Best and worst movies based on SNL sketches, plus some you may not know are tied to the show

We can talk about Marvel all day — the various phases, overlapping story lines, cameos, and Disney+ tie-ins. Or we could noodle over the equally expansive Star Wars universe (#InFiloniWeTrust). If you want to get historical, you can take it back to Maria Ouspenskaya and the Universal Classic Monsters, which kickstarted the notion of shared film universes way back in 1943 with Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. But let's not overlook one of pop culture's most enduring and homespun extended universes: the Saturday Night Live spinoff adaptation.

Nearly since the show premiered in 1975, there's been a steady drumbeat to expand popular sketches beyond the confines of live TV and onto the big screen. Most commonly, this has manifested in notable characters getting a feature-length platform. Over the years, nine films have been officially based on recurring SNL sketches — plus two sequels — while several other films have origins traceable directly to bits on the show (and that's not even counting all the movies chock-full of SNL stars like 1995's Tommy Boy or 2016's Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping). Let's dive into the best and worst movies based on SNL sketches, plus some you may not know were tied to the show at all.

The best

The Blues Brothers (1980)

Apologies to Mr. Mike's Mondo Video and Gilda Live, SNL-affiliated films that technically made it to movie theaters months before The Blues Brothers, but this classic ode to soul, R&B, and car crashes is the big bang. Flashback to 1978. John Belushi has accomplished the Triple Lindy — he's the star of the week's top-grossing film (Animal House), the top-rated TV series (SNL), and the lead singer on the top-selling record. The album? Briefcase Full of Blues, the Blues Brothers' debut.

With that clout, Belushi and his partner-in-crime Dan Aykroyd set upon a quest to bring their Blues Brothers to the big screen. The result was ambitious, messy, and, frankly, less a laugh-out-loud comedy than a heartfelt love letter to the kinds of artists who appear in the film: Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, and John Lee Hooker. Come for the musical performances, stay for the (surprisingly resonant) stand against Illinois Nazis.

Where to rent The Blues Brothers: Amazon Prime Video

Wayne's World (1992)

You may not know that Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) actually originated on the CBC in the mid-'80s as part of "Wayne's Power Minute" on a variety show called It's Only Rock & Roll. Or that Garth Algar is actually an impersonation of Dana Carvey's brother, Brad, the builder of the Video Toaster. Or that the director of Wayne's World, Penelope Spheeris, had a background in documentary filmmaking, overseeing the legendary exposé of the Los Angeles punk scene (The Decline of Western Civilization). Or that SNL creator Lorne Michaels and the studio wanted to use a Guns N' Roses song for the head-banging scene, but Myers insisted on Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," seeking out Freddie Mercury's approval for its usage mere months before his death.

So many variables needed to sync up just right to make this one an all-timer. Talk about comedy alchemy. But the results speak for themselves. There's a sweetness underpinning all the hijinks, catchphrases, and meta-commentary about the pitfalls of selling out. The movie shines brightest when it's nothing more than a well-observed, slice-of-life look at a couple of friends hanging out in suburban Aurora, Ill. Game on!

Where to watch Wayne's World: Max

MacGruber (2010)

Well, let's start here: The TV show MacGruber is many things. It's a parody of the '80s adventure series MacGyver. It's one of many recent reboots willed into existence by streaming services' incessant need for nostalgia-driven content. It's also a sequel to the 2010 cult film, based on a recurring Saturday Night Live sketch, one of the best things to ever come out of the Lonely Island cohort not starring Andy Samberg.

Across 91 blisteringly hilarious minutes, Will Forte anchors the film adaptation with an utterly committed performance as the self-centered and foolish title character. And, in contrast to some of the show's cheaper-seeming cash-grab adaptations, MacGruber's production value allows the film to look like the absurd '80s action films it parodies.

Where to watch MacGruber: Starz

The worst

It's Pat (1994)

With an astounding 0 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, It's Pat is not only one of the most ill-conceived premises to get the big-screen treatment, it's also genuinely unpleasant to watch. It's Pat performed so poorly at the box office — earning $60K against an $8 million budget — that Touchstone Pictures pulled it only one week after its release. Five nominations at the 16th Golden Raspberry Awards soon followed.

What's even more impressive is It's Pat's reputation has only diminished over time. The joke over Pat's androgyny has soured in modern times, leading star/writer Julia Sweeney to confront the awkward character's legacy of mocking gender nonconformity in a series of appearances and interviews.

Where to rent It's Pat: Amazon Prime Video

Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)

Super Bowl appearances and Weekend Update cameos are one thing, but Aykroyd and director John Landis' decision to continue the Elwood Blues saga on celluloid after Belushi's death borders on the unforgivable.

Not only is Jake Blues' magnetism and charisma sorely missing from this poorly executed follow-up, but Blues Brothers 2000 also lacks the original's knack for mayhem or passion for music. That '70s magic could not simply be summoned again, especially as nearly all parties involved approached middle age. Beyond being toothless and lame, it's a master class in incompetence.

Where to rent Blues Brothers 2000: Amazon Prime Video

The lackluster SNL Studios era

Somewhere in the middle lies the SNL Studios trilogy. In the wake of Wayne's World's unexpected success in 1992, Michaels and the executives at Paramount quickly sought to capitalize, rushing a sequel into production. Additionally, Aykroyd and Tom Davis were enlisted to revive Coneheads, a sketch that had last appeared on the show in early-1979. In 1997, the production company SNL Studios was founded.

By the end of the '90s, a new generation of SNL cast members was redefining the show's voice and ushering in their own brand of characters. From 1998 until 2000, three SNL Studios spin-offs were released — each one in early October and costarring a young Will Ferrell. In hindsight, it is remarkable audiences received Ferrell's early-2000s work in Zoolander, Old School, and Elf so warmly, considering he wasn't exactly a fresh face in movies.

A Night at the Roxbury (1998) is a textbook example of a thin premise getting shoehorned into a feature-length movie. There's a dark, compulsive energy to The Ladies Man (2000) that is never fully explored. And coupled with the Molly Shannon showcase, Superstar (1999), all three feel unfortunately undercooked with low production values and an unfair expectation to match the zeitgeisty Wayne's World. Maybe these quirky characters could have thrived in a less restrictive creative environment, but there's something left lacking in a mainstream sitcom-style template. Call it a missed opportunity.

Where to rent A Night at the Roxbury: Amazon Prime Video

Where to rent The Ladies Man: Amazon Prime Video

Where to rent Superstar: Amazon Prime Video

The off-beat and lesser known

Stuart Saves His Family (1995)

The best SNL adaptations manage to evolve beyond the sketches on which they're based. The Blues Brothers is devoted to championing Black music. Wayne's World gently satirizes life in suburbia. MacGruber mocks the Cold War-era action blockbusters of the '80s.

Similarly, Stuart Saves His Family delivers an honest look at trauma and family dysfunction. Directed (and largely ghost-written) by Harold Ramis, Stuart Saves His Family is a dramedy very much in his post-Groundhog Day wheelhouse. It's a character study not fully committed to replicating the down-the-middle laughs about self-help therapy that were the cornerstone of the Daily Affirmations sketch. Does it entirely work? No. But Stuart Saves His Family has some clear ideas it's trying to play out. Plus, it finds its star Al Franken at a crossroads: Following the movie's flop and his failure to become the next anchor on Weekend Update, a despondent Franken left SNL and committed himself to political punditry. Nearly 14 years after audiences rejected Stuart Saves His Family, he was elected as a United States senator.

Where to rent Stuart Saves His Family: Amazon Prime Video

Mr. Saturday Night (1992)

Talk about a winding trajectory. Buddy Young Jr. was first introduced in A Comic's Line, the 1984 HBO special, before popping up a little while later in a short film during season 10 of Saturday Night Live. Billy Crystal's cigar-smoking ode to old-school Borscht Belt insult comics then started appearing on Weekend Update.

Several years later, following Crystal's ascent as a movie star in films like When Harry Met Sally (1989), he began working on the feature-length story of his obnoxious alter ego while on the set of City Slickers (1991). The film reunited him with his Slickers' costar David Paymer, who would receive an Oscar nomination for his part. This is the first and only time the Academy Awards has recognized a performance from the extended SNLCU. History was made again when Mr. Saturday Night opened as a musical on Broadway in 2022, earning Crystal Tony nominations for acting and writing. Rockefeller Center is less than a mile from the Nederlander Theatre where Mr. Saturday Night played on Broadway — and it only took Crystal a little under four decades to get there!

Where to buy Mr. Saturday Night (1992): Amazon Prime Video

Where to watch Mr. Saturday Night: A New Musical Comedy: BroadwayHD

Mr. Saturday Night is not the only movie with an unorthodox origin at Studio 8H. During the Steve Guttenberg-hosted episode of season 12, Tim Robbins appeared in a short film as the affable, folk-singing cryptofascist Bob Roberts. Nearly six years later, Roberts received his own Altmanesque movie treatment with 1992's Bob Roberts (which Robbins wrote, directed, and starred in) — and returned to SNL in a campfire book-burning sketch costarring Chris Farley. The Washington Post said Bob Roberts "does for baby-kissing phonies what This Is Spinal Tap did for heavy metal poseurs."

Speaking of Spinal Tap, comedy fans in 2003 recalled that the presence of the Folksmen in Christopher Guest's A Mighty Wind could be linked back to the fourth episode of SNL's 10th season. Portrayed as conservatively dressed adult versions of their more bohemian younger selves, the Folksmen — a.k.a. Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean — are described by Pamela Stephenson as "the reunion of one of the great folk groups of the early 1960s."

They then perform several songs later shown in A Mighty Wind, including "Old Joe's Place." Shearer stated later the songs were intended to satirize "the fake folk music being written in office buildings in Manhattan's Upper West Side."

Lest you think SNL adaptations are confined to traditional sketches, consider that the 1999 film Office Space is based on the Milton cartoons that debuted in season 19. Even Milton's smarmy boss Bill Lumbergh (played in the movie by Gary Cole), appears.

And none other than Mr. Bill, the oft-abused clay figurine, once received his own Showtime special, Mr. Bill's Real Life Adventures.

Bob Roberts is not available to watch or rent

Where to rent A Mighty Wind: Amazon Prime Video

Where to watch Office Space: Max

Mr. Bill's Real Life Adventures is not available to watch or rent

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