17 Most Iconic Food Moments In SNL's History

It's wild to think that "Saturday Night Live" has been making us laugh since 1975, and even wilder that the show still hasn't run out of material after all these years. Food, in particular, has always been a source of inspiration for the SNL writers' room, leading to dozens of iconic moments on set. Recently, the show has built on that track record by putting out bangers like "Boys Podcast" (which featured comical rankings of Halloween candies, veggies, and snack brands) and "Space Emperor" (which revolved around increasingly ludicrous attempts to feed Finn Wolfhard).

That legacy is built on comedy heavyweights we find ourselves revisiting every now and then. While this certainly isn't a definitive list — it's downright impossible to squeeze in the likes of "McDonald's Firing," "The Olympia Restaurant," and "Guy Fieri's Full Throttle Christmas Special" in a single article — here are some of the most unforgettable food moments in SNL history, in no particular order.

"Diner Lobster" isn't just one of SNL's most iconic food moments; it's one of the best sketches in the show's history, period. When Pete Davidson does the unthinkable and orders lobster at a diner, a complete fever dream breaks out: Servers, diners, and the lobsters themselves debate the ethics of eating said crustaceans, all to the tune of a "Les Miserables parody." The sketch was actually first written (and rejected) back in 2010, when John Mulaney was still part of the SNL writers' room. When he was asked to host the show eight years later, he revisited it with co-writer Colin Jost, and the rest is history.

SNL's hilarious "Hot Ones" parody turned heads when it aired in 2021. Rudolph's Beyonce does a lot of heavy lifting as she struggles — and fails spectacularly — to maintain her composure against the Wings of Death. Mikey Day, however, also deserves props for portraying host Sean Evans, who nonchalantly pushes through with the interview. Meanwhile, Beyonce hurls insults at his face, chugs warm milk, and generally tries to hide the raving hot mess she's become after a couple of wings doused in sauces like "Devil's Diarrhea Scorpion Sauce."

In this recurring sketch series, Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon shine as two soft-spoken NPR radio hosts who somehow can't do a show without it devolving into a barrage of innuendo. While there are a lot of gems in the series (Betty White killed it in 2010 with her "Dusty muffins"), 1998's "Schweddy Balls" became the most iconic. Alec Baldwin guests as Pete Schweddy, brought onboard to promote his Christmas-inspired food balls. As Gasteyer and Shannon drool and moan over the treats, Baldwin boldly proclaims, "No one can resist my Schweddy balls." The bit left such an impact, it even inspired a long-forgotten Ben & Jerry's flavor.

SNL takes a shot at DiGiorno's classic "It's Not Delivery" commercial with the kind of surrealist comedy that Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader really shine in. Wiig plays a mom who not only says the frozen pizza she's reheated isn't delivery, but stresses that it's also not technically pizza. In fact, she can't legally say it's pizza at all. Hader, playing her husband, tries to grill her on what it actually is, only to find that the "almost pizza" gets hotter on its own, shatters like glass when it hits the floor, and starts squealing.

SNL's parody ads for Totino's pizza rolls are a heck of a roller coaster, with Vanessa Bayer playing a neglected wife relegated to feeding her "hungry guys," who can't even bother to get their own snacks during The Big Game. While the first two certainly went places — featuring a kid's activity pack for bored wives and a horrific hive mind situation — the third and final Totino's ad pushed the storyline to its logical conclusion. Once again ignored by her hungry guys, Bayer finds liberation when she's joined in the kitchen by Kristen Stewart.

This 2007 SNL Digital Short showcases the oddball comedy that makes The Lonely Island so good. It starts with Andy Samberg punching people in the face just as they're about to take a bite of food, celebrating with a goofy dance each time, and somehow ends with a zombie chase scene and an inspirational message. On top of cameos from Jon Bon Jovi, Dave Grohl, and Taylor Hawkins, the video was also directed by Lonely Island member Akiva Schaffer, who also co-wrote the "Naked Gun" reboot starring Liam Neeson.

SNL's parodies of other TV shows can be hit-or-miss, but the show absolutely nails this spoof of "Chopped." The cast takes every element that made the cooking competition so fun to watch — from the unusual mix of secret ingredients to the cutthroat kitchen environment — and cranks things up to 11. It's all delightfully silly and strangely accurate, so much so that actual "Chopped" host Alex Guarnaschelli felt flattered by the skit, thanks to Aidy Bryant's spot-on impression of her.

Dan Akroyd's parody of the beloved cooking show was pitch-perfect, with the legendary SNL actor absolutely nailing his Julia Child impression. It was also a bit of a risk for live television in 1978. Akroyd's Child cuts her finger carving a chicken, spraying fountains of blood all over the set in the process — all the while reminding us to every part of the animal, including the bones as a makeshift tourniquet. As for what Julia Child herself thought of the SNL skit: She absolutely loved it.

"Saturday Night Live" hit a renaissance in the 1990s, with Adam Sandler and Chris Farley coming in as part of a new generation of talents who would go on to define popular comedy for years to come. This 1994 musical bit really leans on the two performer's strengths. Sandler sings a silly-yet-catchy ballad about a lunch lady dealing with a revolt by angry cafeteria food, and Farley as the lunch lady herself, performs a sort of awkward ballet to the music. It's cute, stupid, charming, and slapstick all at once.

Some of the most iconic SNL moments happen when pretty much everyone in the scene breaks, turning sketches into a hilarious struggle to finish their lines. Jimmy Fallon is a given in this respect, but things really start to go off the rails when Rachel Dratch breaks as she shares a spiced lamb shank in the hot tub with her "love-ah," Will Ferrell. Dratch absolutely fails at selling spiced meats as the prelude to intimate activity, and with her composure drowning before their very eyes, the floodgates opened for everyone else to start giggling uncontrollably.

Maya Rudolph and Kenan Thompson play Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben, who are both being relieved of their jobs as mascots because of certain tensions regarding America's complicated past. As Baldwin's character — unsubtly flanked by Mikey Day and Heidi Gardner — puts it, "It's not what you did; it's how you make us feel about what we did." Cue equal parts nervous laughter and boisterous hollers from the live studio audience, making this sketch iconic for the exceptionally audacious way it tackled the social climate in 2020.

One of Bowen Yang's best characters ever wasthe mysterious and quite possibly criminal Doctor Please. Alongside Doctor Jeffrey Thank You (Ryan Gosling), Doctor Please informs a patient's family of his death and then promptly pitches a food idea to them: cookie crumbles. As Thank You puts it, the product is "for when you want a cookie, but you don't want the whole thing; I didn't kill him." The entire cast breaks when Yang and Gosling scamper off to the side and feed each other cookie crumbles with little red spoons, brainstorming ways to add them to a dessert salad.

While this 2021 SNL sketch technically wasn't about food, a sandwich arguably played the biggest role. In it, a military officer played by Simu Liu introduces the army's latest breakthrough: Doghead Man, a partially human soldier with a golden retriever's head. Halfway through the sketch, the human half of the soldier feeds the dog a sandwich in an apparent attempt to keep the animal in position. It proves a little too effective, however, and the distracted canine focuses on eating fallen bits of the food. The moment completely derails the sketch for a few seconds, but more importantly, it helped the dog win the hearts of the internet.

Jon Hamm probably knew it was an easy joke to make, but he made it anyway. In this sketch from 2008, the actor hocks Jon Hamm's John Ham, a conveniently shaped roll of boar's head oven-roasted lunch meat you can pull, tear, and eat in the bathroom. Strategically placed opposite the roll of toilet paper in the john, the ham solves the age-old dilemma of having to choose between eating and going to the bathroom — why not do both? The fact that Michael Bublé helped him up the ante with "Hamm & Bublé" two years later is just icing on the cake.

Before Toni Collette became a meme for yelling "I am your mother" in 2018's "Hederitary,"there was Fred Armisen in this SNL classic from 2009. Armisen plays an actress who takes her job in a pizza roll commercial way too seriously, completely turning what's meant to be some light ribbing from her onscreen son into the biggest diss of her life. What makes this extra-funny is the fact that guest star Zac Efron looks genuinely scared at points when Armisen goes full ham, smashing dishes and screaming his lungs out while a confused Andy Samberg watches.

Sometimes, the most brilliant comedy comes from the simplest things. This 2023 SNL sketch was built entirely around the idea that well-done steaks are hard to slice, and Ego Nwodim's loudmouthed Lisa from Temecula was the perfect character to drive it home. As she nonchalantly slices her construction-grade slab of "extra well-done" meat, the sheer force of her effort causes the entire table to shake — and poor Pedro Pascal to break. The underappreciated gag in all this? In the middle of the chaos, Lisa starts to worry that her steak won't taste good ... because the waiters forgot to serve it with ketchup.

To cap this list off, a true internet icon. "Lazy Sunday" was one of the earliest viral hits on YouTube, with bootlegs catapulting the platform to mainstream success. The "hardcore" rap video features Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell singing about loading up on snacks and watching "The Chronicles of Narnia." Their movie snack of choice? Cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, which makes some of the absolute best cupcakes in the U.S. Because of the virality of "Lazy Sunday," nearly everyone was rapping "Two! No, six! No, twelve! BAKER'S DOZEN! I told you that I'm crazy for these cupcakes, cousin!" back in 2005.