As Punkie Johnson, Molly Kearney and Chloe Troast know all too well, most departures from Saturday Night Live happen with little fanfare or recognition — a few paragraphs in The Hollywood Reporter during the show’s off-season and you’re gone for good. The show’s early cast members didn’t get much of a send-off either, but in recent decades, Lorne Michaels has occasionally tipped his cap to exiting cast members who served the show well.
Will Ferrell
Ferrell’s goodbye was the first in which cast members appeared as themselves to say au revoir. Over sentimental music, viewers heard from cast members like:
- Ana Gasteyer: “I worked with Will for six years, and it was more fun than anything I’ve ever done.”
- Jimmy Fallon, telling on himself: “It was hard for me to work with Will because every time I was in a sketch with him, he made me laugh.”
- Tina Fey: “I loved watching Will in a bad sketch, one that didn’t get any laughs, because he never gave up. He’s the most fearless performer I’ve ever seen.”
Before things could get too maudlin, however, Tracy Morgan joined in. “I got an interesting story about the time Will Ferrell stole my Walkman out my dresser drawer,” he ranted. “He’s a cold, thievin’, selfish, evil dude.”
Kristin Wiig
@huggyattack
None other than headmaster Mick Jagger was on hand to pay tribute to graduating senior Wiig. The whole cast serenaded her with “She’s a Rainbow” and “Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday.”
Wiig told Howard Stern that a lot of goodbye sketches are only done at read-through, an “inside joke” where everyone can have a laugh and a hug. Wiig’s own farewell nearly didn’t make it on the show either “because we were running out of time,” she said. “That was one of my fastest (costume) changes I’ve ever had to do, and it was one of the best moments of my life.”
Bill Hader
Hader leaving the show in 2013 meant that fan-favorite Stefon was saying bon voyage as well. Multiple ideas were pitched for how to give the character a proper send-off, including a bit where Stefon and his boyfriend would board a spaceship that would return him to his home planet.
That idea was scrapped and replaced with a live sketch/taped piece in which Stefon abandons long-time flirtation Seth Meyers in favor of marrying Anderson Cooper. Amy Poehler convinces Meyers to break up the wedding, Graduate-style, and the two are reunited. Hader as Stefon is in tears as he and Meyers return to the Weekend Update set, hand-in-hand, to wave goodbye. “It was just a little bit less emotional than my actual wedding,” confessed Meyers.
Pete Davidson
Davidson’s turbulent run on Saturday Night Live came to an end in the same way it began — by directly addressing the camera on Weekend Update. What would he miss about the place?
“Lorne, for sure,” Davidson confessed. “He really always gives me the best advice. I’ll never forget I called him when I got engaged. I was like, ‘Lorne, I just got engaged to Ariana Grande after dating her for two weeks.’ He goes, ‘Oh, hold on for dear life.’”
“And when I auditioned for SNL, he said, ‘I don’t think you’re right for this show, so let’s screw this up together.’ And that’s exactly what we did.”
Phil Hartman
@tommyboi_tiktok
Before Farrell’s goodbye, the cast member who got the sweetest farewell was Phil Hartman. In the last sketch of Season 19 (not one of the show’s best), cast members did a parody of The Sound of Music’s “So Long Farewell” featuring their most popular recurring characters. The song concluded with Chris Farley’s Matt Foley, singing a verse and then suddenly getting sleepy. He’s joined on stage by Hartman, who puts Farley’s head on his shoulder.
“You know, I can’t imagine a more dignified way to end my eight years on this program,” Hartman smiled before breaking into an emotional falsetto to sing, “Goodbye… Goodbye… Goodbyyyyyyyyyye.”