The best ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketches of 2021, ranked

It’s been a transformative 2021 for Saturday Night Live.

The show’s chief punching bag, disgraced former President Donald Trump, was already an election loser and on the way out when the year opened. The insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol, a damaging and distinctly unfunny moment in history, instantly created a tricky environment for a show that hinges much of its humor on current events.

That says nothing of COVID. Throughout 2020, SNL endured the global pandemic in much the same way most of the rest of us did: It did the best it could. At the dawn of 2021, it was clear that total recovery was still a long way off even as hope sprung from the rapid development of multiple viable vaccines.

Then, as Season 47 approached in the fall, Beck Bennett, a critical member of the cast, announced his departure. Kate McKinnon was also a no-show through the season’s opening stretch due to an outside commitment. These shifts created new opportunities for first-time featured players Sarah Sherman, James Austin Johnson, and Aristotle Athari, as well as longtime crowd faves like Pete Davidson.

The result, which spreads across the end of Season 46 and the beginning of Season 47, is a conversation-starting cross-section of modern SNL favorites. 

10. New Military Weapon 

There are two important features in this sketch that cement its place in our top 10: It’s one of SNL‘s live dog moments, with the sketch incorporating a smiling fluffball who’s been enhanced with human arms and hands; and two normally unflappable cast members hilariously break character while Simu Liu, the night’s host, maintains his composure.

We won’t spoil the fun for you here. Suffice to say, the sketch gives us a look at some kind of top secret U.S. military project that is meant to revolutionize the battlefield. Liu is joined by Cecily Strong, Mikey Day, and SNL newcomer James Austin Johnson.

9. Post-Quarantine Conversation 

Think back to the early weeks of 2021. A long-awaited (and depressingly fraught) political changing of the guard was accompanied by the hopeful feeling of a pandemic in retreat as vaccination campaigns started up and distribution began. So too did our long-awaited return to the live-and-in-person social world.

It wasn’t an easy return for everyone. After almost a year of distance from our fellow humans, a lot of us forgot how to be social creatures. SNL picked up on that with this fly-on-the-wall look at a “post-quarantine” dinner party where everyone is fumbling over themselves to catch up, flirt, make small talk, and feign interest. Funny and intensely relatable: A potent mix for any sketch.

8. Parent Teacher Conference 

Former cast member Jason Sudeikis returned to the SNL stage in the fall on the heels of Ted Lasso‘s massive success. So on top of any of this sketch’s inherent comedy — it is truly funny — it’s thoroughly enjoyable to see Sudeikis shatter his wholesome Lasso persona.

Here he’s an affable-enough schoolteacher who’s sitting down for a chat with two parents (Ego Nwodim and Kyle Mooney) about their son’s performance in school. But the going quickly gets unacceptably flirty as Sudeikis and Nwodim start openly vibing with each other, much to Mooney’s dismay and growing alarm. This is one of those sketches where the energy just keeps on escalating until the brilliant finish, when the forbidden flirtations prompt swift, sexy action.

7. Men’s Room 

Leave it to SNL to turn the weird circumstance of peeing inches away from a relative stranger at a men’s room urinal into an amusingly thoughtful rumination on the way people interact with one another. It’s just a bunch of guys loudly joshing each other while they pee and wash their hands, but with regular breakaways into fully voiced internal monologues for each one.

It sounds serious, but it’s fully not. Host Keiran Culkin and surprise guest Tracy Morgan (a former cast member himself) elevate the proceedings with their own brand of comedy, but just about every male player on SNL joins in the fun of smacking themselves with self-recriminations and personal epiphanies.

Weird SNL is often best SNL, and this is nothing if not weird SNL.

6. Sarah Sherman Roasts Colin Jost

This Weekend Update interview segment has it all: A long-overdue spotlight moment for Season 47’s hilarious new featured player, Sarah Sherman; a brutal roast of Colin Jost; and that’s it, actually. That’s all you need: Sherman showing off her chops in a way that cuts the author of A Very Punchable Face down.

She nails it. Sherman’s unhinged energy lands on Weekend Update like an extra potent shot of Red Bull. She repeatedly twists Jost’s words in a way that makes him seem like a monster, and all of us win in the process.

5. Drivers License 

A bunch of guys swilling beer in a dive bar, playing pool, and arguing in a way that is simultaneously good-natured and contentious. Tale as old as time. Nevermind that the night’s subject of debate is teen singer/songwriter sensation Olivia Rodrigo and her hit break-up anthem “Drivers License”.

This incredible sketch about macho guys baring their souls as they debate topics like Rodrigo’s connection to High School Musical and Taylor Swift’s impact on her process is as memorable as the sketch-climaxing radio hit they sing along to. It’s the best kind of social script flip, and just a sweet, good-natured watch for anyone and everyone — with the added bonus of Bridgerton breakout Regé-Jean Page. Even Rodrigo loved it.

4. Goober the Clown on Abortion

Whenever Cecily Strong leaves SNL for good, this is one of the classic moments people will look back on fondly. Strong has always had a knack for putting on a funny accent and playing oddball characters, but in this Weekend Update appearance she plays it mostly straight. Except for all the clown makeup, and the way it’s used to clash with the substance of what she’s saying.

In between Goober’s spinning tie and water-spewing flower antics is a substantive discussion about abortion and the way it’s talked about in U.S. society. It’s not that Goober wants to talk about this; she doesn’t, and she says so herself. “But people keep bringing it up, so I’ve gotta keep talking about freaking abortion,” she says with a smile spread across her face that she visibly doesn’t feel.

Goober’s — or is it Strong’s? — views on access to the procedure and talk about her own history with it contrast sharply with the clownish antics she plays for laughs. This is a thought-provoking work of comedy that’s hilarious, uncomfortable, nuanced, and riveting in all the right ways. It’s not SNL‘s funniest sketch of the year, but it may be the show’s most important. 

3. The Iceberg on the Sinking of the Titanic

The weird, off-the-wall comedic genius of Bowen Yang has elevated SNL since he joined the cast of featured players in 2019 after a year in the writer’s room. Whenever Yang shows up, you’re guaranteed to have a good time. And in this Weekend Update interview segment, Yang shows up.

It’s a sight gag at first. There’s Yang, sitting in the interview chair decked out in a white suit over a sky blue turtleneck, with white makeup and blue lipstick smeared on his face and an elaborate, iceberg-shaped hat perched atop his head. He’s playing the character of the iceberg that sunk the Titanic, and he’s visited Weekend Update to talk about his new EDM album.

That’s not how things go, of course. The iceberg’s notoriety is inescapable, and when the conversation turns to the subject of the Titanic — “the sinking,” as he calls it — the iceberg isn’t having it. He’s tired of re-litigating this deadly mistake from his past. So when Jost presses him, the iceberg breaks down and unloads. Yang-enriched comedy at its finest.

2. Man Park 

Look, almost two years of pandemic-induced near-isolation has been hard on everyone, and in different ways. For the cishet, basic tastes-inclined couples of the world in particular, it’s been a lot of women listening to guys ramble on about all the bullshit we tend to care about. Man Park is SNL‘s answer to that dreary existence.

This mock ad highlights a new outdoor social destination where endlessly patient women can bring their pent-up partners for organized socializing among fellow men. It’s a place where every visitor knows that a questioning utterance of “Marvel?” will always be responded to with one or more excited “Marvel!” exclamations. 

It’s outlandish. It’s  implausible.. It’s… not entirely off base that guys act like this. No one’s saying women can’t like Marvel, sports, all these other things too. But Man Park is funny because there’s an inescapable ring of truth to it.

1. Squid Game / NFTs

A round of applause for Pete Davidson, please. The SNL favorite has come so far since his earlier struggles, and has now reached a point where his every appearance is cause for celebration. That’s especially true when Pete is doing a song.

“Squid Game” is a standout, turning the Netflix sensation into an earworm of a country number that somehow spoils the entire show while parodying it. But it wasn’t alone in 2021. “NFTs”, a Yankovic-ian re-do of Eminem’s “Without You” is pure madness. The music video ropes together references to The Matrix, The Beatles, Family Guy, and assorted memes with a schoolroom lesson on economics from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen (Kate McKinnon) and a detailed explanation of NFTs from rapper Jack Harlow.

Those two are our favorites, but definitely don’t skip Pete’s duet with Taylor Swift in “Three Sad Virgins”. The musical collaboration with viral sketch creators Please Don’t Destroy overcomes a questionable premise with laugh-worthy comedy, an inexplicable Dune reference, and, of course, Swift herself.

Honorable Mention: Please Don’t Destroy

Speaking of Please Don’t Destroy, let’s take a moment to give it up for some of the young and fresh minds fueling SNL comedy these days. 

The comedy trio featuring Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Michael Herlihy has been quietly dishing out SNL Digital Shorts since Season 47’s October kickoff. As great as “Three Sad Virgins” is, it’s also a collaboration and not entirely representative of what these guys are known for.

The trio made waves online earlier in 2021 when they discovered a new “Hot Young Actor Boy” in a self-made sketch that quickly went viral (and likely played a role in winning them the SNL gig). They’ve been dishing out big laughs all season long in searing SNL one-offs, such as the one above highlighting Rami Malek’s petulant dark side.

Keep watching these guys. None of their shorts quite made the cut in our extremely scientific “best of” selection process. But they’re talented and funny young men who have already, in the space of just a few months, left a mark on one of TV’s most celebrated comedy shows of all time.