15 Hilarious ‘Saturday Night Live’ Talk Shows
The original ‘SNL’ idea was to skewer TV itself – and talk shows were the top target

Dana Edelson/NBC
Lorne Michaels’ original idea for Saturday Night Live was to skewer not just pop culture and current events, but television itself. And what could be a better target than the self-important talk show? Beginning with Weekend Update in its very first season, SNL has heavily used – some might say abused – the talk show format. The writers have tapered off a bit since the Wayne’s World era, when it seemed like every other sketch was a show-within-a-show. But their use of the fake talk show continues to pay off in sketches like Girlfriends Talk Show and Waking Up with Kimye. To narrow our list to 15, we struck off Update (which is now in a category of its own) and stuck to recurring live sketches. From Fernando’s Hideaway to Church Chat and Bronx Beat, here are the SNL talk shows that still make us laugh.