Sir Paul McCartney was among the many celebrities who turned out in New York over the weekend to celebrate 50 years of long-running comedy show Saturday Night Live
19:17, 17 Feb 2025
Sir Paul McCartney was the butt of a joke during the star-studded 50th anniversary celebration of Saturday Night Live.
The long-running late night American comedy show has made huge stars out of the writers and performers that have taken part in the show over the past five decades. Eddie Murphy, Kristen Wiig, Adam Sandler are just some of the major celebrities that owe their careers to the show - which continues to churn out talented creatives.
On Saturday night, a huge special was recorded in celebration of SNL's 50th landmark - with Beatles icon Paul part of the celebrations. The 82-year-old Yellow Submarine singer took to the stage towards the end of the special where he belted out Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight and The End in a medley - while celebrities sang along.
But as Only Murders In The Building star Martin Short took to the stage to bring the special to a close, he brutally snubbed the Beatle. The Canadian actor and comedian rattled off a long list of acknowledgements as he thanked those involved in the special - but forgot Paul, who was standing right beside him.
READ MORE: 'My fiancé got a Dyson hairdryer but I've used it more than her - it dries my beard in a minute'The 74-year-old instead continued to name almost everyone else in the room - while Paul looked stunned as he was ignored during the final monologue. But then Martin finally turned to the chart superstar in mock surprise, and said: "Oh! And Paul," as those around broke into laughter.
Many other icons were part of the celebrations on Saturday night - with the star-studded show airing in the USA on Sunday. Acting legend Jack Nicholson made a rare appearance on the comedy show as he introduced Adam Sandler who then sang a song in honour of the show's history.
Adam, 58, then sang: "Everyone in this room has something in common. All of our lives were changed by the show... 50 years of writers seeing Spielberg at Lorne’s monitors, not laughing at one of their sketches that he obviously hated.
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“50 years of those same writers getting wasted at the after party and loudly telling everybody that ‘Jaws ‘was overrated." As he went on, he declared: "we know that the first cast was the best." And he then sang: "We got four years of Eddie Murphy, eight years of Will Forte, five years of Jan Hooks and Gilda [Radner], six of Victoria [Jackson], 11 of [Michael] Che, three years of Melanie Hutsell, Michael McKean crushed it in two. One of Billy Crystal, six of Dennis Miller, eight of [Phil] Hartman, the glue."
The segment was a hit with viewers, with many branding it the highlight of the night. One wrote on X: "Sandler never misses.. from Water Boy and Big Daddy to everything else.. wish Norm MacDonald could’ve lived long enough to be a part of this special segment." While another emotional fan wrote: "Did not expect this song to make me cry."
The comedy show was not without controversy, however - with Tom Hanks being slammed for mocking Trump supporters. He revived a character named Doug who he first played as a simple minded Republican voter in the lead up to the 2016 American elections - which Donald Trump narrowly won. But the character went down less well this year, as Trump won by a landslide in 2024, with many viewers calling out Hanks's performance for coming across as dated.
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