The Five Cast Members in ‘SNL’s Five-Timers Club
There needs to be a new wing in Saturday Night Live‘s Five-Timers Club, that exclusive lounge reserved for comedians who’ve proven so funny that they’ve been asked to host the show five times or more. That new room would be reserved for the five people who not only hosted five times but delivered several standout seasons as cast members as well. In addition to the smoking jacket, maybe Lorne Michaels could pop for slippers and a silver cigarette holder as well — something to signify that these Five-Timers are a cut above.
Here are the five Five-Timers who were also superstars in the show’s cast…
Tina Fey
Make that six times for Fey, the most hosting appearances by any former cast member not named Chevy Chase. In some ways, she prefers the comedy of modern-day SNL to the days when she was a writer. “Here’s an example of a piece I thought was hilarious, and I cannot imagine it having survived at SNL when I first worked there,” she told Variety in 2021. “Bowen Yang playing the iceberg from Titanic on Weekend Update. If they tried to get that piece on in 1997, it wouldn’t have. And nobody would have thought they were boxing them out, but the monolithic heteronormative room — to use some terms — wouldn’t have gotten it, wouldn’t have liked it, and I feel really confident that it wouldn’t have gotten on.”
Bill Murray
Murray’s first time back hosting was a favor to Michaels’ replacement, Jean Doumanian. “She was struggling, and they were having a hard time getting quality hosts,” Murray remembered in SNL oral history Live From New York. “So I called up and said, ‘I can’t get arrested. Is there any way I could work on the show?’ So I went in there. It was a tough week. We worked really hard writing and rewriting, and the show turned out good, and I thought, ‘This could work.’”
Kristin Wiig
Hosting doesn’t get any easier when you’re doing it for the fifth time, Wiig told Seth Meyers. “Because the essence of the show is that you don’t know what it is, ever. Even until 11:30, there’s just — you don’t know. That never goes away. That’s just the energy of the show. Like, youvre supposed to be nervous.”
Will Ferrell
That adorable Ryan Reynolds snuck into Studio 8H on the night Will Ferrell got his Five-Timers smoking jacket — and Ferrell was a little flustered. Try as he might, he just couldn’t get over the fact that handsome Ryan Reynolds was sitting right there in front of his monologue.
“Can you just pretend I’m not here?” asked Reynolds.
“No way, I’m locked in. It’s like the rest of the audience is not here,” Ferrell replied.
“Will, just do the monologue.”
Ferrell shook his head. “No! The monologue is terrible. But you know what’s not terrible? RYAN REYNOLDS!”
Chevy Chase
The only guy who has both a key to the Five-Timers Club men’s room and a lifetime ban preventing the eight-timer from ever hosting again.