SNL - 40th Anniversary Special

OH DEAR GOD. I don't know the last time I was so excited for something. Probably when I went to see Billy Joel last March. That was amazing. But this is having me hyperventilating and fangirling and giggling and tearing up all in one. My sister (who has never seen a full episode of SNL, only the odd sketch I've shown her) is watching with me, for at least the first little bit. This'll be interesting.
I can't believe they have LITERALLY EVERYONE on this show. How do you even manage that? And I was concerned they wouldn't be able to fit everyone into the studio... This post will be rambling and full of exclamation points. Try to keep up. (Also this thing is over 3 hours long and I'm too lazy to include a lot of pictures, so...)

DANCE JIMMY DANCE!!!! AND JUSTIN!!!! Of course they'd open the show with these two. They're so amazingly cool. OH MY GOD THEY'RE BLENDING EVERYTHING INTO A SONG AND I'M CRYING AT THIS!!! Justin's 'well isn't that special' was on point! This monologue (dialogue?) is going to be HUUUGE online tomorrow. *Bring it on down to SNL!!!!*
And Rachel is there to bring it down, as per usual... Blues Brothers reference!!! I still haven't watched that movie...
MORE COWBELL!!!! And Mary Catherine Gallagher!!!!

Oh dear god are they going to go through literally every single person appearing tonight?
A+ job by whoever edited these opening credits... And they had so many shots of deceased cast members - not sure if as a tribute, or just to make us cry, but well done.

Does Steve Martin opening this monologue count as 'hosting'? Look out, Alec Baldwin!! And Jon Lovitz isn't dead!
TOM HANKS!!!! "Acting is yelling for money!"  "HEY!" GOLD!!!!! (Hey, I could be an actor..)
Damnit, there's Alec. Guess he can count this as a hosting gig too... That competition. Loving it.
Ugh. They had to ruin this by bringing out Miley? My sister's reaction: 'ew'. Proud of her.
BILLY CRYSTAL!!!! He's adorable. And rather short.

Surprised the photographer managed to hold the camera still. They were probably laughing so hard.

'Singers named Paul'. Very small demographic. But what a talented one!

Obviously they had to use a pre-recorded clip for John and Gilda and Phil, and Chris Farley. And so we could all remember what Chevy Chase looked like in the seventies. All the way through to the modern sketches. Wow. So much funny. And my sister didn't know what any of them were. She has much to learn.

AYKROYD!!!! BASS-O-MATIC!!!! He doesn't seem as creepy as he did in the original... And the blender jammed hahaha awkward. That's live TV!!!

CELEBRITY JEOPARDY!!!! Oh man, they even busted out the old Jeopardy board for this. Darrell Hammond hasn't aged at all. And I never thought I'd see Sean Connery and Justin Beiber in the same scene. Surprise appearance by Norm McDonald as Burt Reynolds/Turd Ferguson. Hearing Taran as Christoph Waltz say 'heart heart wink and point' was so bizarre. I love it. And Jim Carrey as Matthew McConaughey is the best. How many people are on that stage right now?? Oh god why would they do a Bill Cosby reference?? 'We taped that in June!' Good save.

Somehow just playing Matthew McConaughey makes Jim Carrey more handsome.

Oh my god they're showing auditions, that's incredible. They're all so young and I want to cry. Why has Seth never done a British accent on the show?? It's excellent!! I'm astonished of how many of these characters they just made up themselves - Target Lady, Church Lady, - and holy shit Andy's short-shorts. Sudeikis' sideburns make me so happy.

I have such fond rememembrances of that hair.

There's nothing I love more than a good montage set to a sappy song. You go Alicia Keyes.
I took the opportunity provided by that commercial break to educate my sister on the wonderfulness that is Choppin' Broccoli.

I'm a little surprised that they're doing any full-song musical performances during this... But if anyone deserves one, it's Paul McCartney. I also just realized that SNL started before John Lennon died. Holy crap. That's a long time.

There are a lot of previously-done 'best of' montages happening here... What happened to 'it's mostly gonna be live'?

OMG THE CALIFORNIANS!!!!! I'M DYING!!!! I keep referring to all the cast members by their first names and my sister doesn't know who I'm talking about. This is a problem. 'The one with the sunglasses?' 'No, the one in the plaid'. 'Yeah that's Bill'. Bradley Cooper does an amazing job. And he's the father of Kristen's baby. And I'm loving Taylor Swift too. BETTY!!!!!! (And she's talking normally of course) THEY CRACKED!!!! Yesss! First crack of the night!! I never thought I'd see Bradley Cooper and Betty White make out. For not the first time in my life, I'm incredibly jealous of Betty White. 

YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!!

Crossover to the flight attendants sketch. David Spade bringing the snark. He's so underrated. But I'm confused - they got Cecily to do it this time, who used to do it with him?

3-lady Weekend Update. Best. Idea, Ever. Although I'd love for my baby Seth to be there with his cheeky smile. FOX News zinger in there too. BAM!
Emma Stone as Roseanne Rosanadanna (I have no idea how to spell that name). That's so cute.
EDWARD NORTON AS STEFON???!!!! OH MY GOD I CAN'T HANDLE THIS!!!! And then real Stefon - this is better than when Nicolas Cage was on 'Get in the Cage!' SETH!!! I could not be happier right now!!! 
Melissa McCarthy as Matt Foley was great, then Amy's sarcastic 'oh no, this is the only desk we have' and a last-second Land Shark tribute (apparently played by Bobby Moynihan)! Wonderful!
I miss 'Really?!!' so so so much. The worst part about Amy leaving was no more of that.
'Bitch is the new black'. Oh yeah. Seth in a navy tux. *swoons*.

Amy could care less.Love it.

I just had to explain to my sister the sad story of Phil Hartman. The Colon Blow fauxmercial is hilarious, but we weren't exactly laughing.

Martin Short is a fascinating person. I don't understand how he's so adorable and so ominous at the same time. AND MAYA RUDOLPH!!! AS BEYONCE!!!! MY FAVOURITE GIRL DOING ONE OF HER BEST IMPRESSIONS!!! AND SINGING IS INVOLVED!!! SHE'S SO IN HER ELEMENT. That woman needs her own show. OK full confession - I've never really liked Garth and Kat. We get it. You're unprepared. And you have weird vests. Give Maya more lines!!

Maya Rudolph: The SNL castwoman I would most like to be BFFs with.

Ana Gasteyer knows where my funny bone is. Her and Will doing that Culp Twins sketch was killing me.
CHOPPIN BROCCOLI!!! Oh come on, you're not going to give him time to do the whole song?!! Not fair... Adam Sandler looks like my uncle.
I HAVE NOT SEEN A 'WHAT'S UP WITH THAT' SKETCH IN SO LONG!!!! AND JASON IS BACK AS THE RUNNING MAN I CAN'T BREATHE!!!

Pictured: The third thing that caused me to hyperventilate in the last ten minutes. SUDEIKIS!!!!

I think 'love theme from Jaws' is an oxymoron. Bill Murray looks skinny.

THIS. ALL OF THIS. Two Bills is better than one.

Funny, I remember one of the Blues Brothers being taller than the other one... Then again, Jim Belushi is taller than John, may he rest in peace. My sister actually knew who he was. Good job, sister.

I knew Eddie Murphy as 'the funny dad' in a bunch of random movies when I was a kid. It's strange to think of him as an SNL cast member. Let alone a legendary one.

I had no idea Wayne Gretzky had ever been on SNL... But along with Mike Myers as Wayne from 'Wayne's World', that's an awesome pair of Canadian Waynes.

It's no secret, Will Forte is one of my favourite underrated SNL cast members of all time. But the ESPN commentating sketch was never his best one. Couldn't we do a MacGruber bit?!! Or three?!! That man also needs his own show.

Miss you Will!!!! (Although lose the 'stache)

Why is this show obsessed with Arcade Fire? They had one of the guys introduce Miley Cyrus (MUUUUTE, BTW, they could have had SOMEONE more important and classic than her on here, I mean how dare they put her and Sir Paul in the same category... Plus why is she singing a Paul Simon song?? They have the man himself RIGHT THERE!!!) and they're not even that popular in Canada. Where they're from. As am I.

I think I just spotted Jeff Goldblum in the audience. Did he ever host? Look at all these famous people!! That shot of Michael Douglas contained Edward Norton. Which reminds me - Edward Norton is always so serious and scary in his movies (Wes Anderson films, aside) that seeing him on SNL as this adorable cheerful person just makes me so happy. And I'm still astonished that they got him to be Stefon earlier. This is like the Oscars, I just keep looking in the background for interesting people.

I have such a soft spot for Edward Norton. Seth, clearly, does not.

MOM JEANS!! No need for redoing it - it's perfect as-is.

Aw.. sad moment about Tracey Morgan not being well enough to be there. But for them to use a Bryan Fellows bit as a tribute to him was perfect. That was always hilarious.

Why is Kanye lying on the floor. Why. Why. Oh right nevermind, it's 'artistry' and he's a genius. Sorry I asked. Can we get Dana Carvey to play Beck and come out and smack him in the face?
(Friendly monthly reminder, Dana Carvey follows me on Twitter. Be jealous. Be very jealous.)
Oh hello Sia, I didn't see you there. Probably because you're wearing a tutu on your head again. Is Kristen going to dance?

All I am thinking is that they could have used these musical interlude times for sketches. Or Digital Shorts. Shame. At least Kanye is a bit more of an influential, longer-lasting musician than Miley (although don't tell him I said that!)

OK now they're doing a tribute to the pre-recorded bits. Good. Although not nearly enough Digital Short bits. If it were up to me, they'd have a full 3-hour special just of Digital Shorts. But that's just me. So I was mistaken, during that Kanye performance, apparently it wasn't Sia, it was Zach Galifianakis. My bad!

OH DEAR GOD THEY MADE A NEW DIGITAL SHORT!!! WITH SANDLER!!!! AND IT'S ABOUT CRACKING UP (BREAKING) DURING SKETCHES!!!! Ripoff of Tina Turner's 'You're Simply the Best' and dare I say it - that was the best Digital Short ever. A self-referential sketch is the best kind of sketch.

Bill joined them and my heart soared.

Oh no, they had to do an 'in memoriam' bit. Bring down the tone. Now I'm sad. And Bill is too. Although the stopping and then restarting of the applause for each person is a little awkward. And it always makes me so sad when they have a picture of two cast members (John and Radna, Phil and Chris Farley) who are both deceased. And I miss Don Pardo's voice so much.
But then they brought it back up again - Jon Lovitz is not dead!!! But the Generalissimo still is! Ooooh SNL, you clever people.
(My sister has pointed out that it would be really really awkward if Jon Lovitz is the next SNL cast member to die. Let's hope none of them ever do.) 

WAYNE'S WORLD!!!! YESSSS!!!!! They couldn't not. I mean come on. And Mike hadn't been in any sketches yet. And they poked fun at Kanye West. Excellent.
Garth thinks Beck was even better than Beyonce. Yet another reason for me to love Garth. And they love Lorne (although their wine glasses are clearly fake). "We're not worthy!! The crew, ladies and gentlemen!!" I worked backstage at plays in highschool - and I can tell you, the crew is the most underrated part of the production.

SIT YOUR ASS DOWN KANYE!!!! Attaboy Garth.

Oh sure, NOW they let Paul Simon sing. I can't believe it's almost over. Three and a half hours. I would have easily sat through six. It's a long weekend, I've got nothing to do. (Sister has gone to bed, she missed the last 20ish minutes. I will force her to watch the PVR recording tomorrow. Especially that Wayne's World sketch. That was beautiful.)

This just in: Lorne Michaels is 70. This also just in: Lorne Michaels does not in any way shape or form, look as though he's 70.