This evening, pop culture’s funniest will gather to celebrate 40 years of Saturday Night Live during the show’s 40th Anniversary Special. Over 100 special guests will toast to fond memories and favorite sketches. Since this Valentine’s Day weekend is all about love, we’re hosting our own tribute to SNL by looking back at some of the show’s most beloved couples. We’re not talking about those moments in the series where two men kiss as the punchline of a joke. These amorous duos showed us what love is while making strangers uncomfortable, rubbing their coneheads together, and singing off-key.
Professors Roger (Will Ferrell) and Virginia (Rachel Dratch) Klarvin are the two lovers (or love-ahs, as they would say) who intrude upon the personal space of random strangers in the night. They enjoy asking uncomfortable questions about people’s sex lives and can often be found sleazing it up in hot tubs. Their own torrid tales usually end in a frenzied make-out sesh — which Roger spoils by complaining about his back injury. Perhaps the funniest part of this recurring sketch is watching Ferrel and Dratch break character in fits of laughter.
Josh and Laura Zimmerman (Chris Kattan, Cheri Oteri) are the hilariously horny couple who make their guests uncomfortable with sexually suggestive behavior (screaming, cursing, and grinding galore) — even though they always deny any wrongdoing.
The relationship status of ill-prepared singing duo Garth and Kat is a little unclear, but we’re counting them as one of our favorite couples thanks to their incoherent improvisations and truly terrible songs. The couple that wears matching ugly sweater vests together, stays together.
Pop culture power couple Kanye West and Kim Kardashian were given the SNL treatment in this sketch series. The duo has their own talk show, Waking up with Kimye. It’s hard to resist Jay Pharoah’s yelping Kanye (à la “Black Skinhead”) and Nasim Pedrad’s vacant, whiny Kim is missed.
Natives of the planet Remulak (stranded on Earth), the Coneheads consist of father Beldar (Dan Aykroyd), mother Prymaat (Jane Curtin), and daughter Connie (Laraine Newman). The family of fiveheads may be extraterrestrial aliens, but they still do everything humans do — even when it comes to being romantic.
Gilda Radner and Bill Murray’s beloved Lisa and Todd make up The Nerds, inspired by Elvis Costello according to writer Anne Beatts. The goofy couple gave each other noogies and poked fun at each other — though Lisa was often the target of Todd’s teasing. Radner and Murray were an item during the start of SNL. ”Todd and Lisa ended up mirroring [Murray and Radner’s] relationship in a sick way,” Beatts wrote in the book American Nerd. “Billy had this girlfriend who he ended up marrying . . . and when Gilda would laugh louder at all of his sketches when they were being read, you knew that they were together. But I think that mild sadism of Todd toward Lisa was a reflection of the dynamic of their relationship.”
Fred Armisen and Maya Rudolph played SNL’s Euro couple, the modern art-obsessed Nuni and Nuni Schoener. The sketches mainly revolved around the mispronunciation of their near-identical names, but visiting the pair’s house full of furniture that resembled absurd torture devices was the shining moment of the sketch series.
Tina Fey and her Brownie Husband, “a perfect blend of rich fudge and emotional intimacy,” appeared in one of SNL’s greatest prerecorded segments. Brownie Husband’s warm burst of caramel surprise makes him the “companion dessert” of our dreams.
The Vogelchecks put most newlywed couples to shame. They’re a French-kissing family who love each other ¬— and we do mean, love each other. Mom and dad Vogelcheck are frisky as can be, but when it comes to a family that makes out indiscriminately, it’s hard to say who else might be a couple amongst the group.
Christopher Walken’s suave player in SNL’s The Continental sketches woos an unseen woman on the other side of the camera (presumably us). In reality, Walker’s mustachioed Romeo is a creeper who can’t take no for an answer and will stop at nothing from trying to keep his lady friend inside his apartment. We love a woman who stands her ground, as Walken’s date does — but unfortunately for her, so does Walken’s ladies’ man.
The Seth and Stefon romance was never made official, but there’s no denying the electricity between these two — especially during that extra-long kiss.