The legendary comedy institution that is Saturday Night Live returns this weekend, September 26, for its 52nd season with Knicks star Jalen Brunson hosting and Katseye as musical guest. I’ve never watched a lot of sports in my life, but SNL’s storied history of golden eras, seasonal slumps, “The Weird Year,” controversies, iconic cast members (many gone too soon), and ever-rotating roster have made it the team I’ve followed for almost my entire life.
This season has seen a gentler shake-up than last year. Most of the cast is back, and though Martin Herlihy and Chloe Fineman have departed, Ashley Padilla has been on a hot streak, and a couple of newcomers (including online sensation Grace Reiter, who went viral reshooting The Hunger Games (but better) with friends) should make for a good year.
To get you in the mood for all the madness from Studio 8H, here are five movies born out of SNL‘s DNA, ranked, that you can stream this week.
5
A Night at the Roxbury
Stretch your neck muscles for this head-bopping classic
What is love? Baby, don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt me … no more. If that song isn’t instantly in your head and it’s not bopping side to side right now, go and check your pulse because you dead. The Roxbury guys started aggressively bouncing women (and men) around the dance floor on SNL in season 21. The sketch featuring gelled-up brothers Steve and Doug Butabi, who never spoke and just lurched their heads to Haddaway’s What Is Love, was written by Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan, alongside SNL writer Steve Koren, who also co-wrote the film about the two dreamers scheming to open their own nightclub. Critics loathed it, but A Night at the Roxbury is pure nostalgia.
A Night At The Roxbury
- Release Date
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October 1, 1998
- Runtime
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81 minutes
- Director
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John Fortenberry, Amy Heckerling
4
MacGruber
A box-office bomb that blew up into a cult hit
MacGruber exploded onto Saturday Night Live for the first time during season 32 in 2007, bringing writer Jorma Taccone’s dim-witted rip on MacGyver to life. And Will Forte is brilliant as the mulleted special ops “expert” who uses whatever random items are within arm’s reach to defuse a bomb, but is usually so distracted by something that it blows up. Every. Time. For the movie, MacGruber comes out of retirement to stop nuclear-armed villain Dieter von Cunth (Val Kilmer), and teams up with military officer Lt. Dixon Piper (Ryan Phillippe) and his assistant/love interest, Vicki St. Elmo (Kristen Wiig). Although it tanked in theaters and baffled critics, it enjoyed a cult resurrection and a 2021 Peacock series.
3
Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain
No characters here, just three 30 Rock morons in the wild
This one’s a bit of a cheat—no recurring SNL characters—but the guys from Please Don’t Destroy have earned their spot on this list. The writing and performing trio of Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy churned out insanely hilarious absurdist “three guys in a writers’ room” shorts on SNL from 2021 to the end of season 50, when Higgins left the show. They wrote and starred in this Peacock adventure movie, The Treasure of Foggy Mountain, in which they play goofball, loser versions of themselves who go on an epic adventure into the wilds of Foggy Mountain in search of a treasure they think will improve their pathetic lives. In a sort-of ode to Goonies, they take on a feisty hawk, traitorous park rangers, and a strange cult living in the mountains led by Bowen Yang.
2
The Blues Brothers
Their mission from god still holds up
Legendary SNL alums John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd introduced “Joliet” Jake and Elwood Blues to the world as SNL‘s musical guest on season 3 in 1978, and the rest is history. The black-and-white-suited soul men in porkpie hats made the leap to the big screen in 1980 from a script written by Aykroyd and iconic writer/director John Landis (Animal House, An American Werewolf in London). The big-budget musical screwball comedy became an instant cult classic. It follows the brothers as they rip around in the Bluesmobile on their “mission from god”—get their band back together and put on a benefit concert to save the orphanage they grew up in from getting closed down. It’s absolute mayhem as they dodge the entire Chicago police department, Nazis, and Carrie Fisher with a flamethrower. The Blues Brothers is currently on Netflix, and you can also rent its sequel, Blues Brothers 2000, on Prime Video and Apple TV.
1
Wayne’s World
Exsqueeze me? Baking powder?
Arguably the most successful and highly rated SNL movie on this list, Wayne’s World is undoubtedly my favorite. Mike Myers and Dana Carvey’s metalhead basement-dwellers Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar first appeared on the show during season 14 in 1989, and things were never the same. The film, co-written by Myers and Bonnie and Terry Turner, is the highest-grossing SNL film spun off from a sketch, and boy, did it deliver the one-liners. It follows the lovable pair as their public-access TV show gets bought by a slimy network executive (Rob Lowe) who wants to exploit it—while also trying to steal Wayne’s girlfriend, the smokin’ hot rocker Cassandra (Tia Carrere). Because of Wayne’s World, millions around the world are helpless to resist banging their heads whenever Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody comes on in a car—you know the part. Wayne’s World 2 isn’t bad either, and is rentable on Prime Video and Apple TV.
Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night … Live-based movies!
You don’t need a new season of SNL to check out these movies based on some of the show’s most iconic characters. And if you’re still looking for more, I’d also suggest watching the excellent documentary Lorne, a fascinating look at Lorne Michaels, the creator and architect of this American comedy institution, who has been spoofed and lovingly impersonated by so many (he’s the inspiration behind Mike Myers’ Dr. Evil, after all). Michaels is arguably the greatest SNL character of all time. Lorne is coming to Netflix on October 5. It’s on Peacock until then.
- Subscription with ads
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Yes, $8/month
- Simultaneous streams
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3
- Live TV
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Select live sports
- Price
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Starting at $8/month ($3/month for students)