‘Saturday Night Live’ Legends Tell the Best After-Party Stories They Can Share Publicly

Next time Jason Sudeikis tries to sing karaoke with the Foo Fighters, he’d better know the words.

The after-parties of Saturday Night Live are legendary among all entertainment events, and it’s easy to see why. Not only does SNL attract top-A-list acting and music talent every week to play a high-energy live show in the heart of Manhattan on a weekend night, but after busting your ass through six straight days and six sleepless nights just to get the stupid Shrek: The Musical sketch absolutely perfect by showtime, you’d want to drink like the world was ending until five in the morning while having a dance-off with Harry Styles and Kristen Wiig, too.

Vulture recently spoke to many of SNL’s brightest stars, past and present, as part of their SNL 50th Anniversary cover shoot and retrospective. During the festivities, Vulture asked many comedy icons to recount the events of their favorite SNL after party — and these are just the stories they’re willing to share on camera:

Understandably, Vulture edited down every SNL star's favorite party story to a quick few sentences for the sake of the montage, but every single answer to the question of “What was the best SNL after party ever” only leaves us with more questions. For instance, did Paul Giamatti and The Strokes get to talking (or drinking) with each other during Amy Poehler's favorite blizzard bash? Did they even know who each other were? Is she sure that there was only actual snow at the function?

Also, considering the sheer number of insane true Hollywood stories that have started with the words “Prince floated into the room,” it’s absolutely criminal that neither Sasheer Zamata nor Fred Armisen could explain more of that 40th anniversary party beyond the latter sharing, “I don’t mean this as a joke: he really looks like Prince.” Okay, but what did Prince actually do when he honored the cast of SNL with his presence? Was there any… controversy?

As an aside, I’m sorry to Kate McKinnon, but, if you ever wanted to prove to your non-show-business friend that the entertainment industry is a perfectly normal place full of completely professional people, an SNL after-party with Woody Harrelson and David Blaine would have to be the absolute last event where you’d want to make them your plus-one.

The real craziest SNL after-party stories are ones that no journalist will ever wrestle out of Ana Gasteyer, but if the walls of those snooty Manhattan restaurants that have hosted so many SNL parties in the last 50 years could talk, they’d probably tell you that the bathrooms need a therapist.