The SNL Movie: A Lost Art?

By Marissa Mulgrew

Saturday Night Live (SNL) has been on the air since 1975 and is soon to start their 51st season of weekly sketch comedy. However, there was a time where SNL attempted to branch off of NBC to the big screen. SNL has created eleven movies based on hit characters from the show, the first of which was from 1980 and the most recent being from 2010. This phenomenon began with The Blues Brothers (1980), starring Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belusci. Creating a two hour and thirteen minute film based on a five minute comedy sketch was a big swing, especially given that, at that point, SNL had only been on the air for about five seasons. Nevertheless, Blues Brothers, a ridiculous, action-filled cocaine fantasy, became a reality for fans to watch. Despite Blues Brothers being torn to threads by critics, SNL decided to give the whole movie thing another go, this time with more success.

Wayne’s World (1992) is objectively the most successful movie based on SNL characters. It’s one film that most people have either seen or heard of, without knowing its origin. It also marks Mike Meyers’s first ever appearance in a movie, sparking his decades long career post-SNL. What likely drew people into Wayne’s World was the starpower Dana Carvey had at SNL, but the movie itself delivers independent of Carvey’s stardom. Wayne’s World explores the universe the sketch lives in. It leans into being dumb and conflict free which is what people loved about the sketch.

Wayne’s World was a success, what followed must’ve been even better. We can only go up from here! Right? No–after Wayne’s World came Coneheads (1993), based on a sketch long forgotten by the time the movie came out. This film had action figures, a music video and a subway meal deal, thinking this weird alien family film would have the same success as Wayne’s World. This attempt at sincerity and absurdity to entice audiences backfired. The people who saw the sketch on SNL had stopped caring and kids were too freaked out by just the poster of the movie, so who was it made for?

SNL movies continued to be made until 2010, with mostly failed attempts to expand the world of recurring characters on a sketch comedy show. Many of the characters chosen to have films made about them were not of the most popular characters to come from SNL. For example, in 1994, It’s Pat was released. Played by Julia Sweeny, Pat is an androgynous person who is repeatedly asked about their gender, but never gets the hint. It is never revealed if they are a man or a woman, a sketch and concept that would not see the light of day in 2025. Scoring a 0% on rotten tomatoes, which is impressive in itself, It’s Pat has never been a household name. Of all the iconic characters that SNL had by 1994, it is beyond me how Pat is one of the few to get a movie.

The last SNL movie to be made, MacGruber (2010), was directed by Jorma Tacconea, a member of the Lonely Island comedy trio. This film was a post-modern take on a pivotal Will Forte sketch. Forte’s one of a kind performance creates the genuine character of MacGruber, which makes the movie as funny as it is. Despite my personal love for the director and performers, this movie only scored a 36% on rotten tomatoes and there has not been an SNL sketch movie made since.Will there ever be another SNL sketch film? I don’t think so. A majority of the eleven SNL movies did not perform well. Besides Blues Brothers and Wayne’s World, most have been forgotten or are known as a flop. SNL does not have the same impact on culture that it once did. Nowadays, anyone can become a sketch comedian on their phones and get millions of views. It would likely get lost on Peacock and not even make a theatrical release. So why waste the money to make it? There are plenty of characters since 2010 that you could argue have big movie potential. Kate Mckinnon’s close encounters, Stefon, Drunk Uncle, The Californians, Kissing Family, and, most recently, Domingo! But do the kids of today have the attention span to imagine a full length movie from the world of a TikTok clip they saw? Would fourteen year olds who liked the Domingo sketch care at all about his backstory? I don’t think they would. Although there are plenty of SNL movies that I would gladly see, I am just one person. I believe SNL sketch inspired movies are a thing of the past, when SNL wasn’t just one grain of sand in a beach full of content.