By Drew Grant 5/14 10:45pm

Saturday Night Live

Bill Hader leaving SNL. (NBC)

Watch for the Bill Hader-Sized Hole in Saturday Night Live Next Season (Video)

Well this was quite the turn of events. If anyone was going to leave SNL in-between seasons, we knew it would Seth Meyers, who is taking over Jimmy Fallon’s old spot. After him, we would have put our money on Jason Sudeikis saying goodbye, since he’s always trying to negotiate his way off the show in order, we assume, to spend more time banging Olivia Wilde. (Can you blame him?) Or what about Fred Armisen, who already has one foot out the door with his IFC show, Portlandia? (Which, it should be mentioned, is produced by Lorne Michaels.)

If we had to think of a fourth person to leave, we’d probably guess Keenan Thompson, whose perpetually youthful appearance belies the fact that the 35-year-old has been working on the NBC variety sketch show for a decade now.

We just weren’t expecting today’s news that our favorite male performer (okay fine, tied for first with Taran Killam,) Bill Hader would be announcing his departure. Why, Stefon, why??? Read More

By Drew Grant 3/11 3:27pm

Saturday Night Live

Video

Timberlake on Saturday Night Live with Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short (NBC

Justin Timberlake’s Triumphant Return to Saturday Night Live Brings Back Banned Chevy [Video]

We knew this weekend’s Saturday Night Live would be good–Justin Timberlake being to the variety show what fruit and sprinkles are to plain frozen yogurt … just something that you know will make the whole supposed treat actually delicious–but did we know it was going to be history-making? Probably not. From Lorne Michaels lifting the Chevy Chase ban to the Jay-Z duet, the return of Stefon, Andy Samberg AND the classic Festrunk brothers, Mr. Timberlake proved once again he’s the consummate entertainer: a song-and-dance man who also can also land a punchline.

Which is more than we can say for the majority of guest hosts this year. Below, the five best moments from this weekend’s show, along with our favorites. Read More

By Drew Grant 2/24/12 9:00am

Comedy

The hottest new comedy blog is SplitSider! (NBC)

New York’s Hottest Nightclubs… Illustrated

Splitsider, the comedy blog edited by Adam Frucci and published by those nice folks over at The Awl, is usually great by default: there aren’t a lot of other straight-up humor blogs of any value on the web that aren’t Tumblrs owned by comedians, so the bar is set pretty low. Interviews with funny people, weekly concept pieces, some original writing, a tweet round-up, and boom: you’re the best source of comedy news on the Internet.

But once in awhile Mr. Frucci’s crew finds a truly inspired way to report on comedy trends, like having a bunch of illustrators interpret the horrific-sounding clubs described by Saturday Night Live‘s Nightlife Correspondent, Stefon. Read More

By Drew Grant 12/15/11 2:45pm

Saturday Night Live

Stefon meets Norman Rockwell (via Mediaite)

This Is Your Stefon-Themed Saturday Night Live Holiday Card

By far, the best thing Saturday Night Live has brought us in the past two years has been Bill Hader‘s “Weekend Update” character Stefon: the club promoter/city correspondent whose ideas for “family fun” usually involve some combination of terrifying dungeon imagery, punny drag queen names, and politically incorrect uses for “midgets.” (Their word, not ours.)

That’s why this holiday season, the best gift you could get is one sent to you by the cast and crew of Saturday Night Live, featuring Stefon in the set of the Norman Rockwell “Freedom From Want” painting.

This was first put online (to the best of our knowledge) by theater publicist Aaron Meier, who received one of the cards and put it on Tumblr, where it was subsequently picked up by Mediaite.

For a larger photo, check below. And then forward to all your friends and family, because this picture definitively answers the question “Buh-whaaa?” Read More