Next month, comedic actress Melissa McCarthy will be back at Saturday Night Live for a sixth hosting appearance. The Dec. 6 show will follow the best showing of SNL Season 51, when Olivia Dean and Glen Powell lit up Studio 8H with one of the best episodes in years.
Since her first hosting gig in Season 37 on October 1, 2011, McCarthy has carved a place for herself among the best hosts in the history of the show. She has been nominated for an Emmy award every time she has hosted SNL. In Season 42 she won the award for her appearance on May 13, 2017.
She made hosting appearances in three straight seasons, something only a handful of guests have done. After only 5 years, and 224 days, McCarthy joined the Five-Timers Club in Season 42.
We rank her five episodes this way:
- Season 37, Episode 2: B+
- Season 38, Episode 17: B+
- Season 39, Episode 13: C+
- Season 41, Episode 13: C+
- Season 42, Episode 20: B-
In her five previous hosting appearances as well as several guest appearances, McCarthy has been part of some iconic SNL moments. Here are the top ten:
10. Guess That Phrase
Season 39, Episode 13 was McCarthy’s third hosting gig in 28 months. Here, in a game show sketch with Vanessa Bayer, Beck Bennett, and Kenan Thompson, McCarthy is a dimwitted contestant. As she can do so well, McCarthy somehow makes this petty idiot likable.
9. Million Dollar Wheel
Here, in her second hosting assignment in Season 38, McCarthy gets a chance to make fun of the sex symbol model-type sidekicks on game shows.
8. Mother’s Day Monologue, Season 42
By the fifth time she hosted, McCarthy was almost an honorary cast member at SNL. In this episode, she brings a mother from the audience on a behind-the-scenes tour of Studio 8H. Not so much funny as it is heartwarming.
7. P.J Doesn’t Fit into Women’s Group
This is a well-written sketch from Episode 13 of Season 39, on February 1, 2014. It shows off McCarthy’s subtle, controlled comedic skills. Sure, she can be over the top, absurd, physical, and silly. But here she’s almost scary with her commitment to the joke. There are few guest hosts (or cast members) who could pull off this comedic performance.
6. Lulu Diamonds
Here’s a wonderful example of McCarthy’s physical comedy. In his Turner Classic Movies spoof, she plays classic Hollywood star “Lulu Diamonds,” who is featured in a series of snippets where she tries to charm her co-stars. McCarthy is fantastic when she’s absurd, silly, and loud, but we also love when she shows herself as a confident character who doesn’t realize her own limits.
This sketch appeared in Season 37, Episode October 1, 2011.
5. Monologue & Dance, First Hosting Appearance
What a way to introduce yourself to the SNL audience. McCarthy’s first monologue from her first guest hosting appearance was spot-on. She quickly established she was a comedian, talked briefly about her background, and then embarked on a dancing number with Kristen Wiig and other cast members.
4. Pizza Loan
From Season 38, in her second hosting appearance, McCarthy stars with Jason Sudeikis in this oddball sketch. She’s “Barb Killner,” a passionate “pizza-eater” who needs a loan to start a business. Watch it if only to see McCarthy’s “ka-boom mime of a shotgun action” and “running.” A ridiculous premise that serves as a palette for McCarthy’s character skills.
3. Outside the Lines
During her second hosting appearance on April 6, 2013, in Season 38, McCarthy stars in a pretape segment as a violent women’s basketball coach, loosely based on disgraced Indiana coach Bobby Knight. The host of the interview portion of the pretape is Bill Hader.
2. Taste Test
This sketch appeared in McCarthy’s first episode as host, on Oct. 1, 2011. It showcases her physical comedy skill, and her ability to completely commit to a character.
1. Sean Spicer Press Conferences
In Season 42, McCarthy made a surprise appearance in the cold open for Episode 13. The first face on the screen was Kate McKinnon, as Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos. But quickly she introduced Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer. And there she was, one of the most shocking reveals of a guest star in SNL history” McCarthy behind the podium.
Trump had been president for less than a week, and the country felt different than it ever had. Spicer was already establishing himself as the voice of the “alternate truth” White House. And McCarthy’s depiction of the micro-aggressive, thin-skinned Spicer was brutal, and most importantly, hilarious.
It’s difficult to imagine anyone in the history of SNL who could have performed this sketch, or the other three Spicer sketches that followed, as well as McCarthy. There are some performers who DEMAND your attention, who are in complete control of the stage. Probably only John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Eddie Murphy, Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, and Will Ferrell have ever done it as well as McCarthy does here.
For her guest appearance as Spicer, McCarthy won an Emmy. She played the role as a special guest four times in 2017. But eventually, like “Spicey,” she grew tired of the gig.
“I’m very done in so many ways with Sean Spicer,” McCarthy said when she received her Emmy. “I think we all are.”
