One of the longest running sketch formats used on Saturday Night Live has been the game show. At their very basic, they can serve as an effective joke machine (see virtually every variation of Jeopardy the show has ever done) but can be expanded to address a number of other, often out-of—left field topics that seem absolutely unsuitable for a game show. Here are a number of the best sketches that show has put up in the genre.
Jeopardy 1999!
Jeopardy has been one of the longest running game shows on television, and Jeopardy parodies have been a long running tradition on Saturday Night Live for almost just as long. The first in this long line of riffs on the iconic game show came early in Saturday Night Live‘s second season, with host Steve Martin asking contestants about things that are history to them in the far future year of 1999. The “futuristic” costumes everyone is wearing appear to be the from the show’s iconic first season Star Trek sketch with the USS Enterprise delta logo removed. (Fun fact: The answer Dan Aykroyd gives about the first Tidy Bowl commercial actor being “Fred Miltonberg” is actually correct.)
Stand Up And Win
What’s the deal with this sketch? Season 17 host Jerry Seinfeld spoofs his own image as a stand-up comic with this game show that features Dana Carvey, Rob Schneider and Adam Sandler as observational comics who deliver punchlines to hacky joke setups like “What is the deal with Count Chocula?” in such categories as “Chicken McNuggets” and “7-11 Employees.” Perhaps an even stronger dissection of this particular genre of stand-up comedy than even the iconic “Stand-Up Comics” from season 11 featuring host Tom Hanks and cast members Damon Wayens and John Lovitz.
Celebrity Jeopardy
Perhaps one of the greatest pairings of celebrity impersonations in all of SNL history is that of Darrell Hammond’s Sean Connery as a contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy as hosted by Will Ferrell’s Alex Trebeck. An insane contest of wills – Trebek’s desire to keep the game moving along despite the terrible answers from all three contestants and Connery’s desire to derail the show. Its impressive work, given that Norm Macdonald’s appearances as Burt Reynolds, I mean Turd Ferguson, almost steal the show.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
In 2000, the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? was a pop culture sensation, so it was natural that SNL would do some sort of parody. What’s great about this sketch, besides Darrell Hammond’s spot on Regis Philbin impression, is that it knows its a one-joke premise, it tells that joke and then it wraps everything up all in one neat two minute and thirty second package.
What’s That Name?
Paul Rudd and Vanessa Bauer are successful careerists who are confronted with their own self-absorption in this season 36 outing. Not only does this piece sarcastically skewer class divide, it also is the first appearance of Bill Hader’s game show host, Vince Blight. There will be two more variations of this sketch featuring Hader’s character before he spins off and hosts a number of other game shows that allow him to slowly torture his contestants. (See below.)
What’s Wrong With Tanya?
This season 37 sketch is not so much as a spoof of any particular game show but an attack on the tropes commonly seen in Lifetime cable channel’s original films wrapped inside a gameshow format. Anna Faris, Vanessa Bauer and Kristen Wiig are the nearly identically dressed and coifed contestants trying to find out… well, what is wrong with Tanya. Another in a long line of Bill Hader’s appearances as game show host Vince Blight giving just the right balance of congenial compere and underlying menace.
Dylan McDermott Or Dermot Mulroney?
A very writerly sketch that hinges on the confusion in trying to identify the two romantic comedy actors, featuring escalation ripped from their actual filmographies. Bonus points for Dermot Mulroney (or is it Dylan McDermott) for going along with the joke and cameoing at the end.
What Have You Become?
Host Christoph Waltz is the star of a game show that forces its three contestants – Kenan Thompson, Bill Hader and Aidy Bryant – to take a hard look at the path in life they have taken and to ask themselves one very difficult question. It is also nice switchup to see Hader at the receiving end of a game show host’s barbs instead being the one dishing them out.
Meet Your Second Wife
Returning cast members/that week’s co-guest hots Tina Fey and Amy Poehler take great glee in subjecting three “happily married men” and their wives to a glimpse of their future in what is one of the most biting sketches SNL has ever done. The horrified reactions from Bobby Moynihan, Taran Killam and Kenan Thompson are all great, but Killam’s embarrassed “Ooooh nooooooooooo!” is an all time line reading. There was some controversy over the way the sketch escalated through the three future wives, but the darker it got, the funnier it got.
Black Jeopardy
Perhaps the high point of the six (not counting the 50th Anniversary Special rendition) Black Jeopardy sketches, Tom Hanks plays a Trump-supporter who heard he could win some money on the show and is there to do just that. Despite the initial misgivings from host Darnell Hayes (Kenan Thompson) and contestants Sasheer Zamata and Leslie Jones, they soon discover that they and Doug have a lot in common.
