Saturday Night Live (SNL) — Saturday Night Live logo in white letters against a blurred nighttime city background

Saturday Night Live (SNL)

1975viral videoclassic

Published September 26, 2026

Saturday Night Live, or SNL, is the long-running NBC live sketch comedy show that premiered in October 1975 and became a launching pad for viral internet clips decades before YouTube existed. Its Digital Shorts segment and political parody sketches turned the broadcast into one of the most shared sources of comedy on YouTube, spawning countless catchphrases, reaction clips and remix material.

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Overview

Saturday Night Live, shortened to SNL, is a live American sketch comedy series on NBC that built its online reputation through clip culture on YouTube and other video sites1. By September 2013, roughly 100 SNL sketches and musical performances had crossed one million views on YouTube, giving the broadcast a second life as short-form web comedy1. Political impressions, celebrity monologues and pre-taped Digital Shorts drove most of that traffic, with clips regularly hitting social feeds by Sunday morning after the Saturday airing.

The show's meme footprint online runs across a few recognizable formats. Digital Shorts, launched in December 2005, produced music video parodies and absurd character bits built specifically for internet sharing, including work from Adam McKay and later The Lonely Island1. Political cold opens, especially Tina Fey's Sarah Palin impression in 2008 and Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump run starting in 2016, generated some of the show's biggest online moments and pulled the sketches into news coverage2. Recurring characters, catchphrase-heavy monologues and fake commercials round out the material that regularly gets clipped and reposted.

Origin & Background

Platform
NBC broadcast / YouTube (viral spread)
Creator
Lorne Michaels
Date
1975

SNL was created by Canadian-American producer Lorne Michaels and developed with NBC late-night executive Dick Ebersol, premiering live under the title NBC's Saturday Night on October 11th, 19751. The pilot was hosted by comedian George Carlin, and the original cast, billed as The Not Ready For Prime-Time Players, included John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris3. Michaels left the show in 1980, with Jean Doumanian and Ebersol running it in his absence until his return in 19851.

The internet meme dimension of SNL arrived gradually as clips hit video sharing sites in the mid-2000s. In December 2005, the show introduced Digital Shorts, a pre-recorded segment aimed squarely at the web comedy audience, initially written by Adam McKay and later dominated by The Lonely Island1. Sketches like the Chris Farley Show and later Digital Shorts were re-uploaded to YouTube by fans4, turning individual bits into shareable objects long after their broadcast slot ended.

How It Spread

SNL's spread as a meme source moved in step with online video. The show's official YouTube channel and NBC's uploads made cold opens and Digital Shorts routinely available within a day of airing, and by 2013 about 100 clips had crossed a million YouTube views each1. Fan uploads filled in the older archive, with sketches like Chris Farley's Chippendales audition and Matt Foley bits reaching millions of views on unofficial channels45.

Political parody drove the biggest spikes. Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump impression debuted on October 1st, 2016, in a cold open recreating the first presidential debate2. Trump publicly attacked the portrayal on Twitter on October 16th, 2016, calling for the show to be retired and drawing tens of thousands of retweets2. He kept up the criticism into 2017 and 2018, with Baldwin responding to a December 4th, 2016 tweet by daring Trump to release his tax returns2.

Beyond politics, SNL's viral hits include Digital Shorts and character monologues that got second lives on YouTube678. The show still maintains active accounts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr where individual sketches are cut into short clips for feed viewing1.

Timeline

1975-10-11

NBC's Saturday Night premieres live with George Carlin hosting and the Not Ready For Prime-Time Players cast.

1980

Lorne Michaels leaves the show; Jean Doumanian and Dick Ebersol run it until Michaels returns in 1985.

2005-12

The show introduces Digital Shorts, a pre-recorded segment aimed at internet audiences, initially written by Adam McKay.

2013-09

Roughly 100 SNL YouTube clips have passed one million views each.

2016-10-01

Alec Baldwin debuts his Donald Trump impression in a cold open parodying the first presidential debate.

2016-10-16

Trump tweets that SNL should be retired, calling Baldwin's portrayal 'unfunny.'

2017

Baldwin wins an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his Trump role[2].

2018-03-02

Trump tweets that Baldwin's impression 'was agony for those who were forced to watch.'

How to Use This Meme

Online, SNL clips are typically shared as standalone units rather than full episodes. A common convention is to pull the cold open the morning after air, especially when the sketch parodies a current news cycle. Political impressions often get quote-tweeted with commentary, while Digital Shorts and character bits circulate as reaction clips or copypasta lines.

Frequently Asked Questions