snl

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens less than a month away from release and anticipation reaching a feverish level unseen in movie fans since 1999, the timing is right for SNL to gently skewer the upcoming sequel. The sketch is really just an excuse for the cast to break out a bunch of impersonations they’ve obviously been keeping in their back pockets while letting them interact with actual Star Wars cast members, but c’mon, that’s all the excuse you need, really.

Amy Schumer has had an incredible couple of years with her hit series Inside Amy Schumer, her collaboration with Judd Apatow for Trainwreck, and her upcoming HBO comedy special. When you’re this beloved, there’s one place you need to be: on the SNL stage. Schumer makes her SNL hosting debut tonight and absolutely kills it, delivering a complete 180 from whatever happened with last week's relentlessly humorless season premiere (can we just pretend this was the season premiere? OK). There’s so much to love in this consistently funny episode, where even the weakest sketch of the night is still quite delightful. Read on for this week’s sketches, ranked from best to worst.

Alex Trebek is a cultural institution, a beacon of knowledge and grace under pressure. Everyone loves him. Which is why it’s always amusing to watch the unflappable host of Jeopardy say silly words and phrases in that reliable deadpan of his. A recent episode of the immortal game show saw him forced to say the name “Turd Ferguson,” which should amuse anyone with a passing knowledge of modern comedy.

The summer of 2015 has afforded far too many absurd and newsworthy sagas for SNL to sit out, and Season 41 is already exploding off the bench. Not only will Miley Cyrus host the October premiere, but SNL will follow up with Amy Schumer, and a momentous return for alumni Tracy Morgan.

Last night’s generally unremarkable episode of SNL peaked early when it took advantage of its proximity to Mother’s Day to do something kind of remarkable. As part of her opening monologue, guest host Reese Witherspoon declared that the show was going to mark the occasion by bringing each cast member out with his or her mother...and then forcing them to apologize for their childhood transgressions.

It’s not coincidence that Scarlett Johansson guest hosted SNL on the same weekend that Avengers: Age of Ultron opened in theaters, so of course the show had to do a Marvel sketch of some kind. And unlike the previous Avengers sketches cooked up for Chris Hemsworth and Jeremy Renner, this one is actually a pretty effective dig at the Marvel movie machine. More importantly, it’s very funny.

In the cutthroat world of HBO’s Game of Thrones, life is hard and even the most innocent people find themselves victimized by the powers that be. So of course SNL would make the comparison between living in Westeros and living on the means streets of Los Angeles. Yes, it’s time to visit the eighth kingdom of this wildly popular fantasy series: South Centros.

There are few impersonations on SNL we enjoy as much as Jay Pharoah’s President Barack Obama, the chief subject of the latest episode’s cold open. But in a nice twist, the leader of the free world soon finds himself transforming into a monster of a man. Did you really think SNL would get Dwayne Johnson to guest host and not bring back The Rock Obama?

'The Fault in Our Stars' was one of the big surprise hits of the summer, telling a heartbreaking love story between two young cancer patients. Despite that Very Serious Material, 'SNL' and guest host Sarah Silverman found a way to make fun of the movie and tie into current events. Thus was born the fake trailer for 'The Fault in Our Stars 2: The Ebola in Our Everything.'

Tracy Morgan ('30 Rock,' 'Saturday Night Live') is in critical condition after a six-vehicle accident on the New Jersey Turnpike early Saturday morning. Morgan had been riding in a limo bus from Dover, Delaware where he performed Friday night.

Today commences Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, and this year, comedian Andy Samberg has been appointed “Chief Shark Officer,” putting the SNL funnyman in deep sea peril.

'Saturday Night Live' got a blast from the past over the weekend when it brought back the popular animated sketch 'The Ambiguously Gay Duo' for the first time in years. Only this time, it was a little different. Thanks to a devious flesh ray, the ambiguously gay Ace and Gary were transformed into humans, played by none other than Jon Hamm and Jimmy Fallon.