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You may not always be able to sing them at work in full voice, but over the past half century Saturday Night Live has given us some of the most hilarious, surprisingly tuneful (and often NSFW) musical shorts and original comedy tunes in TV history.
From second season cast member Bill Murray’s smarmy Nick the Lounge Singer’s groovy original Star Wars theme song to Eddie Murphy’s dead-on impersonation of soul legend James Brown and Adam Sandler’s seasonal classic “Hanukkah Song” and howling Opera Man bits, the sketches work because — as former cast member Maya Rudolph said in one of the recent anniversary specials — “when you can really sing, that’s when you’re the funniest.”
Plus, when you really, really love the music you’re spoofing, it shows, as in the legendary “More Cowbell” sketch and, of course, Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg’s ribbon-rung new jack surprise, “D–k in a Box.” Whether they’re parody songs, topical tunes or just left-field jams about crypto currency or airport sushi, the show has always found a way to balance earworm singability with LOL lyrics.
In the recent Questlove-directed Ladies & Gentleman… 50 Years of SNL Music primetime special, Rudolph — an accomplished vocalist herself, and daughter of legendary soul singer Minnie Riperton — explained that Murphy’s eerily spot-on version of Stevie Wonder was so perfectly funny, “not because he’s dressed as Stevie Wonder… it’s funny because he’s pulling off the musicality of Stevie Wonder.”
Parody songs and original musical bits have been a part of the show’s fabric since the Not-Ready-For-Primetime-Players debuted on Oct. 11, 1975 with a cast including future legends Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Gilda Radner and others. But the volume, quality and virality of the show’s for-laughs songs have rocketed to new heights over the past 20 years thanks to a string of stone cold killer tunes from the Samberg-led writing/producing trio The Lonely Island.
Their roster of must-pass-around bits are among the modern era’s most beloved, including such chart-worthy ditties as “Lazy Sunday” — the first SNL digital short to blow up on a then-nascent YouTube — to “Motherlover,” “Jizz in My Pants,” “I’m on a Boat” and “I Just Had Sex.”
The trio’s golden ear for musical comedy gold has continued to keep SNL buzzing in our ears as recent casts have added in such modern marvels as “Murder Show,” “Yolo” and “This is Not a Feminist Song,” as well as former writer and frequent guest host John Mulaney’s bonkers off-Broadway-worthy musical extravaganzas. And if you missed A Complete Unknown star Timothée Chalamet’s 2020 ode to his favorite miniature mount, “Tiny Horse,” the first time — saddle up, it’s a whole ride.
Though the list of our favorites is way longer — and you won’t find any of Belushi’s iconic Blues Brothers bits here, because they featured covers of classic blues songs, not originals — here are our 50 favorite SNL original songs/musical shorts ever, as we prepare for the all-star prime-time SNL 50 special on NBC airing this Sunday (Feb. 16).
“Hotline Bling Parody”
BLACKPINK‘s LISA can’t wait for everyone to see her acting debut in the hit HBO series The White Lotus when the third season of the show debuts on Sunday (Feb. 16). The K-pop superstar spoke to Variety about her acting debut and she said that although she had a great time with her cast mates during the shoot in Thailand, it wasn’t a total cakewalk.
“I don’t know what to feel right now. I’m just so excited. I can’t wait for all of you guys to watch this show,” Lisa said at Monday’s (Feb. 10) season 3 premiere at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. “It is my first acting [experience] so I don’t know what to expect on set, but everybody just being so supportive helped me a lot. So thank you, everyone.”
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The upcoming season chronicling another group of pampered vacationers over the course of a tumultuous week will focus on a wealthy businessman and his family, three longtime friends who haven’t hung out in a while and a rough-edged man and his girlfriend will feature newbie Lisa (credited with her full name, Lalisa Manobal) sharing the screen with a number of A-listers, including: Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, Michelle Monoghan, Parker Posey and returning star Natasha Rothwell.
While Lisa was excited to join bandmates Jennie (The Idol) and Jisoo (The Producers) with her TV acting debut, things did not get off to a great start in her first scene. When director/show creator Mike White yelled “action,” Lisa said she instantly froze up. “I’m so nervous. I was sweating,” she said of her role as resort employee Mook. “I was like, ‘I can’t remember my lines.’ I’m blanked.”
The singer made good use of her time on set to product test her solo songs though, playing them for her cast mates, including her solo hit “Rockstar” before it was officially released. “We’re just sharing what we do. All of them are so supportive,” Lisa said. She recently dropped the new single “Born Again” featuring Doja Cat and RAYE, the four song from her upcoming debut solo album, Alter Ego, which is due out on Feb. 28.
Last week, BLACKPINK teased a 2025 world tour, with dates and venues not yet announced.
As for whether she’ll dip back into acting after her first experience, LISA said she doesn’t have another acting gig set up right now. But when asked what kind of movie she’d like to act in, Lisa thought playing a “badass” in an action movie might work. “Oh yeah,” she said. ” I think so.”
Season 3 of The White Lotus will debut on HBO and stream on Max beginning Sunday (Feb. 16) at 9 p.m. ET, with new episodes dropping weekly.
Brian Austin Green is not typically one to speak his mind about ex-wife Megan Fox’s business. But the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum told People magazine that his recent call-out of Fox’s ex-fiancé, Machine Gun Kelly, was born of frustration. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “That’s not something […]
Megan Thee Stallion and “Gangnam Style” superstar PSY are teaming up for a new Apple TV+ reality music competition series called KPOPPED. According to a release announcing the eight-episode song battle show, each episode will feature “western icons reimagin[ing] one of their biggest hits, collaborating with top-tier K-pop idols to deliver spectacular battle performances, with […]
Ariana Grande is always up for a challenge, and she proved it on Wednesday night’s (Feb. 5) Jimmy Kimmel Live! when she agreed to play along with the show’s “Wing it & Sing It” game. “It’s too late, I can’t turn back,” Grande told Kimmel after he explained the rules of the game in which a vocalist has to sing lyrics they’ve never seen before.
With some light accompaniment from a pianist wearing angel wings, Grande eased into the bit “absolutely blind” with the first lines coming up pretty benign before things got increasingly weirder. “I am a strong, successful woman,” the Oscar-nominated Wicked star crooned. “Who always stands up tall,” she continued, adding, “even though I am, in fact,” she added with dread. “Uh-oh, oh God,” she said, fearing the next line.
“So very, very small/ Life, they say, is short/ And it turns out I am too/ I’m a human baby carrot/ I’m a Lady Pikachu/ I am little, I am tiny, I’m the perfect bite-sized snack,” she emoted in between chuckles. “Ten of me stacked up/ Only equals one Shaq,” she continued, bending over laughing.
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There were more size jokes (“I’m an oompa, I’m a loompa/ I’m a pint-sized mini me,” “I can run a marathon in a hamster wheel”), leading to the star commenting, “it’s going still, it’s long as f–k.” She just lost it on the “for a bed I use a sock” line, and praised the pianist for adding the appropriate amount of flare to the line “I’m the bird in the cuckoo clock.”
“And yes, my name is Grande, it’s ironic that I’m small,” she continued with the usual vocal flourishes in the bit that P!nk and Chris Stapleton have participated in before. Things finally took a turn toward the end, as Grande put some sauce on the line, “But I don’t let it bother me, you’ll never see me frown/ ‘Cause I’m defying gravity and you can’t pull me down,” she trilled through more laughs about the line referencing the big, beloved Wicked show-stopper ballad. For the finale, she climbed on a chair to sing the theme from the “It’s a Small World” Disney ride as Kimmel’s sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez, handed her a huge bouquet of flowers.
Grande returned to chat with Kimmel about Wicked‘s 10 Oscar nominations, describing her reaction to watching the livestream announcing this year’s nominees in London. “I was a mess, I almost collapsed,” she said of the impact of the news of her best supporting actress nod alongside co-star Cynthia Erivo, who got tapped in the best actress category for her role as Elphaba. Grande described the instant stream of congratulatory calls she got, including from her mom, her two best friends, her team, as well as her therapist and her gynecologist.
Kimmel had to stop her on that last one, with Grande quipping, “Why didn’t you ask about that [one?] No, it was lovely. I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s been a while. Are we good?… We’ll hug over the next breast exam!” Grande also described the physical challenges of singing in a completely different, “fully opera” register as Glinda versus her “mix-y/belt register” with some falsetto pop style.
The 97th Academy Awards will take place on March 2.
Watch Grande on Kimmel below.
Katy Perry can’t wait to hit the road this year with the whole family for her Lifetimes tour. On Wednesday night (Jan. 29) she told Jimmy Kimmel that she and fiancé Orlando Bloom will be taking their four-year-old daughter Daisy with them on her 75-date world tour, which kicks off in Mexico City on April 23.
“Now I have a four-year-old little girl and we’re going around the world and it’s going to be very different,” Perry said of her first global outing since 2017. One of the biggest changes is that instead of taking the stage around 9 or 9:30 p.m., Perry plans to take all her fellow mothers and fathers into consideration by kicking things off closer to 8:30 because she now understands that bedtime takes more than 90 minutes.
And while Daisy saw her mom perform during Perry’s Las Vegas residency, when Kimmel asked if the toddler will be singing and dancing along to Katy’s songs — or if she has a favorite — the singer admitted that her daughter’s top pick is not the one she’d prefer. “She knows a song that I don’t want her to know,” Perry said. “[It’s] called ‘Peacock.’ Again, this is my karma. I have obviously tortured people with this,” she added of the spicy track from her 2010 Teenage Dream album on which she subtly requests, “I wanna see your peacock, cock, cock/ Your peacock, cock/ Your peacock, cock, cock.”
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“I got her a peacock dress-up dress at the zoo and she just dances around and sings that song I’m just like, ‘NO!!’,” Perry said, covering her face.
The singer, dressed in a studded leather two-piece outfit, kicked the chat off with a bang after Kimmel said she seemed hyped up and “ready to go,” prompting Perry to confirm she was “ret ta go!” before busting into a the hand-jive portion of Chappell Roan’s “Hot To Go.”
“H-O-T-T,” she began, before the studio audience picked up the “G-O!” part to Perry’s delight. Kimmel then noted that the last time Perry was on his show she’d announced she was quitting American Idol after seven years to mount the Lifetimes tour. “I miss them so much though,” she said of her former desk mates, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan. “Hi Luke, hi Lionel!,” she added, noting that both men still reach out to her by text and that they still talk.
“They probably started a new text chain with Carrie Underwood,” Kimmel teased about the Trump inauguration performer country star who will join the team when the 23rd season of the show kicks off on March 9 on ABC. “They probably have a new text chain, but I think it’s perfect,” Perry said.
Perry also talked about her first-ever concert, a Radiohead show at the Santa Barbara bowl when she was 13 — but looked 18. “They invited me backstage and my dad said, ‘hell no!’,” she recalled. Kimmel then cued up a clip of a show from way back where Perry did a daring stage dive, a bit she said she used to do all the time during her first road outing on the Warped Tour in 2008. “I really went for that one! I’ve never seen that clip!” she said.
The singer also plugged tonight’s (Jan. 30) Fire Aid concert to raise funds for the victims of the recent L.A. wildfires, where she’ll perform at the Intuit alongside Billie Eilish, Gracie Abrams, Lady Gaga, Olivia Rodrigo, Peso Pluma and many more.
Watch Perry on Jimmy Kimmel Live! below.
If this whole football thing doesn’t work out, Travis Kelce has proven he has a viable second option in the game show world. Unlike the smash mouth, pound the pigskin skills he needs on the field as a tight end for the Super Bowl-bound Kansas City Chiefs, being the host of Amazon Prime’s Are You […]
The Jonas Brothers are proof you can go home again. Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas announced on Tuesday (Jan. 28) that they will return to their early home at Disney for an upcoming holiday movie tentatively called Jonas Brothers Christmas Movie.
The trio revealed the news in a promo video posted by Disney+ (which will stream the film), in which the siblings pay homage to Love Actually with a bit in which they show up unannounced at someone’s home as schmaltzy holiday music plays in the background. They are, of course, holding a series of poster boards explaining their intentions, beginning with “Hi, we are the Jonas Brothers.”
After Joe reads the card aloud, Nick snaps at him, “No! Don’t say it! The whole point is you don’t say… you just let it… let them read it.” As the snow keeps falling, they try another take in which they smile and start dropping the news after reminding viewers which brother is which.
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“Sorry to bother you,” they explain. “But we’re making a Christmas movie… coming out this holiday season. Only on Disney+.” At press time the streamer has only said that the film is due out “later this year.” According to a description, the movie will find the brothers facing a “series of escalating obstacles as they struggle to make it from London to New York in time to spend Christmas with their families.”
The brothers will co-produce alongside writers/producers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger (This Is Us), with Oscar winner Jessica Yu (Quiz Lady) slated to direct.
The team-up with Disney is a full-circle moment for the guys, who signed with Disney’s Hollywood Records in 2007 and made their TV debut that year on the Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana alongside Miley Cyrus. Their film debut came a year later in the Disney Channel music movie Camp Rock, in which they co-starred with Demi Lovato; they were back in 2010 for Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. They also had their own show on the channel called Jonas and released three albums on Hollywood Records, their 2007 self-titled debut for the label, followed by 2008’s A Little Bit Longer and 2009’s Lines, Vines and Trying Times.
The group split in 2013 and went on hiatus until their reunion in 2019 for the album Happiness Begins, which featured the Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single “Sucker,” which was their first chart-topping song. The trio released their sixth studio album, The Album, in 2023.
Grammy-nominated Justin Tranter will be the executive music producer and will write original songs for the movie.
Check out the Jonas Brothers holiday movie promo bit below.
A big part of the job at Saturday Night Live in the week leading up to showtime is convincing that week’s host or musical guest to appear in sketches that sometimes sound bizarre at best, or potentially disastrous at worst. That was the dilemma frequent SNL guest Justin Timberlake found himself in November 2008 when cast member Andy Samberg hit him up to see if he was in town to hop in on a bit that castmate Bobby Moynihan had cooked up.
“He said Bobby Moynihan has this great idea for a sketch about you, me, and him being Beyoncé’s background dancers that never made the cut,” Timberlake explained in the three-hour doc Ladies & Gentleman… 50 Years of SNL Music, which aired on NBC on Monday night (Jan. 27). “I was like ‘full leotard’? And he’s like, ‘yeah.’ I was like, ‘This is too funny. We have to do this.’”
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Here’s the thing: the three guys were totally down, but convincing Queen Bey to get super silly with them was going to be another matter entirely. In the exhaustive look at the show’s musical history co-directed by Oscar-winning Roots drummer Questlove, current SNL star Bowen Yang explained that “when you pitch a sketch that the musical guest is involved in potentially it can always go wrong.”
And, according to JT, at first Beyoncé was not into it. At all.
“She was very polite about it, but she was very hesitant. And when I say hesitant, I mean like, she was not having it,” Timberlake said. “I’m like: Does she know how funny this is gonna be? How beloved this whole moment will be?” Determined to commit to the bit, Timberlake decided that he had to show his fellow pop superstar how far he was willing to go to convince her.
“I put the leotard and the heels and the hose on and everything, and put a robe on,” he said. “I walked and knocked on her door, I threw the robe down and put my hands on my hips and she was like, ‘No you didn’t!’” Long story short, Bey said yea and the rest is SNL history.
In the final sketch (which is not officially available on YouTube), host Paul Rudd plays the “Single Ladies” video director introducing the singer to her new backup dancers, who she is nervous about.
“Oh look, don’t worry about the other dancers, B-Town,” Rudd tells her. “I hand-picked them myself, these guys are pros.” The three men then enter in all their black leotard, white tights and black heels regalia, assuring Bey that they are definitely warmed up, “like biscuits,” Moynihan says, with Timberlake adding the unhelpful second helping, “yeah, dance biscuits!”
Smash cut to the trio gyrating impertinently on, around and at Beyoncé and the singer repeatedly stopping filming until Rudd finally admits that they are his stepsons, who his wife said he had to spend more time with. “Aww, I didn’t know these were your sons,” Beyoncé says. “That’s very noble of you.”
“So you’ll let them be in your music video?” Rudd asks. “Hell no,” Bey replies.
Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music is available to stream now on Peacock.
It goes without saying that on the upcoming third season of Max’s rich-people-behaving-badly-in-paradise smash, The White Lotus, things are not going great. As usual, director/writer/creator Mike White has gathered a yacht-load of A-list and character actor killers for the latest edition of the show, described in a release as a social satire set “at an exclusive Thai resort,” which once again follows the exploits of guests and employees over the span of a tumultuous week.
The new trailer for the eight-episode seasons slated to premiere on Feb. 16 also puts a further spotlight on BLACKPINK‘s LISA, who makes her acting debut in the series alongside stars Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Walter Goggins, Sarah Catherine Hook, Jason Isaacs, Michella Monoghan, Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Natasha Rothwell, the latter serving as the only known returning cast member from season two.
As in a previous sneak peek, we see Lisa (listed in the credits by her full name: Lalisa Manobal), as both a prim staff health mentor at the resort, as well as a dancer in a traditional glittering headpiece entertaining guests at a late-night beach party.
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Over a montage of sex, fireworks and screaming, an off-camera voice warns: “at the end of the week, you will be an entirely different person,” followed by the maxim/warning, “what happens in Thailand, stays in Thailand.” The eponymous resort is, of course, the real star, serving as a hedonistic playground for the rich and entitled, and, if the trailer tells us anything, as well as the site of at least one murder.
Bibb, Coon and Monoghan play a trio of longtime friends escaping on a girls’ trip, with Lisa making her first appearance as a smiling, waving guest greeter as the series stars arrive on a luxury yacht. “I hope you enjoy Thailand,” she says with a smile to Posey and husband, wealthy businessman Timothy Ratliff (Isaacs).
As in past seasons, the first trailer introduces us to the couples, families and friends looking for a reboot getaway, immediately setting up some of the simmering tensions/personality conflicts in their relationships. Lisa’s character, named Mook, gives a wan smile and joins a fellow employee for a traditional dance mid-way through the preview, with a voiceover intoning, “everyone comes to Thailand, they’re either hiding from someone or they’re looking for someone.”
When Isaacs’ character learns that his fortune has been wiped out things begin going haywire, with a masked gunman holding up a luxury shop, leading a White Lotus security guard to lament “I don’t want to hurt anyone” as he hits the gun range for practice.
“You have to be stronger than this to do this job,” Lisa’s Mook tells him in Thai. As tensions begin to flare cracks show in the various relationships, leading a final, chaotic montage of sex, partying, gunplay and, as usual, at least one bodybag. As with past seasons, White has kept the details of the plot a closely guarded secret so far.
Lisa follows fellow BLACKPINK member JENNIE into the acting lane, with the latter making her debut in the one-season-and-done HBO music drama The Idol, which starred Lily-Rose Depp and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye.
Watch the season 3 The White Lotus trailer below. The White Lotus season 3 debuts on HBO at 9 p.m. on Feb. 16 and will be available to stream on Max afterwards.