All the Returning Cast Members for ‘SNL’ Season 50 (So Far), Ranked
It’s Homecoming Year at Saturday Night Live — as the show celebrates its 50th season, several former cast members have returned to get a piece of Lorne Michaels’ anniversary cake. Not all comedy cameos are created equal, however. Here are all of the SNL alumni who’ve returned this year, ranked by their impact on the show…
Punkie Johnson
I’ll admit it — until I dug into this list, I didn’t realize Punkie Johnson, who left the show over the summer after getting passed over to play Kamala, had appeared during Season 50. But there she is during the good-byes of the Charli XCX show, relegated to the second row behind fellow ex-cast members Kyle Mooney and Andy Samberg. The fact that most didn’t know Johnson was there earns her last place on this list.
Pete Davidson
It wouldn’t be a John Mulaney-hosted SNL without a Broadway musical parody set in a dismal NYC location, despite the sketches getting less funny each time they’re repeated. And it wouldn’t be a Mulaney musical without pal Pete Davidson trying to buy something stupid to kick things off. Davidson, per the usual, cracks up at the slightest provocation.
Kyle Mooney
Mooney has been making the rounds to promote Y2K, his horror-comedy that died at the box office this weekend. SNL did its part, with Mooney needlessly popping into Charli XCX’s monologue and constructing a 9-inch turkey-dildo as his entry in the Thanksgiving Baking Championship 2024.
David Spade
If Spade’s comic persona is one of I-could-care-less nonchalance, then his turn as Hunter Biden was a comedy masterclass. Dana Carvey’s podcast partner doesn’t exactly phone it in — he’s doing his underplayed Spade thing — but he makes no effort at all to impersonate Hunter Biden in last weekend’s Church Chat sketch. Would it have killed Spade to at least shave off that scruffy beard and pretend he was making an honest attempt?
Maya Rudolph
Based strictly on political characters, Rudolph’s well-observed Kamala Harris impression, with its hilariously staccato laughs, would be at the top of these rankings. But Rudolph has gone poof post-election, not sticking around to play in the sketch sandbox with her colleagues at the top of this list.
Andy Samberg
If we're just talking laughs, I’d put Samberg's Season 50 at the top of this list. His reunion with sorta-cast member and Lonely Island cohort Akiva Shaffer on “Sushi Glory Hole” is one of the season’s funniest bits.
Samberg turned a nothing-role as potential First Husband Doug Emhoff into a lovable doofus, then stuck around to sing for Mulaney, play Ariana Grande’s proud daddy and crank out more Lonely Island bangers like “Here I Go.”
Dana Carvey
How could it be anyone else? Besides being on my Mount Rushmore of all-time cast members, Carvey has appeared on every show this season, earning more airtime than half of the people in the opening credits.
Carvey doesn’t always hit it out of the park — he admits that his Elon Musk impression is lousy — but he’s arguably the most memorable part of Season 50 thus far, making his presence felt with his feels-like-new Biden impression and bringing back old favorites like the Church Lady. Will the nearly 70-year-old keep it going for the rest of the season? From here, it looks like he’s pitched a permanent tent in the halls of Studio 8H. They might have to drag him out.
