The shows writers walk us through the highlights from a year when they dialed back the Trump.
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Its one of those years thats two years away from an election year.
We have to figure out other ways to give the show a voice.
Luckily, that leaves holes for experimentation and new voices to come through.
It felt verySNL, like theSNLI grew up watching, supervising writer Sudi Green told Vulture.
It felt like you were seeing a lot of performers having fun, which was really cool.
If for some reason the testimonies were deathly dull and no one cared, we wouldnt have done that.
It was my idea to approach Matt Damon.
I thought he could get that sort of unhinged quality [Kavanaugh] had.
Colin Jost, head writer:I think we finished it at 4 a.m. on Friday night.
At midnight, we talked to Matt [Damon], who got on a plane.
I think he was in Northern California.
He didnt even have a script when he took off.
We sent him a script in the middle of the night.
Were very lucky it all came together.
It was some of the most emotional pain Ive ever been in my whole life.
I was kind of in a fog that whole week.
Survivors can not feel like were the butt of a joke.
We were also gifted with this cartoon man that said he liked beer several times.
He has the ability to be angry in a funny way.
Its a unique skill, and rarer than people assume.
A simple concept executed to absurd perfection.
Drezen:Alison Gates wrote it and it got into the show that week.
So from that point, it was me and Gates.
But this was always such a Gates sketch.
After that, we wrote dozens of sketches together toward the end of the year.
Sudi Green, supervising writer:I thought it was just so unique and cool.
It felt like a new voice coming in and people embracing it.
The specificity of the performance and the tone.
It had that silliness, that first turn of teacher fell down, that you just laugh at.
The music and this weird, almost Virginia Woolfesque voice that Kates doing.
We had a couple of weirder camera moves that made it more like experimental art than a sketch.
What [Kate McKinnon] brought was … there was an element of anger there.
Thats the magic ingredient.
Green:It had been a while since wed done an impression wheel.
What we wanted to do from the onset is have a lot of new impressions.
We could just have fun with the effects of what this scandal was.
Sublette:[Matt Damon] is one of those people who is just naturally good at this.
He has an ear for what we do.
Hes not the kind of person you’re gonna wanna give a lot of notes to.
Green:We knew the cast had [impressions] they were working.
A lot of those impression sketches are about getting the look right.
Fran Gillespie, supervising writer:[Chris] Hemsworth is hard.
If you dont look like him, you dont look like him.
Its not like Hemsworth has the Johnny Depp flair.
With Helena Bonham Carter, you know who that is.
So its the voice and the particularities.
We had watchedAmy Sherman-Palladinoclean up in this incredible hat and getup.
Fran just went on this run, like, Amy Sherman-Palladino!
Me and my hat will write it all!
She was coming up with all these wordplay puns in this theatricalGilmore Girlswriting.
When we were on set, someone said, Amy should just enter into the shot.
She should do a pop-in.
Jost:The set design was fantastic how the sets rotated and how you revealed the different spaces.
Drezen:One of the designers has a Tony for the originalSweeney Toddset on Broadway.
Its musical, theres a bouncing ball, and it got cued at the wrong time on air.
I was so irrationally upset.
I was so angry, like, How did that get messed up?
I thought,Im a crazy person.
And I felt so relieved that he was also irrationally upset about it.
I was really happy for John coming back.
He brings out the best in a lot of people.
I believe Heidi [Gardner] pitched the White WalkerJon Snow romance.
Gillespie:Youre looking at six full sets, animated elements, and then voice-over jokes.
The whole point is theyre trying to make a shit-ton of spinoffs.
Its 100 percent collaborative.
In the edit, you’re able to change the voice-over truly until 11:30 Saturday night.
So Fran and I said, Lets take a pass on this.
Well just go into Frans office and keep working at it.
I remember us going back into Streeters office and Fran pitching the Arya-Dariathing.
That was my favorite part.
It was a down-to-the-wire sort of pitch.
At first we thought it would just be a logo or a still.
Seidell:I was pretty proud of Arya-Dariaand the fact that we could animate it.
Maybe we can get it done quick.
And they were like, Yeah, absolutely.
You know that at the beginning of the week.
I think Streeter pitched that it would beGOT: SVU.
Seidell:They were so fun, so enthusiastic about it.
Dire Wolf instead of Dick Wolf was added, I believe, right before air.
I remember being up there and saying Maybe it says Dire Wolf?
It was so stupid and we very quickly threw it in.
Gillespie:I did ask Ice-T why his name onSVUwas Fin Tutuola, which is such an insane name.
He said, I think a writer wanted to be special.
Seidell:[Sandler] seemed like one of those guys who was never going to come back.
That went well and was a bridge to coming back and being onSNL.
Sublette:I remember him saying how nervous he was.
If youve been away from this place for a while, its an exciting but also a strange feeling.
He was really happy in the end.
Green:It was one of those weeks where you just pinch yourself.
It just felt like everyone wanted to show up for him.
You wanted to show up for him and make him feel secure and happy that he came back.
Seidell:It was half excitement to do it and halfI dont want to be embarrassed.
Tucker:He forgot a little bit about how rigorous the schedule is.
By Friday, he was like, How do you guys do this?
You know, you used to do this.
Yeah, like 20 years ago.
Gillespie:When he sang [the Chris Farley song], obviously it was emotional.
A ton of people went down to the floor to watch him play it.
Its hard not to be affected.
It was the same building we were standing in that they became comedy legends.
Tucker:Two-thirds of the writing staff were on the floor watching it.
That very rarely happens for a sketch.
Green:I never watch the good-nights from the floor.
Id never gone down for that.
There wasnt a dry eye in the house.
Seidell:You just knew it was going to be a special moment.
Gillespie:Youre thinking about your friendships and your bonds.
It was just sweet.
It hit the right tone.
Its really hard to do that on a show likeSNL.
A butt-plug sketch, a commercial, and then the Chris Farley song.
Sublette:I wasnt there for that, but I should have gone.
Drezen:Im not a fun person.
I go on vacation and am like, I had a bad time.
Its not the vacations fault.
I went somewhere with no plans, by myself, and stayed in the hotel room.
It took me a couple times to figure that out, but I took it to Alison Gates.
She and I have a similar appreciation for these more feelings-based sketches.
Green:Its so relatable and well observed.
Drezen:Tuesday night, writers meet with the host and we pitched it to Adam.
Hes a very kind, thoughtful, and introspective guy.
It was clear he connected to the idea.
He pitched the line, A day is a long time to feel happy for all of it.
It was dump the sort of sweet, sad energy was so right for him.
I grew up in the tristate area, and the tour commercials were a staple of late-night television.
He just seemed like the right host for it.
Green:It was the right amount of aggressive and sweet.
That character is pointing out some dark things about the human psyche, but he cares.
Hes nurturing about it.
Hes trying to help you.
Tucker:It dovetailed really well with Adams voice.
Its a voice he does well, but not necessarily a voice people know him for.
Anna and Alison Gates did a great job of providing the right kind of visuals.
Mostly its just a long monologue with a few cutaways to testimonials.
Drezen:A Kenan [Thompson] reaction shot is like comedy cheating.
We were looking to do another one like that.
It had gone over pretty well and I was proud of it.
Everyone has their failures.
Also, it was a dig at my mom.
When she talks about raising me and my sister, she says, There was never any hard days.
Every day was a joy.
I was there for those days!
I was there when I was raised.
I know I wasnt great all the time.
I remember not being great!
It was definitely luck that [Emma Thompson] was booked for Mothers Day.
Michael Che, head writer:It was Colins idea.
I dont really know how he came up with it.
You just cant do that.
His career is over.
Thats not a word he can say!
Im like,Oh my God, what is this going to be?
At the time, I didnt even think of how he could use thatto exploit me.
I was foolish to not even think about the consequences of that.
The first time we did it, the graphic that came up was Rosa Parks.
Everyone in my family was like, Oh, no.
This is our son, our poor son.
This is the end for him.
I didnt even see the graphic the first time we did it, I was just reading the joke.
I was deeply worried about what was coming.
I was almost relieved that it wasnt worse than what it was.
Unfortunately for Colin, she spills as much as she drinks.
Shes loud and kooky, and Cecily could do that well.
I think part of it is she just was not in the consciousness as much.
Luckily for us, Donald Trump has made her much more of a national celebrity.
It was Cecilys idea to fall down, Cecilys idea to spit martinis in Colins face.
At one point, she wanted to sing, which we abandoned for the spitting.
She really wanted to embrace her as a character, rather than a commentary on our times.
We thought people had enough of that.
It was time to just take a stab at make it a little more fun.
Theres so many shows that do commentary, and there seem to be more coming up every year.
By the time were doing it on Saturday, it feels a little bit like old news.
What we used to have as an advantage over people is we could bring in new characters.
