The Best And Worst Sketches Of SNL's 47th Season

Will Forte carved out a niche on "Saturday Night Live" in the early 2000s as the star and writer of oddball sketches about strange or unlikeable people. Perpetual political candidate Tim Calhoun, "The Falconer," and "MacGruber" are all some of his more famous characters. Forte returned to "SNL" in December of 2021 as a host and unveiled a brand-new, totally unpredictable character in the sketch "Kid Klash." 

At the sketch's outset, the oversized food-themed props and bright colors suggest a parody of an '80s or '90s kids game show, à la "Double Dare." "Kid Clash" delivers, featuring Forte as a suit-and-sneakers wearing host who's far more sadistic and anti-kid than Marc Summers ever was. He challenges a child (Aidy Bryant) to an obstacle course, but she can't get through even the first task — finding a flag in a giant cream pie — because the flag is ridiculously tiny and the same color as the cream. The timer runs out, and the child loses out on the prize (a single pizza she can keep "for life"), but the host tells her she still has to complete the task before she can go. Her tut-tutting parents agree, viewing it as a learning experience because she "never sees anything through." It's an absurd twist on an otherwise ordinary parody, and Forte and Bryant are both hilarious.

"Word Crunch," part of the 2022 "SNL" episode hosted by Zoe Kravitz, shows that "Saturday Night Live" is still more than capable of mining five minutes of hilarious material out of little more than a couple of semi-dirty words. It's Kravitz's full-on dedication and utter indignation as a dumb and libertine game show contestant that makes "Word Crunch" such an effective sketch. In this game show parody, run by an increasingly frustrated host (Andrew Dismukes), contestants earn points by spotting words in a large jumble of letters, like in a word search or Boggle. 

Kravitz's character can seemingly only spot the word "momhole," which, well, isn't really a word. She doubles down, though, calling out the word over and over and refusing to understand why she can't get points for it. She only lets up for the final puzzle, where she spots a number of similarly juvenile and anatomical words.

There's a lot of comedy to be mined from the difficulty grown men have making friends with other grown men, as the "SNL" sketch "Man Park" demonstrates. Where do guys meet other guys if they don't have school, social hobbies, or a job that includes human contact? How will they be able to talk about "man stuff" like sports and Vin Diesel with one another without burdening their girlfriends and wives? According to this pre-taped "Saturday Night Live" sketch from the 2021 Jonathan Majors-hosted episode, dudes can befriend other dudes the same way that dogs shut up in the house all day do: By going to the park. 

"Man Park" is about a dog park, but for guys. The sketch suggests that men and pooches are not all that different, as they scope each other out, sniff one another, and bark fragments of banal conservation to gauge interest ("Rise and grind," "Marvel," etc.). While bonding over group singalongs of "Mr. Brightside" and drinking IPAs, the men in the sketch hilariously show that intimate male friendships don't have to be hard — all you need is a trip to the park.

Stand-up comedian and former "SNL" writer John Mulaney joined the illustrious Five-Timers Club when he hosted in February of 2022 — an episode that includes one of the most audacious bits of controlled chaos and delightful silliness in the show's history. "Monkey Trial," later revealed to be a daytime courtroom show called "Monkey Judge," stars Mulaney as a no-nonsense jurist who also happens to be a talking monkey. 

He acts in all the ways one would expect a monkey to behave, and as Judge Tango, Mulaney explains all of his disgusting and wild animal behavior in a blunt, matter-of-fact style. "The court recognizes the shape he normally associates with treats," he says to the defense attorney (Cecily Strong) as she deftly tries to manipulate Tango with a birthday cake. The Judge then places the cake on his pile of shredded newspaper after admonishing the plaintiff — who's suing a neighbor over a monkey attack — for wearing the wrong hat. It's a bizarre but hilarious sketch with great performances from all involved.

"Aidy's Dream" is a high-wire act of self-aware writing and purposely over-the-top acting — part live, in-studio sketch and part taped segment. Veteran cast member Aidy Bryant lays out the premise from a dressing room, explaining that after portraying teachers, moms, and middle-aged women 150 times on "SNL," the producers finally decided to let her play a younger, less inhibited bombshell type. For Bryant, that takes the form of a seductive 1940s-style femme fatale with whom handsome guest host Oscar Isaac is hopelessly, overwhelmingly, unabashedly in love. 

Amidst clunky, starry-eyed romantic come-ons, Bryant pops in to explain that beforehand she lied to Isaac and claimed that her character is a popular recurring one called "The Sexual Woman." This forces her to make up a very crude catchphrase on the spot and explain why the cue cards have Isaac's character using his real name. It all works out as a bit of giddy, ridiculous, self-assured meta-comedy that allows Bryant to play a rare romantic lead while also commenting on typecasting traps.

"Dream Home Cousins" is an obvious parody of HGTV-style home renovation shows, complete with two host characters clearly spoofing the Property Brothers, but it pivots quickly. The sketch rushes right past the viewer's expectation and becomes an intricately-produced, special effects-laden, puppetry-heavy vehicle for Kate McKinnon's Bea, a vindictive and truly strange elderly woman with a seething hatred for her daughter-in-law. 

The Dream Home Cousins (Mikey Day and host Jake Gyllenhaal) keep pulling the rug out from under the poor young woman in question (Heidi Gardner). She knows exactly what she wants her house to look and feel like, but her plans keep getting ruined by Bea, the proud owner of a twenty-something cat named Charles-David (played by a puppet) who requires many expensive and space-consuming machines to stay alive. Bea hates her daughter-in-law, whom she derisively calls "Skinny Minnie," and she makes a number of absurd demands of the Dream Home Cousins, like getting rid of all bathroom windows to keep out perverts who want to watch her "make dirt." McKinnon is her usual hilarious self, and the absurdity of the scenario only grows as the jokes keep coming.

Chain mattress stores exist so that people can test out an expensive mattress before they plunk down the cash — to make sure that it's not too hard or too soft. But it's not like a test drive of a car. You can't really get a realistic feel for a bed — the location for any number of intimate activities — in the middle of some showroom while it's completely unadorned. The idea of really testing out a mattress is taken to both logical and absurd heights in "Mattress Store," a sketch from a 2021 "Saturday Night Live" episode hosted by Rami Malek. 

Aidy Bryant and Malek play a couple on the hunt for a new mattress. While testing the firmness, they run through a number of bed scenarios, all of which play like scenes from an overwrought stage play about a marriage on the decline. For example, the husband sneaks into bed late at night and awakens his wife, who declares that he reeks of alcohol and women. There's a post-dinner party confrontation, a rejection of marital intimacy, and an instance of being awakened in the middle of the night by an intruder and shooting him with a gun. It's all pulled off to great effect by Malek and Bryant, who find the hilarity in the melodrama.