snl

NBC has remained curiously quiet on ‘SNL’’s three-hour 40th Anniversary special on February 15, and while cameos galore are expected, our first major homecoming may have arrived. Following a 31-year absence, Eddie Murphy will reportedly return to ‘SNL’ to ring in the NBC sketch comedy legend’s 40th anniversary.

NBC has been surprisingly quiet about ‘SNL’'s impending 40th anniversary special, but VH1 has upped the nostalgia ante in a major way. VH1 Classic will begin a 19-day marathon of ‘SNL’'s 40 years on January 28, working backwards through 433 episodes and staging themed mini-marathons along the way.

Set in St. Louis, the sketch starts with Beck Bennett as a news anchor for “News 4” (which is the CBS affiliate in St. Louis) relaying a serious presentation of current events, right before he hands it off to two morning show hosts (played by Kenan Thompson and Cecily Strong) who have an obnoxious show with an obnoxious theme song called ‘Rise and Smile.’ First, there’s no way this sketch should have been cut, but that’s a pretty obvious position to take.

Just this past weekend 'SNL' announced that 'The Hunger Games' star Woody Harrelson would return to the stage on November 15, and so too do we know what A-lister will also make a return appearance the following week. 'Annie' star Cameron Diaz will make her own fourth appearance hosting on November 22, but what pair of musical guests can we expect to join her?

I saw a post from one of my Facebook friends yesterday saying that, "SNL should just pull the plug," on a dying show!.

The unfortunate and untimely death of the great Jan Hooks this past week sent the comedy world into mourning, with countless writers and comics stepping forward to pay tribute to the late 'SNL' star. It could have been easy for this week's new episode to gloss over the passing of one of their own (it is a comedy show, after all), but 'SNL' has always been a slightly class institution -- it remembers those who came before.

We've got some sad news today as we've learned that Jan Hooks, former star of 'Saturday Night Live,' has passed away at the age of 57. Hooks, who was a member of the cast from 1986 to 1991, also starred on the hit sitcom 'Designing Women,' and more recently played Jenna's mom on episodes of '30 Rock.'

The latest episode of 'SNL' featured Sarah Silverman as the host and it looks like their raunchy guest encouraged the rest of the crew to crawl out on a few limbs. Would the writers have created a fake commercial celebrating the slowly dying power of white people if the world's most offensive female comedian wasn't on hand? Who knows!

If you went to some kind of comedy university, there would probably be an entire class available on the subject of how awkward white people rapping is inherently pretty funny but difficult to pull off without feeling too hacky. Whether or not 'SNL' pulled it off with last night's "Booty Rap" sketch is something we'll let you decide, but at least guest host Chris Pratt and the always reliable Aidy Bryant attack their material with gusto.

As is often the case, the weirdest sketch from last night's 'SNL' season premiere was easily the funniest in the entire show. The latest in Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney's series of truly strange sketches and shorts, the scene is an exacting parody of lousy '90s television that sidesteps all obvious jokes in favor of making fun of a very specific kind of TV show.

You don't have to be a sports fan to know that the NFL has come under fire in recent weeks for how it has handled (or failed to handle) its players committing all kinds of heinous crimes. Although this is a very serious matter that has football fans deeply troubled and concerned about the future of their favorite sport, it's certainly not above satire, which is where 'SNL' comes in.

Colin Jost, head writer for Saturday Night has been picked to replace Seth Meyers on 'Weekend Update."