SNL Trivia
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98 free SNL trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
54 free SNL trivia questions with answers. Saturday Night Live has been broadcasting from Studio 8H since October 1975, which means fifty years of cast members, catchphrases, walk-offs and Weekend Update anchors to argue about. This SNL trivia quiz runs the whole history: the Not Ready for Prime Time Players, the disastrous season without Lorne Michaels, Eddie Murphy's rescue, the Church Lady and Wayne's World, the Bad Boys era, More Cowbell, the Digital Shorts and the three-hour 50th anniversary special. The early questions are ones any casual viewer can get (who created the show, where it is filmed, what the cold open ends with). From there it gets tougher: which host was banned after one appearance, who lip-synced before Ashlee Simpson, which musical guest was cut to one song for hanging upside-down flags, and how old the youngest cast member ever was. Every answer has been checked against the published record and carries a linked source, so you can settle a Five-Timers dispute on the spot. Good for a comedy-nerd trivia night, a group chat, or testing whether you really have watched every era.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01SNL airs live on NBC and, since the 2021–22 season, simultaneously on which streaming service?
Peacock
Peacock's live simulcasts came months after SNL streamed Elon Musk's May 2021 episode live on YouTube to international viewers.
Q 02From which 30 Rockefeller Plaza studio has SNL been broadcast since 1975?
Studio 8H
Studio 8H was the home of Toscanini's NBC Symphony Orchestra; when NBC converted it to television in 1950, the orchestra's broadcast concerts moved to Carnegie Hall.
Q 03How does a typical SNL cold open end?
"Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"
"Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" was first said by Chevy Chase in 1975, right after Michael O'Donoghue's teacher dropped dead of a heart attack and John Belushi's student copied him.
Q 04Which comedian hosted the very first SNL episode on October 11, 1975?
George Carlin
George Carlin hosted that premiere, which also booked a young Billy Crystal, but Crystal's act was cut and he didn't appear until later that season.
Q 05What was SNL's original 1975 cast nicknamed?
The Not Ready for Prime-Time Players
The Not Ready for Prime-Time Players name poked at ABC's rival Howard Cosell variety show, whose three-person comedy troupe was billed as the Prime Time Players.
Q 06As of 2025, who is the longest-serving cast member in SNL history?
Kenan Thompson
Kenan Thompson, a cast member since 2003, said in 2013 he would stop playing Black women in drag until SNL hired Black women for the cast.
Q 07Which Chicago improv theater produced SNL's John Belushi, Chris Farley and Tim Meadows?
The Second City
The Second City took its self-mocking name from A. J. Liebling's derisive New Yorker articles about Chicago.
Q 08Which two SNL cast members created the Blues Brothers?
Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi
Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi first sang the blues on SNL in January 1976 dressed as bees, two years before the Blues Brothers debuted in black suits.
Q 09Wayne and Garth host their public-access show Wayne's World from a basement in which Illinois town?
Aurora
Aurora, Illinois is Wayne's World's hometown; Garth's halting voice and tech-nerd streak came from his actor's older brother, Brad.
Q 10In the More Cowbell sketch, Christopher Walken's producer oversees which band's session?
Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult's recording session cracked up the cast, and Jimmy Fallon, playing the drummer, couldn't stop laughing on air.
Q 11Which flamboyant SNL nightclub guide told Update about clubs that had "everything"?
Stefon
Stefon's voice came from a barista Bill Hader knew, and co-writer John Mulaney kept changing his cue cards right before air to make Hader break.
Q 12Which actor holds the record for hosting SNL the most times?
Alec Baldwin
He took the record from Steve Martin, and later won an Emmy for his recurring Donald Trump.
Q 13Tina Fey returned to SNL in 2008 to play which real politician?
Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin was the target, and "I can see Russia from my house" was a line written for the sketch and spoken by Fey as Palin.
Q 21Which 2005 SNL Digital Short about smuggling cupcakes into a Narnia matinee helped put YouTube on the map?
Lazy Sunday
Lazy Sunday drew five million YouTube views within days, but NBC Universal then had YouTube pull the bootleg copies along with hundreds of other NBC clips.
Q 22In 1992 Sinéad O'Connor tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II while performing which Bob Marley song?
War
"War" was the song, with some lyrics rewritten to call out child abuse, before she tore up the pope's photo and told viewers to "fight the real enemy."
Q 23Which singer did a brief jig and walked off SNL's stage when the wrong pre-recorded vocal track began playing?
Ashlee Simpson
Q 14Which clay children's-TV character did Eddie Murphy reinvent as a morose, cigar-chomping cynic?
Gumby
Gumby, created by Art Clokey in the 1950s, enjoyed a real-world comeback in the 1980s after the SNL parody.
Q 15Which host's December 1990 SNL episode introduced the Five-Timers Club sketch?
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks was hosting for the fifth time, and the club sketch welcomed Paul Simon too, though Simon had actually hosted only four times.
Q 16Which SNL character's 2004 Disney World breakfast sketch made nearly everyone on camera break?
Debbie Downer
Debbie Downer grew out of a Costa Rica vacation where Rachel Dratch's small talk froze after someone asked if she'd been in New York for 9/11.
Q 17Which future TV star, then an SNL writer, created Chris Farley's van-dwelling motivational speaker Matt Foley?
Bob Odenkirk
Bob Odenkirk wrote Matt Foley for Chris Farley, who named the loud, hapless speaker after a real friend of his, a soft-spoken Catholic priest.
Q 18The Church Lady, host of Church Chat, was a signature character of which cast member?
Dana Carvey
Dana Carvey based the Church Lady on women from his childhood church who kept track of everyone's attendance.
Q 19Under what title did SNL premiere in 1975, since ABC already had a Howard Cosell show with the later name?
NBC's Saturday Night
NBC's Saturday Night became Saturday Night Live only after ABC cancelled Cosell's show and NBC bought the rights to the name.
Q 20Which comedian replaced Cecily Strong beside Colin Jost at SNL's Weekend Update desk in 2014?
Michael Che
Michael Che had just left SNL's writing staff for a brief Daily Show correspondent stint when he was brought back to co-anchor Update.
Ashlee Simpson's plan to lip-sync was news to Lorne Michaels, who said he would never have allowed it had he known.
Q 24Who was the first woman to host SNL, on the fourth episode in 1975?
Candice Bergen
Candice Bergen went on to host five times, and she has since returned in cameos to welcome newer Five-Timers such as Emma Stone.
Q 25As of 2025, which musician is SNL's most frequent musical guest, with more than a dozen appearances since 1992?
Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl drummed with Tom Petty on SNL in 1994, then turned down Petty's offer to join the Heartbreakers and started Foo Fighters instead.
Q 26Which SNL announcer voiced the opening credits from 1975 until his death in 2014?
Don Pardo
Don Pardo officially retired and moved to Arizona, but Lorne Michaels asked him to stay on, and he kept announcing SNL until his death.
Q 27Which SNL star played Roseanne Roseannadanna, whose catchphrase was 'It's always something'?
Gilda Radner
Gilda Radner later made It's Always Something the title of her 1989 memoir about her fight with ovarian cancer.
Q 28Which comedian joined SNL's cast in 1977 to replace Chevy Chase, who had left during season 2?
Bill Murray
Bill Murray later came to blows with Chevy Chase backstage in 1978, when Chase returned to host the show.
Q 29The Coneheads first appeared in a 1977 episode hosted by which consumer advocate?
Ralph Nader
Beldar (Aykroyd), Prymaat (Curtin) and Connie (Newman) claimed to be from France; the 1993 film brought them back.
Q 30Which producer took over SNL for the 1980-81 season after Lorne Michaels and the original cast left?
Jean Doumanian
Jean Doumanian lasted less than a year before NBC replaced her with Dick Ebersol, who had helped develop the show in 1975.