Many viewers were tickled to see Will Forte return to Saturday Night Live in MacGruber sketches during Season 51, Episode 6, the recent turn by Glen Powell.
For SNL fans of a certain age, the MacGruber pop-up in Season 51 is a reminder of a time when maybe they were being introduced to the show. Maybe it was from their favorite era. Or maybe some fans are getting to know the silliness of MacGruber for the first time.
I’m not saying MacGruber should be inducted into the SNL Hall of Fame, if there were such a thing. I’m also not saying the main reason people loved Episode 6 and why SNLRankings rates it as an A- and the best of Season 51 is due to Forte and his sketch. But I do think a well-placed appearance by a well-known sketch in a modern episode is a good thing.
As Andrew Sanford of Pajiba points out, there’s a right way and a wrong way to use former cast members, and Forte’s guest appearance is the former.
I’ll go a step further: SNL should lean into its treasure chest of Intellectual Property and dust some of it off now and again.
In recent years, Saturday Night Live has resurrected vintage comedy bits in one way only: when a former cast member hosts. If Kristen Wiig is in the building we’ll get a The Californians sketch. When Bill Hader hosts, you can bet we’ll see Stefon on Weekend Update.
But why does it have to be that way?
SNL has loads of IP it can bring back (judiciously). Imagine a cold open with Mike Myers and Dana Carvey in a Wayne’s World sketch, skewering Elon Musk or some other current newsmaker? Or why not a look into what Debbie Downer is up to?
I’m not saying we need to beat old sketch series to death. No one wants to see Mary Catherine Gallagher juts for the sake of seeing Mary Catherine Gallagher. But, I’ve long wondered, why doesn’t SNL play some of it’s “greatest hits” every so often?
Maybe once or twice a season, why can’t we see an old sketch return, updated and fresh for the new cast mingling with old, and targeting the current state of our pop culture?
Under Lorne Michaels, SNL has too-frequently relied on former cast members to perform impressions. We saw Tina Fey coming back to appear as Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem. We have seen other former SNL cast members pop-in as this celebrity and that.
I’d rather see Will Forte come back as MacGruber than have him be one of six people standing in a White House press conference” or political debate sketch.
