm opinion is the hottest take of all. Confucious probably said that.
Saturday Night Live will return to the 2026 TV schedule when Season 52 premieres on NBC on Saturday, September 26, at 11:30 p.m. ET, and streaming via Peacock subscription. Chloe Fineman was the first cast member to depart ahead of Season 52, and we're still waiting to see what other cast shake-ups will happen in the coming weeks.
