SNL: Top 15 of 2017

 

With 2017 coming to a close, its time to look back at some of the best sketches of this past year on SNL. The year was of course chock full of political pieces, though somewhat surprisingly in my ranking, there are only a select few of them (maybe due in part to this current season's weak political writing). Onto my personal top 15.

15) "Enhancement Drug"

This ad parody is pretty much all Dwayne Johnson. If he wanted, he could perfectly fit in among the cast.

14) "Come Back Barack"

Featuring Chance The Rapper, this wasn't necessarily among the funniest pieces of the year, but just the production/nostalgia factor, and the catchiness of the song put it on this list.  

13) "Sean Spicer Returns"

Melissa McCarthy's take on Sean Spicer was among the top characters on SNL in this past year. This sketch was the final time Spicer was seen on SNL, as he would exit the White House over the summer. 

12) "Translator"

This was one of those sketches that on paper shouldn't work...Scarlett Johansson's dog expresses its support of Trump in a lab experiment. But they somehow pulled it off.

11) "Girl At A Bar"

This sketch occurred before the #MeToo movement started up en masse, but it could easily fit into it. Its actually fairly sad how accurate this sketch can be.

10) "Republican Movie Trailer"

This turned out to be more true than we thought during the time of its airing. Sure, we've had Jeff Flake and Bob Corker make some symbolic gestures against Trumpism, but in a way those actions still seem a little hollow.

9) "Kellywise"

Probably the perfect take on Kellyanne Conway (and can we talk about Kate McKinnon's amazing year, she just ran the gambit among trump admin official impersonations).

8) "Gift Wrap"

This was among the shock-value genre of sketches, but James Franco played it up perfectly to make it work and keep the momentum going.

7) "Bedroom"

This was a breakout moment for Melissa Villasenor last season.

6) "Spelling Bee"

This was a sketch where it took the right host to make it work, and that's just what James Franco did with terrific character work.

5) "Beers"

Larry David in a Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett short was just what we needed in this sitcom spoof.

4) "Sean Spicer Press Conference"

The debut of Melissa McCarthy as Spicer, this was quite a moment. She just fit in perfectly to the role.

3) "Papyrus"

An entire short on a font type shouldn't have worked, or even made sense. Yet here we are, with great work by Ryan Gosling.

2) "Totinos With Kristen Stewart" 

A fitting end to the run on the totinos ads (given Vanessa Bayer's final season). This played out like a short film.

1) "World's Most Evil Invention"

Dwayne Johnson takes the top spot in this sketch (that I still can't believe made the air). What made this work was how Dwayne just keeps it cool throughout while everyone else freaks out.