“Adam’s Song: 50 Years” follows in the same vein of Adam Sandler’s “Chris Farley Song,” becoming the emotional highlight of SNL50: The Anniversary Special.

When Adam Sandler took the stage after Jack Nicholson made a rare public appearance to introduce him, one just knew that he was about to make some magic during SNL50. And make some magic he did. His song reached the emotional height of SNL50 as he started to list the names of SNL stars and how many years they were on the show. You couldn’t help but start tearing up at the mentions of the Phil Hartman, Norm MacDonald, and Chris Farley.

If “Adam’s Song: 50 Years” from SNL50 doesn’t get an Emmy nomination, I’ll be shocked.

“Adam’s Song: 50 Years” Lyrics

Everyone in this room has something in common
All of our lives were changed by the show
Everyone in this room has something else in common
None of us were allowed to use the little bathroom in Lorne’s office

Fifty years, fifty years, Saturday Night Live’s been on for fifty years
Fifty years of your sketch killing it at read-through, and finding out they didn’t pick it because the host didn’t want to take off his shirt
Fifty years of Tuesday late night pizza, 35 years of Pepto Bismol from Nurse Theresa
Fifty years of the cast looking straight at the cue cards and 30 years of Drunk Wally holding the cue cards upside down

Fifty years of writers seeing Spielberg at Lorne’s monitors. Not laughing at one of their sketches that he obviously hated.
Fifty years of those same writers then getting wasted at the afterparty, and loudly telling everybody that “Jaws” was overrated.
Fifty years of prank calling some New York Magazine critic
Fifty years of finding out your favorite musician’s antisemitic

Fifty years of asking an intern to pick up your laundry at 2:30 AM
Not realizing that the intern was Martin Scorsese’s kid
Or Nora Ephron’s kid or Randy Newman’s kid
Or whoever Lorne had dinner with on Wednesday night’s kid

Fifty years of cast members saying, “I’m not getting on enough”
Their spirits are broken and their hearts are full of malice
Fifty years of then storming off to tell Lorne how they really feel
Then chickening out to say, “Hey Lorne, I knitted this scarf for Alice”

Fifty years of waking up Sunday afternoon depressed
Fifty years of Downey not writing the Cold Open until five minutes before dress
And Colin, fifty years of wondering whose gonna take over the show when Lorne retires
But everyone knows that the answer, of course, is Speedy

Fifty years of young comedians getting hired for the show
From stand-up, Groundlings, Second City, and all the rest
Fifty years of cast members saying, “I think our cast is the greatest of all time”
But we all know that the first cast was the best

And because of them, we got four years of Eddie Murphy
Eight years of Will Forte
Five years of Jan Hooks and Gilda
Six of Victoria, eleven of Che

Three years of Melanie Hutsell, Michael McKean crushed it in two
One of Billy Crystal, six of Dennis Miller, eight of Hartman, the glue
Seven years of Dratch and Wiig, five years of Oteri and Quinn
Four years of Kazurinsky and Cleghorne, eleven of Armisen

Fourteen years of Davis and Handey
Schiller and Smigel like 25
Eighteen of Audrey Dickman and Davey Wilson
Plus, Aymong and Disco and Bobby Van Ry

Thirty years of Downey
Forty-five years of Lorne
Six years of our boy Farley
Five of our buddy Norm

Fifty years of one of us getting to say, Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!
Fifty years of standing on homebase, waving good night and goodbye
Fifty years of the best times of our lives

One line that stood out because of how topical it is: “50 years of finding out your favorite musician’s antisemitic.” It’s most likely a dig at Kanye West’s troubles of late. West also appeared during Season 38 in 2013 when Ben Affleck hosted the season finale.

Outside of Sandler, there were a few other musical performances during SNL50. Paul Simon introduced the show with Sabrina Carpenter, playing “Homeward Bound.” Miley Cyrus and Brittany Howard sung Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.” Lil’ Wayne and The Roots performed a medley. Andy Samberg and Bowen Yang joined up in “Andy’s Song” about anxiety. Of course, SNL50 saved one of the best musical performances for last when Paul McCartney sung a medley of Beatles songs to end the night: “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” and “The End.”

Steve Martin kicked things off with a little help from John Mulaney and Martin Short. While Tina Fey and Amy Poehler didn’t return to the Weekend Update chairs, they did get to have some fun during the Audience Q&A. With so many celebrities and returning cast on hand, there’s only so much time to include everyone. For much of the older cast, their appearances were mostly limited to the many montages throughout the night. SNL wouldn’t be what it is without the first cast so it was nice to see a few of them throughout the show. In terms of older cast, Eddie Murphy stole the show during his “Black Jeopardy” appearance as Tracy Jordan.

SNL50 had parodied a number of musicals in “New York 50th Musical.” The sketch sees John Mulaney and Pete Davidson walk through the last several decades in New York. Joining them for the sketch were Taran Killam, Ana Gasteyer, Kristen Wiig, Kenan Thompson, Maya Rudolph, Will Forte, Jason Sudeikis, Cecily Strong, Nathan Lane, Nick Jonas, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Kate McKinnon, Scarlett Johansson, and Paul Rudd. Johansson participated in two musical numbers during the special–including a reunion with her Avengers co-star during a parody of Little Shop of Horrors. Is a live-action musical in her future plans?

Unlike the 40th Anniversary Special, recurring characters during SNL50 were limited more or less to this century. SNL50 wasn’t without acknowledging its own flaws. When Tom Hanks introduced an “In Memoriam” tribute, it was presented in a way that only SNL could so. Hanks proceeded to chew out audiences for laughing at the sketches–let’s be honest, those sketches and characters were wrong then and they’re wrong now. Rather than SNL50 paying tribute to departed cast and crew, they showed a montage of sketches and characters that didn’t age well. One of those characters is giving a Nazi salute with the text saying: “Maybe this is okay? Not sure.”

One thing you might find yourself asking is where was the political satire. Of all the things that SNL is known for, it’s the political satire, usually in the form of many cold opens through the years. There were bits and pieces during the show but most of it, if any, was relegated to the montages. By and large, it was missing. That’s okay and fine–in going through the Wiki on SNL40, if there were any political presence, it was only during montages highlighting the many years of SNL.

SNL50 was a treat. Here’s to the next fifty years.

SNL50: The Anniversary Special aired February 16, 2025 at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT on NBC and simulcast on Peacock. It is available to stream on Peacock. Grade: 4/5

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