The 10 Best ‘SNL’ Sketches About the Olympics
Ready for a nonstop assault on your sports senses as media coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympics begins this week? There’s no better way to stretch your comedy calves than this series of Saturday Night Live sketches sending up the ridiculous pomposity of the global competition.
Here are 10 sketches that will make you want to take a torch to the whole thing…
Little Chocolate Donuts
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If you have to train like an elite athlete, do it the John Belushi way — with a cigarette and little chocolate donuts. They’ve got the sugar you need to get you going in the morning.
Olga Korbut
Hey, modern-day SNL, take note — in the early days, a one-joke premise might be executed in about a minute of show time. And hey, it works better! Imagine that…
Synchronized Swimming
This Christopher Guest/Martin Short/Harry Shearer gem has been missing from YouTube for years, likely due to music rights. Thankfully, the folks over at TikTok have less exacting standards.
The All-Drug Olympics
Speaking of one-joke premises, they don’t get much better than the All-Drug Olympics, a visual bit that's right out of the Sarah Squirm body-horror joke book.
Swimming Instructor
John C. Reilly and Will Forte are an inspired pairing in this sketch about an average Joe who trains to become an Olympic swimmer. Strap onto Reilly’s belly as he strokes you through this one — it’s the only sketch in this lineup with two applause breaks.
Kerri Strug and Kippy Strug
Squeaky real-life Olympian Strug gets a comic sibling courtesy of Chris Kattan, the kid who needs to learn to shake it off.
The Michael Phelps Diet
Want to be svelte like Olympian Michael Phelps? Then down 12,000 calories a day, the Michael Phelps way. If pre-scandal Subway spokesman Jared Fogle says this diet sucks a footlong, you know it must be good.
Ryan Lochte Reviews the Fall TV Lineup
Seth MacFarlane is sneaky funny as the scandal-plagued Olympic swimmer reviewing his favorite new fall TV shows. Here’s a secret: If you hold your ear up to his ear, you can hear the ocean.
Space Olympics
Welcome to the weirdest sketch on the list, courtesy of Andy Samberg and Lonely Island. If you’re planning on living to 3022, this is what you have to look forward to.
Bike Trail
SNL sketches don’t get any fresher than this one from the finale of Season 49. Jake Gyllenhaal plays exactly the kind of endurance athlete you want to punch straight in the teeth.