SNL

In the midst of an otherwise dull (and occasionally painful) red carpet special that aired before the SNL 40th anniversary show, special guest Jim Carrey livened things up by by making Matt Lauer really uncomfortable. His comedic weapon of choice? The recently suspended/disgraced NBC newsman Brian Williams.

A few key members of the SNL cast and crew must love “The Californians” because the much-derided sketch was brought back to life for the show’s star-studded 40th anniversary special. For those of us who have always enjoyed this bizarre sketch (and there are about three of us), it’s a welcome return and we will greedily drink up the angry tears of everyone else.

We knew going in that the SNL 40th anniversary special would be chock-full of just about every famous person who has ever walked within spitting distance of 30 Rockefeller Plaza and the opening monologue was quick to make use of this genuinely insane temporary cast of stars. Things got started on the right foot when the always-welcome Steve Martin took the stage ... but then he was joined by Tom Hanks. And then things got really crazy.

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.

Super Bowl commercials are still a big, huge, massive, crazy deal, with major corporations shelling out absurd amounts of money on ads designed to win over the most reliably large and receptive audience in all of televised sports. So of course ‘SNL’ was going to contribute its own commercial parody to the mix...but man, no one was expecting something this mean, scathing or on-point.

Blake Shelton stepped onto the Studio 8H stage Jan. 24 to begin his opening monologue for 'Saturday Night Live' with confidence and enthusiasm, and he didn’t let up 'til the credits rolled.

J. K. Simmons has been giving us ‘Whiplash’ for decades now with head-turning performances in everything from ‘Spider-Man’ to ‘The Legend of Korra,’ but with the ‘Kong: Skull Island’ star finally nominated for an Oscar, that most hallowed of New York institutions will give Simmons his due. J.K. will host the final January ‘SNL’ installment of 2015, no “jk” about it.

Check out this hilarious video of a Saturday Night Live skit from this past weekend. It parodies the Justin Bieber Calvin Klein ad.

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.

The Sony/North Korean Hackers situation got people talking quite a bit this week.  So of course Saturday Night Live wanted to do a skit about it.  If you missed it this past weekend, Mike Myers brought back his character "Dr. Evil" from the Austin Powers movies to address the hackers and Sony directly.

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?

Yeah it is a little strange that a newly minted Oscar winner like Matthew McConaughey would be caught dead making television commercials for Lincoln cars. However, it did lead to a series of fake 'SNL' commercials featuring guest host Jim Carrey playing the 'Dallas Buyers Club' and 'True Detective' star, so who are we to complain?