Last nights show was the fourth timeSNLhas celebrated its long and storied history in primetime like this.
Despite all the thats happened in America and the world since 2015, it wasntthatlong ago.
On the other hand, excess and self-indulgence has been baked into theSNLDNA from the start.
Celebrity and cast at the end of a mini musical tribute to New York.Theo Wargo/NBC
The show also has a long tradition of reusing characters and jokes until well past theyve lost their effectiveness.
It was longer than it needed to be, and creatively uneven, with a number of baffling choices.
But the highlights tended to involve differentSNLgenerations colliding.
Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph brought back their oldBronx Beatfake talk show.
Simpson and Robert Blake each hosting the show years before they were charged with murder.
It was a clever idea that nonetheless seemed gun-shy regarding our current political moment.
A snippet of the iconic word-association sketch between Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor bleeped Chases use of the N-word.
(When that episode was rerun shortly before the 40th anniversary, the epithet was unbleeped.)
(FormerSNLhouse band members Paul Shaffer and G.E.
Smith even got to jam together on camera for a few moments.)
Dont count out Michaels just yet.
Maybe he, unlike Belushi, will be the one to stick around forever, because hes a dancer.
