Perhaps the best, funniest thing about Saturday Night Live is that it’s, well, live. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good sitcom, but there’s just something incredible about live TV that you can’t quite capture any other way. Anything can (and does!) happen, and it has a funny way of making us as the viewers feel as ~in on the joke~ — or, even better, the mishap — as all the cast members and celebrities on that stage.
One of the best examples of this, in my opinion, is when someone breaks character. Even though it’s unintentional, it can really bring a sketch from “meh” to downright hilarious. So, here are 33 iconic times cast members and celebrity hosts alike broke character and accidentally made everything soooo much funnier:
2.
Truly any “Debbie Downer” sketch, but the way every single person breaks in “Debbie Downer: Disney World” (bonus points for Horatio Sanz literally hiding his face in a Mickey-shaped waffle) makes it the very best:
3.
Honestly, the whole first “Close Encounter” sketch, because Ryan Gosling is a millisecond from full-on laughing the entire time, and it’s absolute perfection:
6.
When Aidy Bryant’s wardrobe assistant made the best possible mistake and ran on set too early in “Inside the Beltway,” thus making Aidy laugh so hard, she barely made it through the rest of the sketch:
Bonus points for Cecily and Kenan similarly fighting for their lives not to break character, too:
8.
When Kate McKinnon — QUEEN of not breaking character — was taken down by how gosh darn disgusting the basket of meat in the “Weekend Update: Smokery Farms” smelled:
9.
When Adam Driver tried to hit a fake bird with his cane for ~emphasis~ in “Career Day” and accidentally skewered it instead, making us all crack up just as hard as Pete Davidson was:
12.
When Candice Bergen messed up her line in “Extremely Stupid” and couldn’t stop laughing long enough to recover, so Gilda Radner delivered this gem:
13.
When Pete Davidson was literally all of us watching Kenan Thompson and John Mulaney in “Diner Lobster,” aka he was full out, not-even-trying-to-hide-it laughing when the camera switched over to him:
14.
When Will Ferrell sent Sean Hayes and Jimmy Fallon into hysterics when he pulled out the tiniest flip phone known to man in “Jeffrey’s”:
17.
When Will Ferrell’s character in the “Dr. Beaman’s Office: Test Results” sketch was so funny, it had him hiding a smile behind his hands and made Molly Shannon laugh so hard, she struggled to regain her composure for a hot minute:
19.
When Tracy Morgan and Kenan Thompson had every last person in the “Scared Straight: Underage Drinking” sketch fighting for their lives not to break (and, evidently, losing):
23.
When Margot Robbie very quickly learned how impossible it is to get through a sketch with Kate McKinnon without laughing in “Actress Round Table”:
26.
When Megan Thee Stallion tried her best, but Kenan Thompson fighting off a deer had her giggling all through this “Deer” sketch:
TBH, I highly recommend you watch this one for yourself, because Megan going from laughing to being 100% back in character in a millisecond (and then doing the same thing all over again) is 10/10:
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27.
When Seann William Scott put up a good fight, but even he wasn’t immune to cracking up over Will Ferrell’s patriotic look in “Short Shorts for the USA”:
28.
When Kenan Thompson and Pete Davidson simply couldn’t take Leslie Jones breastfeeding Dave Chappelle’s character in “Football Party”:
30.
When Ryan Gosling couldn’t help himself when Aidy Bryant went to pull a gun out of his pants…while dressed like this in “Henrietta”:
33.
And finally, the forever iconic “Californians” sketch, in which Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, and even Fred Armisen were constantly on the verge of breaking:
You can watch all these moments (and all 48 seasons!) on Peacock.