I recently revisited the SNL sketch from 2016, “Haunted Elevator.” You might not remember the name of the sketch, but I bet you remember the sketch’s main character, David S. Pumpkins. Played by Tom Hanks, David S. Pumpkins became an instant pop culture phenomenon that resulted in a follow up animated Halloween special and his very own Pop! figure. But as a long time fan of SNL I remembered a number of other funny bits the show had done over the years that were just as funny. Some you might know, some you might not, but here are 13 of my favorites from the show’s run, starting with the one that inspired it all “Haunted Elevator.”
From the same year, and possibly even the same episode was a sketch called “A Girl’s Halloween.” Starring Aidy Bryant, Cecily Strong, and Vanessa Bayer this sketch still cracks me up and tells the story of three friends planning a quiet night of Halloween fun that quickly turns into a hot mess.
2017 was a huge year for SNL and politics it was also a huge year for the movie IT, and last year SNL married the two to bring us “Kellywise,” a parody of IT where Anderson Cooper, played by Alex Moffat, has an unexpected run-in with Kellyanne Conway played by Kate McKinnon.
Two years before the actual Exorcist II was released, SNL created a sequel of their own starring Richard Pryor and Thalmus Rasulala as two priests who come to exorcize a little girl played by Laraine Newman. In the end, her demonic insults are more than they’re willing to take and they opt to handle it their own way instead of the Lord’s way.
Stranger Thing season one left us with some questions. What happened to Eleven? Is the Upside Down gone for good? And most importantly, where the hell was Lucas’ parents? In this SNL parody teaser for Stranger Things season 2, Lucas’ parents show up and put a stop to the shenanigans of Lucas ad his friends.
Bill Hader’s Stefon is one of my all-time favorite SNL characters. Despite constantly breaking character and laughing himself, when Stefon visited Weekend Update it would always bring me to tears laughing. His Halloween tips from season 38 were no exception as he discussed a club guarded by hobo-cops, Sidney Applebaum the Jewish Dracula and human pinatas.
Six years before he would play the role of David S. Pumpkins on SNL, Tom Hanks made an unexpected guest appearance as a possessed (and slightly grabby) animatronic barbershop singer in the sketch “The Merryville Brothers: Haunted Castle.” The sketch also stars Bruno Mars, Taran Killam, and Bill Hader as a spooky barbershop trio that comes to life to attack patrons Jay Pharoah and Vanessa Bayer who are stuck in the spooky amusement park dark ride. The music from the sketch has the charm of Disney’s Haunted Mansion, but the feel of those old haunted house rides you’d see at a carnival. And let me just say, Bruno Mars does an AMAZING robot.
Some ghost hunting shows take themselves way too seriously, and I think that was the point SNL was trying to get at in this spoof of the Travel Channel’s “Most Haunted.” In the sketch, Derek Acorah, played by Hugh Laurie, makes excuses for a mysterious sound his crew picks up on their equipment and they simply won’t dismiss it as something that isn’t paranormal. But really, its probably just the ghost of something Laurie’s character ate.
Kenan Thompson’s Steve Harvey impersonation is another one of my more recent favorites from SNL. In this sketch from 2013, The Steve Harvey Show celebrates Halloween with Jake Pickler from Spooky City played by Edward Norton. In it, Pickler shares some of his favorite wordplay Halloween costumes, but the concepts are a bit too advanced for the daytime show host.
In the late 90’s one of my favorite recurring characters was Ana Gasteyer’s portrayal of Martha Stewart. In this Martha Stewart Halloween sketch from 1997, we learn that Martha suppresses her demons 364 days a year, but on Halloween night she lets those demons out and in a very special episode of “Living” she shares how to make tricks a treat by toilet papering houses in the shape of a ghost, or throwing robin’s eggs for that extra prism of color.
The energy of comedians Jim Carrey and Kate McKinnon is unmatched and their physical comedy is always top notch, so when you bring the two of them together to compete for best costume at a Halloween party, you know hilarity is going to ensue. This sketch from 2014 winds up spanning nearly all of studio 8H and even drags in the show’s producer Lorne Michaels and the night’s musical guest Iggy Azalea.
In late 2008, Twilight was all the rage, but the film had nearly as many haters as it did lovers, which meant it was an easy target for parody on SNL. During Season 35 SNL changed things up and made the teen romance about a family of Frankenstein’s monsters and cast Taylor Swift as the teen girl with a lust for their teen son Phillip Frank, played by Bill Hader.
And finally, my final video for this post was a digital exclusive starring Taran Killam as he shares a Halloween anthem I think we can all get behind, “Don’t Smash My Pumpkin.” Through his anger and grief, he pleads for people to just leave jack o’ lanterns alone on Halloween.
