Saturday Night Live is a sketch comedy TV show, but it’s made the jump to the big screen eleven times (including two sequels).
Nine recurring SNL sketches have been adapted as movies, giving iconic characters new lives and backstories that were never possible during three minutes on live TV. Finally, Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan’s Roxbury guys had lines of dialogue, and the Blues Brothers’ crimes were exposed.
The sketches that became films ranged from musical performances to basement talk shows and high-stakes action scenes, but they all had at least three things in common: To quote Stuart Saves His Family‘s protagonist Stuart Smalley, they’re good enough, they’re smart enough, and doggone it, people like them. In fact, movies like Wayne’s World have become fan favorites shared across generations.
Take a look back at all the recurring SNL sketches that were made into movies below.
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The Blues Brothers (1980)
Original Not Ready for Prime Time Players Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi debuted their love of the blues in Season 1, singing the 1957 Slim Harpo song “I’m a King Bee” while dressed as the Killer Bees. It wasn’t until Season 3 in 1978 when they’d appear again, dressed in the now-iconic black suits and sunglasses, to sing “Soul Man” on SNL.
Aykroyd originally wrote a 324 page script for the film version, which director John Landis turned into the 1980 film about Joliet Jake (Belushi) and Elwood Blues (Aykroyd), two soul-loving fugitives from Illinois trying to raise money to save their childhood orphanage on “a mission from God.”
After Belushi’s death in 1982, John Goodman joined the band as Mighty Mack McTeer for the sequel. Blues Brothers 2000 came out in 1998, and followed Elwood getting out of prison and reforming the band after Jake’s death. The film was dedicated to Belushi as well as the late Chris Farley, John Candy, and Cab Calloway.
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Wayne’s World (1992)
The first “Wayne’s World” sketch, in which teens Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) hosted a basement public-access show about movies, babes, and rock & roll, aired on February, 1989 during Season 14.
In the 1992 Wayne’s World movie, a sleazy TV producer (Rob Lowe) brings the boys out of the basement, hoping to turn a local public-access show into a nationwide hit. The movie is particularly famous for the early scene where Wayne and Garth sing along to Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” in the car, and for its meta ending that Wayne and Garth change multiple times on screen.
Wayne’s World 2 premiered in December 1993, and followed the boys’ attempt to organize a music festival. Since then, Myers and Carvey have revived their roles as Wayne and Garth in MTV specials and multiple 2021 Super Bowl ads, and returned to SNL for Carvey’s hosting stint and both the 40th and 50th anniversary specials. We’re not worthy!
RELATED: SNL’s “Wayne’s World” Aerosmith Sketch Was the First of Many Wayne & Garth Reunions
The Coneheads: Coneheads (1993)
Coneheads premiered 14 years after the final SNL “Coneheads” sketch, with Aykroyd and Jane Curtin reprising their roles as aliens Beldar and Prymaat, respectively. Laraine Newman played teenage daughter Connie in the original sketches, which ran from 1977 to 1979, but Connie was played by Michelle Burke in the film, while Newman played her aunt.
Their 1993 movie told the story of their arrival on Earth and their journey towards acquiring green cards.
Pat Riley: It’s Pat (1994)
Cast member Julia Sweeney debuted the confoundingly androgynous Pat O’Neill Riley in 1990, and they became the first individual character to get their own movie. In the 2002 book Live From New York (quotes via Splitsider), Sweeney said while the character was inspired by a guy she used to work with when she was an accountant, the androgyny premise came from the fact that she “couldn’t quite pull off being in drag convincingly enough.” Pat appeared 13 times on SNL between 1990 and 1994.
In the slapstick comedy feature, which was co-written by Sweeney (and partly ghostwritten by Quentin Tarantino), Pat and their equally-androgynous partner Chris (Dave Foley) are tormented by a neighbor (former SNL cast member Charles Rocket) who’s disturbingly obsessed with finding out Pat’s gender.
Cultural conversations about gender have changed significantly since 1994, and filmmaker Ro Haber made a 2025 documentary called We Are Pat which explores the legacy of Sweeney’s complicated character. It follows a group of queer and trans writers and comedians, along with Sweeney, to create a new Pat sketch in modern day.
Stuart Smalley: Stuart Saves His Family (1995)
You can learn about the origins of Al Franken’s Stuart Smalley here, a 1990s-era SNL character known for his self-help speak and his popular, celebrity-packed “Daily Affirmations” sketches.
The 1995 film, written by star Franken and helmed by Ghostbusters director Harold Ramis, explored the messy family that inspired Stuart’s career as he went back home to try and “save” them like he’d saved himself. Vincent D’Onofrio and Shirley Knight co-starred, and Julia Sweeney makes an appearance.
The Roxbury Guys: A Night at the Roxbury (1998)
Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan developed what would become SNL‘s Roxbury Guys during their time at L.A.’s Groundlings theater, after Kattan saw a guy “lightly bopping” to the music by himself, clearly trying to get someone to dance with him without actually asking them.
The subsequent SNL sketches mainly featured the guys bobbing their heads in unison to the song “What is Love?” by Haddaway, trying to win over women in the club with their moves.
The 1998 feature film gave the Roxbury Guys names, dialogue, and extended dance scenes. Steve (Ferrell) and Doug (Kattan) Butabi are two club-loving brothers who just want to party at the Roxbury, but the bouncer (Michael Clarke Duncan) keeps denying entry. Eventually, they realize their dream of designing their own nightclub, and find women (including a cop played by Kattan’s former girlfriend Jennifer Coolidge) who appreciate them.
Mary Katherine Gallagher: Superstar (1999)
Molly Shannon introduced the world to the clumsy and socially-inept Mary Katherine Gallagher in 1995, a Catholic school girl who wanted to be a star but was oblivious to all the reasons that might not work out. It was hard not to love her, and the feature film treatment made a lot of sense for the ambitious dreamer.
Shannon’s Mary Katherine hit the big screen in 1999’s Superstar, which chronicled her quest to win a school talent show and the prize of being an extra in a Hollywood movie. Along the way, she learned dark secrets about how her parents died, leaving her in the care of her grandmother (Elaine Hendrix), and went from kissing a tree to kissing school bad boy Eric Slater (Harland Williams), with encouragement from Jesus (Will Ferrell).
Leon “The Ladies’ Man” Phelps: The Ladies’ Man (2000)
Despite his very 1970s appearance, attitude, and references, Tim Meadows’ Ladies’ Man character first appeared on SNL in 1997. Leon offered his callers terrible dating advice and would occasionally welcome in-person guests, including Monica Lewinsky.
In 2000’s The Ladies’ Man, Leon is fired from his radio show for going too far with his “advice.” He gets a note from an ex that she wants to get back together, but he has to go back through his dating history to figure out which girl it is. At the same time, he’s being chased by a coalition of husbands and boyfriends whose partners were seduced by the Ladies’ Man.
The cast is pretty stacked, featuring Billy Dee Williams, Tiffani Thiessen, Karyn Parsons, Julianne Moore, Will Ferrell, and Eugene Levy.
MacGruber: MacGruber (2010)
First debuting in Season 32, special agent MacGruber (Will Forte) was always fighting with his assistant, confronting personal issues, or demanding nonsensical supplies right when something was about to explode. Multiple “MacGruber” sketches would often air within one episode, and said bomb would detonate at the end of every installment, presumably killing everyone involved…right up until the next installment.
The 2010 MacGruber movie, written by MacGruber creator Jorma Taccone, followed the Forte’s character as he sought revenge for the death of his fiancée Casey (Maya Rudolph) at the hands of his enemy, Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer). The character returned in 2021 for a Peacock series set 10 years after the film, facing off against another bad guy with an unfortunate name: Brigadier Commander Enos Queeth, played by Billy Zane.
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