SXSW 2025 Narrative Film Preview Guide

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The best Saturday Night Live hosts remind us how important that role is. Through ups and downs, one of the best reasons to tune into SNL is to see what that week’s host will do. Some hosts quickly discover that they are not fit for the unique world of live sketch comedy. Others exceed all expectations or meet some absurdly high ones.

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Today, we celebrate the best of the best SNL hosts. While quantity of appearances is obviously a factor in these rankings, the thing that separates the best of the best is their ability to forge a legacy for themselves in Studio 8H that is as good—if not better than— what they did outside of those hallowed halls. And while SNL regulars that returned to host were not ruled out of contention, there is something truly special about those outsiders who prove that they could have been some of SNL’s greatest cast members if things had gone slightly differently.

12. Adam Driver

To be fair, most of Adam Driver’s Saturday Night Live hosting gigs revolve around the gag that he’s a very serious actor who rarely seems to realize he’s in an SNL sketch. To be even more fair, that constant straight man approach almost always delivers.

Few things are better than watching Adam Driver play an old-timey oil baron who embarrasses his son during career day or a Medieval Times performer who has decided to go way too method. The SNL crew always know exactly how to deploy Adam Driver, and we are often the beneficiaries of their genius.

11. Candice Bergen

Candice Bergen’s Saturday Night Live hosting greatness is rarely acknowledged by those who didn’t grow up with a certain era of the show (the late 1970s). Yet, Bergen was one of those great early SNL hosts who not only set a standard for what a host should be but often outshined the sketch show’s main cast.

While Bergen is sometimes best known as the first woman to host SNL, she was also the first person to host the show for a second time. She surprised many with her comedic chops that were still rooted in the intelligent dramatic work that made her such a rising star in the first place. While she showed she could have easily been one of the greatest Weekend Update anchors ever, it’s her incredible interview with dangerous toy manufacturer Irwin Mainway that best demonstrates her surprisingly modern comedic style.

10. John Mulaney

John Mulaney certainly brings the charisma that the best Saturday Night Live hosts require an abundance of, but it’s Mulaney’s history as an SNL writer that makes him one of the all-time greats.

As a prolific former member of the SNL writer’s room, Mulaney clearly understands what a good host should do. However, he often seems more interested in using the hosting gig as an excuse to push the wildest sketches that would have otherwise probably never made it to air. Best known for his incredible musical parodies (I’ll fight anyone who says “Diner Lobster” is anything less than one of SNL’s greatest contributions to comedy), Mulaney regularly unleashes the wildest concepts and finds a way to make them work.

9. Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake certainly has to be one of the most surprising hosts in Saturday Night Live history. While critics have been arguing for Timberlake’s surprising dramatic acting chops for quite some time, few expected him to be nearly as good of an SNL comedian as he has consistently been.

While Timberlake is best paired with Andy Samberg and the Lonely Island gang (he was part of the group’s legendary “Dick in a Box” sketch), Timberlake generally excels at a sillier style of comedy that helps him make the show’s wildest ideas work better than they probably should. In terms of overall hosting credentials, it doesn’t hurt that Timerblake often pulled double duty as a musical guest.

8. Ryan Gosling

Gosling is one of those Saturday Night Live hosts who could have easily been a beloved regular member of the show’s cast if his movie star looks and otherworldly talent didn’t create so many other opportunities for him.

The star of some of the best SNL segments in fairly recent history (including “Beavis and Butt-Head,” “Italian Restaurant,” and “Close Encounter”), Gosling has this way of either getting the professionals around him to break or breaking so hard that you can’t help but share the pleasure he can barely contain. If that’s not your style, then be sure to check out incredible pre-taped segments like “Papyrus” and “Santa Baby” that feature Gosling giving genuine performances in the silliest scenarios you can imagine.

7. John Goodman

John Goodman has described his old Saturday Night Live cast member audition as one of the worst things he’s ever done in his acting career. While those auditions can reportedly be quite a nightmare for anyone, it’s hard to watch Goodman’s many subsequent hosting appearances and imagine how the show’s producers possibly passed on this man.

A prolific host throughout SNL’s booming ‘90s, Goodman was a perfect fit for an era of the show that saw an array of all-time great comedic talent slowly come into their own. His star power was undeniable, but he could work alongside anyone in just about any situation. Still, it’s fine if you only know him for delivering the best Wilford Brimley impression or stepping in as a Chicago superfan.

6. Melissa McCarthy

It’s easy to forget that Melissa McCarthy wasn’t a full-time Saturday Night Live cast member. She has not only worked alongside many SNL cast members, but her comedy style and biggest genre hits practically feel like SNL movies. Of course, her association with the show is only strengthened by her history of unbelievably great hosting appearances.

Like Kate McKinnon, McCarthy is willing to commit to the wildest (often physical) bits just to get a laugh. Watch her practically drown herself in ranch dressing to prove her fondness for the product in “Taste Test” if you want to see the McCarthy you (probably) know and (probably) love. Yet, it’s her performance as the world’s most abusive basketball coach in “Outside the Lines” or the world’s worst game show assistant in “Million Dollar Wheel” that really make you wish she had found a few years to be a regular SNL cast member.

5. Christopher Walken

Many probably went into Christopher Walken’s early Saturday Night Live hosting gigs expecting what many expect from a Christopher Walken movie performance: an increasingly exaggerated version of the Christopher Walken persona. And while SNL has certainly had fun with Walken’s distinct mannerisms and dialog delivery, SNL Christopher Walken has this way of elevating his game like he’s Michael Jordan in the playoffs.

While Christopher Walken tends to…stand out more than other SNL hosts that blend into the cast, writing a show around Walken always pays off. Whether he’s interviewing a job candidate who is clearly a centaur or playing a southern war general with a truly unfortunate name, Walken commits to every bit in ways that have destroyed some of the most talented comedians that have ever graced television.

4. Emma Stone

As one of the most talented and celebrated actresses of her generation, we should all feel lucky that Emma Stone has decided to grace the Saturday Night Live stage as often as she has. More than a “thanks for dropping by” star, though, Stone has found an unlikely second home on the sacred stage of Studio 8H.

While Stone is certainly a gifted live comedic performer, she has always shined brightest in some of the best pre-taped segments SNL has ever produced. Her turn as an actress who treated an appearance in a porno as the dramatic break of a lifetime is a premise worthy of a full-length film, and the conceptually inexplicable but undeniable “Wells For Boys” commercial may be the funniest thing SNL has ever done. Stone’s almost spooky commitment to her SNL appearances is one of life’s most reliable sources of pure joy.

3. Alec Baldwin

Moreso than even some of Saturday Night Live’s other most prolific hosts, Alec Baldwin is essentially an honorary SNL cast member. He’s hosted the show more times than anyone else and has made several memorable cameos between those gigs. Stats aside, few stars have ever fit into so many different eras of the show as well as Alec Baldwin has.

If you really want to appreciate Baldwin’s genius though, you’ve got to go back and watch some of his earlier sketches before he started to settle into doing more impressions. Baldwin’s ability to deliver lines like “Schweddy Balls” with the gravitas and professionalism of a Hollywood star exemplifies the skills of a host who treated every character like it was the role of a lifetime.

2. Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks first hosted Saturday Night Live in 1985 when he was largely still seen as an up-and-coming comedian. Not long after, Hanks became one of the most celebrated dramatic actors in American film history. And yet, no matter how many awards Hanks won or how bright his star power shone, he always came back to SNL as a way of reminding everyone he’s still one of the most gifted comedic performers on the planet.

Like the best SNL hosts, Hanks’ appearances always feel like an event. You’re never truly prepared for what Tom Hanks will do next. He’s the man who turned David S. Pumpkins into an unlikely cultural icon in the same episode that he delivered an intelligently hilarious turn as a MAGA supporter who finds himself on an episode of Black Jeopardy. Only on SNL can a national treasure continue to find so many ways to surprise us.

1. Steve Martin

Steve Martin has hosted Saturday Night Live in five different decades and has made appearances on the show ever since it has been on the air. In theory, he’s a legacy comedian who the show invites back when they want to deliver a cheap hit of nostalgia. In reality, Steve Martin remains one of the absolute funniest people you can be lucky enough to witness late one Saturday night.

Sketches like “Wild and Crazy Guys,” “King Tut,” and “The Holiday Train” certainly showcase Martin’s live comedy credentials across wildly different eras of SNL. What elevates Martin as an SNL host, though, is his often underrated MC abilities. His monologues almost always deliver, and he is capable of truly hosting the show in ways that go far beyond what he does during the sketches. SNL remains one of the best showcases of this all-time great comedian’s many talents.

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