The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches introduced during the forty-first season of SNL, which began on October 3, 2015.
The shooting of a porn movie is regularly interrupted by a young girl (Aidy Bryant), seemingly unaware of the fictional aspect of the scene she has stumbled into.
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 10, 2015 | The girl interrupts "Hot For Teacher 8" starring Schumer and Kyle Mooney because she needs help going over the day's lesson. [1] | ||
| January 16, 2016 | The girl interrupts "The Doctor is in... My Butt 4" starring Driver as Dr. Rockhard and Beck Bennett. [2] | ||
| November 18, 2017 | The girl interrupts "Skank Babysitter 17" starring Chance and Heidi Gardner thinking that a pizza delivery is real despite her already having eaten dinner. [3] | ||
An array of eccentric people monopolize the podium during the public comments segment of different public events such as a city council or school board meeting.
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 10, 2015 | Bakersfield, California city council meeting. [4] | ||
| January 23, 2016 | Again, citizens speak at a Bakersfield, California city council meeting. [5] | ||
| October 2, 2021 | Parents speak about COVID-19 safety policies at a school board meeting. [6] | ||
| January 29, 2022 | Tenants speak at an apartment building's tenant meeting. [7] | ||
Three people are being interrogated about a paranormal encounter or phenomenon they experienced. But Colleen Rafferty's (Kate McKinnon) recollection of the events vastly differs from the other two (played by Cecily Strong, typically, and the host), and is filled with unsavory details.
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 5, 2015 | Close Encounter, with Kate McKinnon, Gosling, Strong, Aidy Bryant, and Bobby Moynihan. [8] | ||
| May 7, 2016 | Near-Death Experience, with McKinnon, Larson, Strong, Aidy Bryant, and Bobby Moynihan. [9] | ||
| December 17, 2016 | Christmas Miracle, with McKinnon, Affleck, Strong, Aidy Bryant, and Bobby Moynihan. [10] | ||
| September 30, 2017 | Another Close Encounter, with McKinnon, Gosling, Strong, Aidy Bryant, and Mikey Day. [11] | ||
| November 10, 2018 | Paranormal Occurrence, with McKinnon, Schreiber, Strong, Aidy Bryant, and Mikey Day. [12] | ||
| May 18, 2019 | A Journey Through Time, with McKinnon, Rudd, Strong, Aidy Bryant, and Mikey Day. [13] | ||
| May 21, 2022 | Final Encounter, McKinnon's final episode as a cast member. With Lyonne, Strong, Aidy Bryant, and Mikey Day. [14] | ||
| April 13, 2024 | Close Encounter, McKinnon appears in a cameo. With Gosling, Sarah Sherman, Bowen Yang, and Mikey Day. [15] | ||
Deenie (Kate McKinnon) inaccurately recaps her favorite shows on Weekend Update while eating from a plastic container.
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 19, 2015 | Deenie gives a year-end wrap-up of daytime soaps while she eats baked salmon. [16] | ||
| April 9, 2016 | Deenie discusses The People v. O. J. Simpson with Colin Jost while eating brussels sprouts and imitation crab. [17] | ||
An Undercover Boss parody where Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) goes undercover as a low level employee to interact with his subordinates.
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 16, 2016 | Kylo Ren goes undercover as Matt, a radar technician. [18] | ||
| January 25, 2020 | Kylo Ren goes undercover as Randy, an entry level intern. [19] | ||
The presenter of an animal-based video clip show invites the two presenters of a French similar series, Joelle LaRue and Noelle LeSoup (Cecily Strong, Kate McKinnon). He asks them to cohost the show and provide silly voiceovers for the clips. But said voiceovers turn out to be more depressing than their American counterpart.
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 16, 2016 | Finn Raynal-Beads (Driver) presents America's Funniest Cats with LaRue and LeSoup. [20] | ||
| October 22, 2016 | Ron Howard (Hanks) presents America's Funniest Pets with LaRue and LeSoup. [21] | ||
Adventurers down on their luck are rescued by beautiful mermaids, including Shud (Kate McKinnon), a part-woman, part-blobfish mermaid who doesn't exactly enchant the men she's trying to seduce.
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 12, 2016 | Mermaids (Grande, Cecily Strong, McKinnon) of different aquatic species rescue three sailors (Beck Bennett, Taran Killam, and Bobby Moynihan) from a watery grave. Each mermaid needs to receive a kiss in order to become fully human. [22] | ||
| March 11, 2017 | A World War 2 fighter pilot (Mikey Day) is shot down and falls into the sea but is rescued by Titacles (Beck Bennett) and must marry one of his mermaid daughters (Cecily Strong, Sasheer Zamata, McKinnon, Johansson). Cunk (Johansson) is 92% angler fish and grotesque like Shud. [23] | ||
Despite her big stature and general clumsiness, Shanice Goodwin (Leslie Jones), cashier by day and ninja by night, is inexplicably a master of stealth.
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 9, 2016 | Shanice rescues the ambassador's daughter (Vanessa Bayer) who has been kidnapped by the Russian mob (Crowe, Jon Rudnitsky, Kenan Thompson, Taran Killam). [24] | ||
| March 11, 2017 | Sensei (Bobby Moynihan) has been kidnapped by the British mob (Mikey Day, Kyle Mooney, Beck Bennett, Alex Moffat, Kenan Thompson). Shanice joins her rival Dominika (Johansson) to rescue him. [25] | ||
Pete Davidson plays Chad, an apathetic, easily distracted youth with limited conversational skills whose catchphrase is "okay". He's the heartbreaker of several people decades older than him, but he couldn't care less about their grand declarations of love. In one instance, he is the obsession of a psychopathic serial killer, but Chad takes no notice of the killer's attempts to torment him.
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 16, 2016 | Pool Boy [26] | ||
| November 5, 2016 | Office Hours [27] | ||
| October 7, 2017 | The Chosen One [28] | ||
| December 2, 2017 | Bachelor Auction [29] | ||
| January 20, 2018 | Doctor's Orders [30] | ||
| March 2, 2019 | The Unknown Caller [31] | ||
| May 4, 2019 | (Cut for Time) Chad's Journey | ||
| December 7, 2019 | Chad & JLo [32] | ||
| February 8, 2020 | Chad & RuPaul [33] | ||
| October 24, 2020 | Chad in a Haunted Mansion [34] | ||
| May 8, 2021 | Chad on Mars [35] | ||
A group of suburban mothers engage in cult-like behavior in trying to convert a newer, inexperienced mother into doing something that proved them of their motherhood.
| Season | Episode | Host | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 7, 2016 | The moms convince a soon-to-be mother (Brie Larson) at her baby shower to get the "mom" haircut. As she realizes that she's transitioning to mom behaviors, the cut magically appears on her head. [36] | ||
| May 13, 2017 | The moms explain to a new neighbor (Melissa Villaseñor) the ritual of choosing a "mom" animal to represent their entire personality. [37] | ||