Time can now be divided by a single event: before and after Elmo impersonated Lorne Michaels. But that’s just one of the many amazing bits that happened when Saturday Night Live hired the crew from Sesame Street as sketch comedy writers… not that the iconic characters totally understood what SNL meant by “sketch.”
In a delightful social media video SNL‘s Mikey Day oversaw an unusual Saturday Night Live writers’ room. He led a writing session that featured his fellow co-stars Kenan Thompson, Ashley Padilla, and Sarah Sherman along with Sesame Street‘s Elmo, Cookie Monster, Grover, Abby Cadabby, Oscar the Grouch, and the Two-Headed Monster.
Instead of developing any new material, though, they went classic SNL by relying on classic sketches. Only these retreads ruled because they came with a Sesame Street twist. Highlights include Cookie Monsters as Chris Farley’s iconic character Matt Foley. Padilla and Elmo also went full Wayne and Garth. Elmo also gave us “Elmingo,” his version of Marcello Hernandez’s Domingo. Oscar accidentally ended up in a Debbie Downer sketch. And Sarah Sherman found her soul mates by creating a Three-Headed Monster.
But the greatest moment of this sketch, which might also triple as the greatest moment in both Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live‘s respective histories, came when Elmo busted out his impression of Lorne Michaels. “Well, you know, it’s the first time we were all together. Paul and Paul and Snuffleupagus…”
Is that the most perfect joke to ever come out of SNL? C’mon. There’s no way to quantify something like that. But also yes. Obviously yes. And it’s so good it makes us hope the denizens of Sesame Street stick around at Studio 8H long enough to pitch a sketch where Lorne, Elmo, Paul, Paul, and Snuffleupagus go out to dinner together.