Saturday Night Live: Top 15 Host Monologues

Greetings, reader!

The forty-eighth season of NBC's Saturday Night Live (1975-Whenever the world ends) kicked off last Saturday, and I figured I'd celebrate the new season by doing an SNL-themed ranking. Since I've already done posts on my favorite current cast members, all-time cast members and skits, I figured that the most interesting SNL topic I haven't covered yet is the iconic tradition of opening monologues by each week's guest host. These are my top 15 host monologues from SNL - they can all be easily found on YouTube, so I recommend checking out any interesting-sounding ones!

Here are my honorable mentions: Betty White Monologue (2010), Eddie Murphy Monologue (2019), Kyle MacLachlan Monologue (1990), Paul Rudd and the Other Pauls Monologue (2010), Tom Hanks At-Home Monologue (2020).

15. Tracy Morgan Monologue (2015)

"So, a couple of months ago, I called Lorne Michaels. He's my co-Obi-Wan Kenobi. And I said, 'Lorne, when I get back on my feet, I wanna come home'. And HERE I AM! People were wondering, 'Can he speak? Does he have 100 per cent mental capacity?' but the truth is, I never did! I might actually be a few points higher now!"

While still recovering from long-term cognitive impacts on the car crash that nearly killed him a year earlier, comedian and SNL alumnus Tracy Morgan hosted an episode as a part of his gradual return to public life while slowly getting better. Knowing the story behind it all, it is deeply touching to see Morgan being himself and joking around, even poking fun at the accident's impact on him.

What makes the monologue even more moving (and funny) is when we cut to a scene of "an old episode of 30 Rock where something similar has happened", only for the viewer to quickly realize that this is not footage of a 30 Rock episode but a newly shot scene where the show's cast is conveying their real-life love and care for Morgan through their characters. Just try to keep yourself from crying when Tina Fey / Liz Lemon breaks character to let Tracy know how happy they all are that he's okay!

14. Seth Meyers Monologue (2018)

"I worked at this show for over 12 years, I loved it, I loved being here. Leaving it was incredibly hard, I cried on my last show, and then I - for real - took a job down the hall. The Late Night studio is 100 yards that way"

There's just such a nice atmosphere in the episode hosted by talk show host and SNL legend Seth Meyers, with the audience showing him a lot of appreciation and the host emitting a warm sense of returning home. In his monologue, Meyers jokes about his years at Saturday Night Live, and shares an absolutely hilarious Kanye West anecdote, carrying it out with the genuine wit and likable charisma that one comes to expect from Mr. Meyers.

13. Chadwick Boseman Monologue (2018)

"Now one weird thing that's happened to me since the movie came out is people asking me if I wanna run for President. That's because I play a world leader in a movie, they think I wanna be the leader of the free world. But who wants that job? Why would I go from being a serious actor to doing reality TV?"

God, I miss this guy. Watching this monologue after Boseman's tragic and untimely death is so heartbreaking - you see the young and energetic star strutting up the stage, carrying himself like motherf**king king, radiating joy and magnificence, yet still managing to convey a humble and down-to-earth tone despite his flamboyant garments and well-earned confidence.

He then proceeds to deliver a short and sweet monologue with nice political jabs and Black Panther jokes, before Kenan Thompson interrupts the monologue in hilarious fashion. Watching Boseman try not to crack up (which he does not succeed at, leading to some adorable giggling) as Kenan goes full Kenan next to him, is very amusing, after which the monologue is wrapped up as the late great star bursts into his James Brown impression with some impressive moves.

12. Matt Damon Monologue (2018)

"I've been able to travel the entire world and meet so many wonderful people doing this job that I love to do so much. And if you had told me that all this would happen 16 years ago, well, I might have believed you - but, if you had told me that Ben Affleck and I would be washing cars in Summerville, Massachusetts, well, I would've believed that too"

Matt Damon hosted the 2018 midseason finale, with the Yuletide season approaching and the stage at 30 Rockefeller Plaza wonderfully decorated for Christmas. Damon didn't even have a movie coming out and wasn't there to promote anything - apparently, he just wanted to host. What a guy.

In this heartwarming and classy monologue, Damon discusses his personal relationship to Saturday Night Live, sharing stories of staying up late to watch the series with his brother and father as a kid. This story then ties into Damon's father's passing, and Damon's current family with his kids staying up late to watch their dad host, after which the host elegantly ends his monologue by raising a glass for all the parents who let their kids stay up late for all the right reasons. Beautiful stuff, man.

11. Timothée Chalamet Monologue (2020)

"Nothing like Christmas in New York when you grew up here - ice skating on the Hudson...sledding down the side of the Chrysler building...I had my first New Year's Eve kiss with Mr. Met's daughter, Stacey Met. Sweet girl, big head. The city was my playground, and the subway was my babysitter. Nothing like eating cheetos in the F train on Christmas Eve; you eat a handful, then you hold the pole, then you lick your fingers...I miss that! Playing hide-and-seek at Grand Central, and never seeing any of your friends ever again..."

This is the second Christmas-time monologue in a row on this list! Hilariously combining elegance with grittiness, Timothée Chalamet smoothly plays Hark! The Herald Angels Sing on the piano, while recounting childhood memories of a New York Christmas in a soft and nostalgic voice, only for the substance of what he's saying to be amusingly mismatched with his overall tone. This becomes even more evident when he is joined on stage by cast member and fellow New York kid Pete Davidson, who recounts his childhood memories of a Staten Island Christmas, such as "hearing Santa coming down the chimney and realizing it's just rats" and "decorating our Christmas tree with spaghetti and scratch-offs". I also love the exchange of "Timothée, you smell great" / "Aww, thanks man, Pete - you...smell".

10. Dan Levy Monologue (2021)

"Just to get to walk these halls is such a thrill...oh, wait - DAD?" You came all the way from Los Angeles?"

"Hey son! Woah, look at you. Yeah I flew away to wish you luck tonight, but because I travelled, I'm now in this isolation box"

This monologue starts off quite run-of-the-mill, as comedian Dan Levy discusses his past year and then goes on a very COVID-strict backstage tour of the studio. What makes the monologue extremely memorable and one of my favorites, however, is the comical yet heartfelt cameo by the host's father, iconic comedy maestro Eugene Levy. While the sight of him in a box is silly, it's also just great to see the older Levy being so proud of how far his son has come in the comedy world.

9. Jesse Eisenberg Monologue (2011)

"Wait, have you two not met? AWKWARD...well, I'll be going, Samberg out"

Fresh off his Oscar-nominated role as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network (2010), Jesse Eisenberg hosted Saturday Night Live in quite memorable fashion. His monologue starts off funny enough on its own, but things escalate into further hilarity when "the real Mark Zuckerberg" (played by then-castmember Andy Samberg, who often played Zuckerberg on the show) appears and confronts him - before they're both confronted by the actual, real Mark Zuckerberg. Just the visual of the three somewhat similar-looking Bergs next to each other is funny as hell, making for some high-quality hijinks.

8. Tina Fey Audience Questions Monologue (2018)

"I just wanted to ask, with all of that makeup, could you tell that I was Robert Mueller?"

"Yes, Mr. De Niro, we knew that was you"

"Okay, that's a relief, because this could be, like, a big break for me"

Coming back to host the season 43 finale, former castmember Tina Fey starts off her monologue with a few excellent jokes, after which she starts to ask questions from the audience. In a brilliantly written sequence of tongue-in-cheek self-awareness, the audience questions lead to conversation about the show having too many celebrity cameos these days and the appearance of such people stealing the spotlight from the new castmembers - oh, and these questions are asked by audience members such as Jerry Seinfeld, Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Rock, Anne Hathaway, Robert De Niro and Donald Glover. The irony is delicious.

A highlight of the monologue is the appearance of former castmember Fred Armisen, who hilariously takes up time while discussing the problem of old castmembers hanging around with Fey, as Armisen's genius comedic timing and inherent weirdness really nail this sequence. Still, the star of the show is Tina herself, carrying the monologue with charm and her trademark clever humor.

7. Donald Glover Monologue (2018)

"But it all kinda worked out for me, I was on a show called Community and I played Lando Carlissian in the new Star Wars movie Solo. And if you're black - I made Atlanta AND Redbone"

Between his fantastic Community role, his work on movies like Solo (2018) and The Lion King (2019), his amazing music career, his stand-up comedy and his creation of the series Atlanta (2016-2022), Donald Glover is basically one of my favorite humans.

In this Saturday Night Live monologue, he's just as great as a mega-fan like me would expect: he cracks some great and well-timed jokes, conducts himself with a smooth and charming energy, takes an amusing tour around the studio to the backdrop of a jazzy beat, and finally tops it off with a brilliant blink-and-you'll-miss it joke by introducing the episode's musical guest (himself) by using his artist alias as if it were a totally different person - "We have a great show for you tonight, Childish Gambino is here, so stick around!"

6. Dave Chappelle Stand-Up Monologue (2016)

"So, in that spirit - I'm wishing Donald Trump luck. And I'm gonna give him a chance, and we, the historically disenfranchised, DEMAND that he give us one too"

Say what you will about his controversies in the last few years (I certainly have a lot of thoughts on this terribly complicated subject that we don't have time to unpack here), but one thing is crystal-clear: in the wake of Donald Trump's 2016 election victory, for the first Saturday Night Live episode to be aired after Election Day, there was not a soul alive more well-suited to host SNL than Dave Chappelle.

With his history of dark jokes mixed with philosophical sentiments, and his outspoken rhetoric against racism, Chappelle was a brilliant choice of host for this episode, as was made clear in the Election Night skit that will no doubt go down in history, but even more so in this 12-minute behemoth of a monologue. It's not the fury you'd except from an opinionated African-American comedian in the face of Trump becoming President, as Chappelle is strangely calm while rambling his philosophical thoughts, which makes for a thoroughly unique atmosphere throughout the monologue.

While he covers several topics, he starts and ends with the biggest news story of the hour - "we've actually elected an internet troll as our President", as he so eloquently puts it. Parts of the monologue are bleak and depressing, while others are uplifting, and as a whole, this was just what Americans like myself needed to hear during that tragic week. Not to be a pessimist, but I do hope that Chappelle returns to host in the inevitable scenario of 78-year-old Trump beating 81-year-old Biden in the 2024 Retirement Home Re-Match before we're launched into a coup-de-coup civil war.

5. Lin-Manuel Miranda Monologue (2016)

"And yes I'm right in my element

Who knew that Hamilton would be so topically relevant

The way these gradstandin' candidates be talkin'

They're just a tweet away from facing off in Weehawken"

Lin-Manuel Miranda, the absolute genius behind my favorite musical and one of my general heroes in life, enters the SNL stage with his trademark strangely-nervous-despite-being-outrageously-talented energy, talking about how we wants to make the most of his time hosting the show - after which he bursts into song, naturally to the tune of Hamilton's My Shot.

With modified lyrics that are equal parts clever and hilarious, Lin-Manuel raps them with perfection while taking a walk through the audience and backstage, baffling the audience with his insane rhymes and fantastic wisecracks (the references to the then-ongoing 2016 Presidential Election campaign are especially funny, and his barely-censored roast of Donald Trump is a certified iconic SNL moment). As he returns onto the main stage for the final chorus, blazing with energy and showmanship while accompanied by dancers, Lin-Manuel makes it quite clear that he most certainly did not throw away his shot.

4. Andy Samberg Impressions Monologue (2014)

"I've had a crazy year - I got married, and I'm working on my new show Brooklyn Nine-Nine, for which I won two Golden Globes, bringing new meaning to the phrase 'AND TWINS?'. Thank you. Put on a suit to tell that joke"

I thought for sure that this would be #1 when I started to make this list - just goes to show how high the level is, as there were a few monologues somehow even better than this absolute gem that I have re-watched tens and tens of times on YouTube. The concept of the monologue: having found out that he did only 23 fewer impressions than Bill Hader during his time as an SNL castmember, despite being notoriously bad at impressions while Hader is the GOAT, Samberg decides to catch Hader up and and break the record all in one go, with the help of dear friend Seth Meyers.

Seth recites names of various celebrities and characters ranging from Young Travolta and The Dad From Alf to The Guy Who Does The Entourage Theme Song and Smokey The Bear, as Samberg gives 1-second impressions ranging from hilariously lazy to oddly accurate. And since this is a Saturday Night Live monologue centering on former castmembers, of course Bill Hader himself shows up, bursting onto the scene to defend his record, claiming back his title with a hysterical jab at Samberg himself. For fans of the Samberg-Hader-Meyers era of SNL (I for once consider that to be the show's golden era, as it launched the careers of about half of my favorite comedians), this monologue is a magnificent treat.

3. Bill Hader Explains SNL Monologue (2018)

"Another thing that I never realized was that, you know when someone does an impression of a celebrity, and then the real celebrity sneaks up behind them like 'tap tap, I just caught you'? THAT'S PLANNED. I didn't know that! From the get-go, I always thought that the celebrity was maybe walking down the street and the news boy was like 'hey, they're doing you on TV', and the celebrity was like 'honey, you and the kids take the cab home, I have to stop this!'"

Perhaps the best part of this monologue by my hands-down all-time favorite SNL castmember is the applause by the audience as he enters. No, really. Having been on the show for eight years and having left a magnificent legacy of comedy gold behind, Hader's return to 30 Rockefeller Plaza is greeted with passionate and thunderous applause, by an audience that clearly understands what a comedy God and top-tier Saturday Night Live legend they were witnessing, and watching them show their respect for Hader with applause that just goes on and on is very moving.

The monologue itself is short and funny as hell, with Hader joking about SNL conventions that he "only realized afterwards", from the fact that the 'commercials' featuring the castmembers are fake, to the fact that the hosts are there to promote something (he recounts this discovery with some delicious irony, using it to 'accidentally' promote his series Barry (2018-Present), which by the way is excellent). Hader doesn't do much in the monologue, but his perfectly timed jokes and hysterical facial expressions are enough to make it into one of my favorites.

2. John Mulaney Stand-Up Monologue (2020)

"On November 3rd, there is an elderly man contest, so, uh, there's two elderly men, and you're supposed to choose your favorite of the two elderly men, you can put it in the mail or you can go and write down which elderly man you like, and then we'll add them all up, and uh, then we might have the same elderly man, or we might have a new elderly man, but just rest assured, no matter what happens - nothing much will change in the United States"

Perhaps the hardest part of this list was to decide which John Mulaney monologue to choose from the five times he's hosted - the main reason that I decided to limit my list to one monologue per person was that - without exaggerating - all five Mulaney monologues would've easily made the top 15 otherwise. This magical dude, who effortlessly combines the values of a modern liberal with the voice, look and overall gusto of a 1930's Chicago radio broadcaster, has perfected the art of stand-up comedy to a point where any given SNL monologue is a combination of the very best jokes he's come up with since he last hosted, and it's a thing to behold every time.

I mean, there's his first monologue, with the unforgettable bit about building a gazebo in the midst of the Civil War ("Everyone is dead, now then, Joziah, you had something?"/ "Yes I do - How would you like to be indoors and out of doors all at once?"). Then there's the monologue from his second time hosting, with the legendary bit about Mulaney's Catholic parents hoping his Jewish wife would convert ("Let me go see if a 29-year-old Jewish woman, who doesn't like any of my suggestions, would convert to - what was it again? ROMAN CATHOLICISM?!"). And who could forget his third time hosting, when the monologue featured the brilliant rant about the Third Amendment ("The other afternoon, this was Tuesday, I was in my apartment and the buzzer rang, and it was the 101st Airborne. And they said, 'PERMISSION TO LIVE IN YOUR HOUSE!', and I went, 'Third amendment!'"). I also love his most recent monologue, with a highlight being his juxtaposition of him being in rehab and January 6th happening ("Wouldn't have happened on my watch! Was there ever an insurrection before I went into rehab? Has there been one since?").

But, the one I had to go with in the end, is the monologue from Mulaney's fourth hosting gig - the last episode before the 2020 Presidential election. It's just a rapid-fire succession of great jokes, ranging from confident lies ("It's the most anyone has ever hosted!") and Covid-era jabs ("I am a comedian, or as I like to call us, the last responders") to just having an absolute field day with the upcoming election ("You should vote, you gotta vote, vote as many times as you can!") and questioning if his 94-year-old grandma should be voting ("You don't get to order for the table when you're about to leave the restaurant!"). This monologue is a masterpiece.

1. Jason Sudeikis Monologue (2021)

"I mean, all of our collective comedy heroes have run around through here, okay, have almost ran into all you fancy people in these nice seats, you know like - Farley, Gilda, Eddie, Tina - you know? And then over here, you got...this where all the music happened. All that music, right? Elvis Costello, Kanye, Nirvana, The Rolling Stones...in here, you know? This place changed my life. Twice"

Former castmember and current Ted Lasso (2020-Present) star Jason Sudeikis hosted Saturday Night Live for the first time last year, in an episode that I watched with my Dad while visiting the States, as I finally got to see SNL from TV on a Saturday night as opposed to watching it via YouTube clips on a Sunday morning in Finland. The episode isn't dear to me only because of that monologue, but also because it's just absolute dynamite, with the definitive highlight being Sudeikis' monologue - very much a love letter to Saturday Night Live.

Many hosts have addressed the special nature and rich history of 30 Rockefeller Plaza's Studio 8H in their monologues, but it has never felt quite as sincere as it does here - it becomes clear what a lifelong fan of the show Sudeikis truly was from his childhood, and how highly he regards the comedy culture that has spawned from it. Wandering the stage, making remarks on all the different comedy icons, legendary skits and musical performances that have roamed those halls in five different decades, Sudeikis pays a heart-melting tribute to the legacy of Saturday Night Live, stating that it changed his life twice - once as a kid watching from home, and then again as a castmember, living the dream.

Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as I celebrate the ten-year anniversary of Arrow (2012-2020) airing its pilot episode by ranking the greatest superhero TV shows.