Saturday Night Live UK: 11 Funniest And Most Memorable Sketches So Far

There may have been cynicism when it first announced, but now that Saturday Night Live UK is up and running, there’s really no arguing with the show’s success.

After pulling in a steady viewership and winning over critics, the show has also managed to attract some impressive guest hosts (with even more to come in the weeks ahead!) and, most crucially of all, deliver some genuinely laugh-out-loud comedy sketches.

With the show taking a scheduled break now it’s reached its halfway point, we thought this would be the moment to pause and reflect on some of SNL UK’s best moments so far, and the sketches that have had us howling the hardest.

Here’s our quick ranking of the best SNL UK skits from the first half of season one…

11. Pub Song

Probably the most viral moment of the season fell early on in episode two, when the UK cast jetted off to Spain to engage in one of the nation’s favourite past-times – spending their whole holiday in the “British-themed pub”.

The observational humour helped make this one of SNL UK’s most-watched videos on YouTube, but the kicker comes right at the end when cast member Jack Shep contemplates that there has “got to be more to Spain than British-themed pubs”.

It’s then up to guest host Jamie Dornan to offer up: “I know a place…”

10. William Shakespeare goes to London

Back in the very first episode, the writers pondered exactly what would have happened if William Shakespeare’s frequent trips to London in Hamnet were a little more contemporary.

Highlights include the show’s first C-bomb (guest host Tina Fey had already celebrated that the cast could swear a lot more liberally than her cohorts across the pond), the first appearance of the Bard sporting a canvas tote bag and George Fouracres’ Shakespeare literally transforming into Jack Shep midway through ths sketch.

9. Falling Down A Hill With Helen Birch

What we love about this one is that you know right from the off what to expect, but Celeste Dring does such a good job of crafting the character of Helen Birch in an incredibly short space of time that you’re still caught off guard when the inevitable happened.

Perhaps not big or clever, but still very, very funny.

8. Keir Starmer tries to cheer up the nation

In the modern era, the US version of SNL has become known for skewering political figures – namely Donald Trump – and the British version made sure early on to let viewers know that they’d be doing the same.

For the most part, the political send-ups in SNL UK are much closer to home, with George Fouracres doing a great job of parodying Keir Starmer in a number of sketches so far.

Our favourite of the current offering is this one, with the PM nervously struggling through lines like “in the strongest possible terms… hello” and “for those who missed it, here’s a summary… you didn’t miss much” before relying on national treasures like Olivia Colman (sent up brilliantly by Emma Sidi) and Annabel Marlowe’s Peppa Pig to try and boost morale.

7. Peter Pan

In one of Jack Whitehall’s most off-the-wall skits from his episode, the comedian took on the role of childhood fave Peter Pan, reuniting with Wendy as an adult to try and win her over, only to discover she’s happily married and settled down.

This segment had some great physical comedy as Jack showed off his “flying” skills – but regrettably hasn’t been uploaded online anywhere, so we’d recommend giving it a stream on Now or Sky to check out what makes it so great.

6. The Bastard Seagull

The saga of The Bastard Seagull is a shining example of stand-out cast member George Fouracres starting off with a relatively silly concept (delivered completely deadpan) and running with it in a completely ridiculous direction.

It’s also a perfect meeting between the off-the-wall sketches you might associate with the usual SNL franchise, but sprinkled with unmistakably British humour.

5. Melania Trump tries her hand at some drinking games

The UK cast proved that they can skewer the Trumps as well as our cousins on the other side of the Atlantic with this cold open.

While Donald Trump himself still remains an unseen presence on SNL UK, Emma Sidi does a hilarious Melania in the above introductory sketch, which sees the First Lady crashing a barbecue in Croydon for no reason other than to let everyone present know that she has no ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

4. 45 Seconds With Fouracres

We were kind of hoping 45 Seconds With Fouracres would be a recurring feature when it was first introduced in episode one, but if this off-the-wall rendition of What Kind Of Irish Is Your Grandad? Does end up being the only instalment, at least it was an especially memorable one.

Excellent cameo from Nicola Coughlan, too.

3. Night Time Incident

We’d love to know how a sketch about putting the clocks forward even became a thing – let alone how it became a nightmarish home invasion riff featuring a villainous Jools Holland.

There’s great delivery of lines like “right on time – Sting’ll be pleased” and “join me in my boogie-woogie wonderland forever!”, but the best of the lot has to be Al Nash as a Jools double, declaring: “Well, I’m not called Jool Holland, am I? Ha ha!”

2. Mastermind

SNL UK, you had us at “things my mum has told me about people I’ve never met and have no connection to”. Brilliant stuff.

As a sidenote, who would have thought that a spot-on impression of Clive Myrie could be so funny, perhaps aided by the fact that Hammed Animashaun is actually a former Celebrity Mastermind champion (his specialist subject was the American version of The Office, if you’re interested).

1. Traitors: A Very Confident Mistake

This send-up of The Traitors has all the makings of an all-time great SNL sketch.

It starts with a spot-on celebrity impersonation (Celeste Dring as Claudia Winkleman), goes on to harpoon a series issue (the racial bias that has become a talking point among Traitors viewers over the last few years) and does it in a hilarious and absurd way that includes visual gags, some silly nods to the reality show that has captured the whole nation’s attention and, of course, a massive “great big crab man” costume.

Saturday Night Live UK returns to Sky and Now on 25 April, with Nicola Coughlan set to guest host.