Hey ‘90s kids! Slap on those bracelets, sign on to AOL Instant Messenger and sit back for nine of the most ‘90s SNL sketches of the ‘90s! Most of these haven’t aged well — as if! — but that’s kind of the point. When you do a live show that tackles the week’s most buzzy headlines, not all of the material will hold up forever.
Wayne‘s World: At the Movies
Wayne and Garth either supplied ‘90s teens with an arsenal of slang or just reflected it back: “As if,” “party on,” “excellent,” “wicked ‘tude.” Most Wayne’s World sketches are very much of their time, but this one goes the extra mile to fill boxes on the ‘90s bingo card — the paneled rec room, Barney the purple dinosaur, The Fugitive, John Wayne Bobbitt, The Piano, The Leprechaun, Al Pacino, Carlito’s Way, Jurassic Park and Laura Dern back when the guys thought she was a total babe-asaurus.
Unabomber Class Reunion
If you don’t remember Ted Kaczynski, he was just your average academic who moved to the woods and sent mail bombs to people who didn’t publish his anti-technology manifestos. He was also known as the Unabomber and became an unlikely running character for Will Ferrell.
O.J. Simpson Jury
SNL milked the biggest story of the ‘90s for countless sketches, including this one about O.J. charming the jury that would eventually acquit him. None of these sketches were especially funny, with Tim Meadows and David Spade ditching impressions and essentially playing themselves as O.J. and Kato Kaelin.
Jim Carrey Is an Original Roxbury Guy
The first sketch in the series that inspired Night at the Roxbury was the funniest, mainly due to Carrey’s insane physicality. The sketches also captured a moment in America’s dance-club history that hadn’t been seen before — and thankfully hasn’t been seen since.
President Clinton at McDonald‘s
Before Darrell Hammond established his Clinton as a rascally horndog, Phil Hartman brought the 42nd president to life in 1992 as an everyman fast-food junkie trying to escape the watchful eye of his health-conscious wife.
Daily Affirmation: Michael Jordan
The two biggest celebrities on the planet in the 1990s were both named Michael. Jackson never showed up on SNL but Jordan did, getting some life-affirming advice from self-help expert Stuart Smalley. (Smalley’s advice was pretty ‘90s as well.)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Meets Seinfeld
The idea of mashing up two of the biggest ‘90s TV shows by rebooting Buffy as a Seinfeld-esque sitcom was pretty funny. The execution, however, left something to be desired. It’s somehow comforting to know that comedy all-star Will Ferrell only does a so-so Jerry Seinfeld impression.
Rudy Giuliani Becomes Governor of New York
@joe.wayy
The ‘90s were much kinder to Rudy Guiliani than the 2020s, but that decade was awfully tough on his son Andrew. After the kid screwed around on stage during his dad’s inaugural speech, Chris Farley made sure we’d remember Andrew’s goofs for all time.
Rockers Explain Whitewater
SNL admitted what everyone knew in the ‘90s — the Clintons were involved in some kind of scandal involving “Whitewater” but no one knew what the hell that meant. To explain, the sketch enlists a variety of real and impersonated ‘90s celebs, including Cindy Crawford, Tina Turner, Garth Brooks, the Judds, Jerry Garcia, Michael Bolton, Aaron Neville, late-career Elton John, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang, Kurt Cobain, Cher, Axl Rose, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and others we can’t quite identify.
SNL doesn‘t get more ‘90s than this.