‘SNL 50’ May Not Feature the Show’s Newly-Crowned Favorite Character
While this weekend’s SNL 50: The Anniversary Special has been scheduled for a while now, it wasn’t until very recently that we started to learn exactly which big-name guests would actually be performing.
Last week, NBC announced that the special would feature celebrity laugh riots Steve Martin, John Mulaney and Kim Kardashian. And this week, we finally found out which previous cast members would be returning to Studio 8H on Sunday, via a video in which giant SNL index cards appear to be hung throughout New York City. It kind of looked like Inception, if Inception took place inside of Lorne Michaels’ brain.
The special’s roster of ex-SNLers includes Molly Shannon, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Kate McKinnon, Laraine Newman, Chris Rock, Andy Samberg and even Chevy Chase, just to name a few.
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Oddly, Kenan Thompson is also listed as a returning SNL alumnus, despite the fact that he never left, and presumably never will leave, the show.
But some people were pissed that a certain ex-cast member’s name wasn’t included in the announcement. No, not Randy Quaid, we’re talking about Bill Hader.
Fans took to social media demanding to know “WHERE IS BILL HADER” with a passion so extreme that Michaels may want to hire some extra security and have one of the show’s featured players sample all of his meals and white wines to make sure that they’re safe.
The omission of Hader’s name is especially shocking because SNL recently put together an online “character bracket,” which allowed fans to vote for their favorite characters, and the ultimate winner was Hader’s Stefon. He beat Dana Carvey’s Church Lady in the semi-finals, and narrowly defeated Chris Farley’s Matt Foley at the very end.
Some people have suggested that Hader might not be coming back for the special because of past SNL-based anxiety, which he’s been very open about in interviews.
This doesn’t really make sense considering that, even though he may have joked about hating his time working at SNL, Hader willingly returned to host the show in 2018.
The fan concern/rage is likely unwarranted here. The show will no doubt include surprise appearances from people who haven’t been name-checked so far. It seems highly doubtful that SNL 50 won’t include Dan Aykroyd or Bill Murray in some capacity. We’ll probably hear from David Spade at some point, even though he wasn’t a part of the announcement. And Dana Carvey and Mike Myers’ names weren’t mentioned either, but it would be a safe bet to assume that there will be a nod to Wayne’s World at some point, like we got in the 40th anniversary show.
It similarly seems unlikely that SNL 50 won’t feature the actor behind the internet’s most beloved character.
Although, to be fair, the results of that competition were highly imperfect because they didn’t offer Will Forte’s “Fart Face” guy as an option.
