During Sunday’s “SNL50,” Tom Hanks deadpanned the opening of what seemed to be an in memoriam segment, but instead of tributes to past cast members, it played tribute to comedy that didn’t age well and wouldn’t play well today.
“As we celebrate the achievements of the past 50 years, we must also take a moment to honor those who we’ve lost,” Hanks began. “Countless members of the ‘SNL’ family taken from us too soon. I’m talking of course about ‘SNL’ characters and sketches that have aged horribly. But even though these characters, accents and … let’s just call them ‘ethnic’ wigs were unquestionably in poor taste, you all laughed at them. So if anyone should be canceled, shouldn’t it be you, the audience? Something to think about. Anyway, we now present to you this in memoriam.”
The segment was split until numerous subsections for the clips, including:
Ethnic stereotypes
Sexual harassment
Underage sexual harassment
Woah (Adrien Brody‘s notorious fake dreadlocks)
Yikes (Mike Myers in a tub with Macaulay Culkin)
Didn’t air as long ago as you think
Animal cruelty (Will Ferrell shaming a dog in a classic commercial parody)
Body shaming (Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze’s classic Chippendales sketch)
Slut shaming (the iconic “Jane, you ignorant slut!” line)
Gay panic
Maybe this is OK? Not sure
Ableism
Sexism
Child molestation
A montage of questionable makeup
Problematic guests (including O. J. Simpson, Robert Blake, R. Kelly and Diddy)
Racial slurs
The three-hour plus “SNL50” was filled with scores of celebrities, classic sketches and musical performances.
Watch the segment below:
In Memoriam #SNL50 pic.twitter.com/8aUmE6nHgy
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) February 17, 2025
From Variety US