In honor of Saturday Night Live celebrating 50 seasons, I decided to round up the most unforgettable, iconic times things went hilariously wrong on air. From wardrobe malfunctions to character-breaking, here are 43 of those moments that live in my head rent free:
5.
This “Africa Tourism” sketch, where you can quite literally watch Adele start to break, like, five times before she completely loses it:
6.
Honestly, the whole first “Close Encounter” sketch, because Ryan Gosling is a millisecond from full-on laughing the entire time, and it’s absolute perfection:
9.
Truly any “Debbie Downer” sketch, but the way every single person breaks in “Debbie Downer: Disney World” (bonus points for Horatio Sanz literally hiding his face in a Mickey-shaped waffle) makes it the very best:
10.
When Will Ferrell sent Sean Hayes and Jimmy Fallon into hysterics when he pulled out the tiniest flip phone known to man in “Jeffrey’s”:
11.
When Aidy Bryant’s wardrobe assistant made the best possible mistake and ran on set too early in “Inside the Beltway,” thus making Aidy laugh so hard, she barely made it through the rest of the sketch:
Bonus points for Cecily and Kenan similarly fighting for their lives not to break character, too:
14.
When Kristen Stewart accidentally dropped an f-bomb in her monologue and Kate McKinnon was positively delighted:
15.
When Ego’s line readings and over-the-top steak cutting in this “Lisa from Temecula” sketch made every single person at this table — including herself and Pedro Pascal — lose it:
17.
When Will Ferrell’s character in the “Dr. Beaman’s Office: Test Results” sketch was so funny, it had him hiding a smile behind his hands and made Molly Shannon laugh so hard, she struggled to regain her composure for a hot minute:
19.
The forever iconic “Californians” sketch, in which Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and even Fred Armisen were constantly on the verge of breaking:
20.
When Larry David gets the giggles in this “New Wife” sketch and ends up whispering his lines, which makes Kate start laughing, too:
21.
When Adam Driver tried to hit a fake bird with his cane for ~emphasis~ in “Career Day” and accidentally skewered it instead, making us all crack up just as hard as Pete Davidson was:
23.
When Tracy Morgan and Kenan Thompson had every last person in the “Scared Straight: Underage Drinking” sketch fighting for their lives not to break (and, evidently, losing):
24.
When Jimmy Fallon was all of us watching Will Ferrell be hilarious in the “More Cowbell” sketch:
25.
When Emily Blunt nailed this line delivery a little too well and had to slowly lower this lampshade to hide her giggles:
26.
When Kate McKinnon — QUEEN of not breaking character — was taken down by how gosh darn disgusting the basket of meat in the “Weekend Update: Smokery Farms” smelled:
27.
When Beck and Kyle’s physical comedy in this “Brothers” sketch was so exquisite, it had Aidy making this face the whoooole sketch and had Cecily struggling to say her lines altogether:
29.
When Billie Eilish makes it halfway through this “Hotel Ad” sketch before starting to lose it, only for Kate McKinnon to notice and go even harder:
34.
When Pete Davidson was literally all of us watching Kenan Thompson and John Mulaney in “Diner Lobster,” aka he was full out, not-even-trying-to-hide-it laughing when the camera switched over to him:
35.
When Kenan Thompson and Pete Davidson simply couldn’t take Leslie Jones breastfeeding Dave Chappelle’s character in “Football Party”:
36.
When Seann William Scott put up a good fight, but even he wasn’t immune to cracking up over Will Ferrell’s patriotic look in “Short Shorts for the USA”:
37.
When Megan Thee Stallion tried her best, but Kenan Thompson fighting off a deer had her giggling all through this “Deer” sketch:
39.
When Ryan Gosling couldn’t help himself when Aidy Bryant went to pull a gun out of his pants…while dressed like this in “Henrietta”:
43.
And finally, this cut-for-time “Cast List” sketch that I recommend you watch twice — once for the actual sketch (which is peak theater kid drama), and a second time to watch each and every cast member fighting for their lives not to laugh (spoiler alert: they all do, more than once):
You can watch SNL‘s 50th-anniversary celebrations — which include a concert on Friday, 2/14, a re-airing of its first episode on Saturday, 2/15, and a three-hour anniversary special on 2/15 — on NBC and Peacock.