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Saturday Night LiveIn the final episode of 2024, Martin Short, its newest member, was accepted into the elite Five Timers Club. The popular sketch featured a number of cameo appearances and celebrities, all of whom have hosted the long-running variety sketch series at least five times, hence the club’s name. If you’ve ever wondered how this idea came about, here it is SNL Writer Robert Smigel previously explained what inspired the fan-favorite sketches and how Tom Hanks was involved.

Smigel, who served as writer and producer Saturday Night Live He worked from 1985 to 2013 and created various characters that he later published on Instagram SNL Actress Kristen Wiig became a member of Five-Timers. He shared a video of Hanks’ monologue in December 1990, when he hosted for the fifth time. In it, Hanks talked about the excitement surrounding the topic of moderators SNLincluding how special it was to be able to host five times. He then joked that those who reach the milestone will receive a card for membership in the club. Apparently Hanks and Conan O’Brien were involved:

Holy crap, did that Five Timer’s Club thing ever stick? I saw Kristen Wiig GOATin’ it up (sic) on (NBC’s SNL) and there it was again. I had to look up the first such sketch, which I wrote with a lot of help from Conan “Sean” O’Brien and others, including Lorne Michaels. It was inspired by (Tom Hanks)’ funny/cute impressions of Lorne’s all-purpose analysis of what it feels like “the first time hosting the show”, the second time, the third time, etc. It’s funny, it now to look at and see This idea exists without the Lorne impression. It also parodied something about SNL that Conan and I always laughed about, the switch between cool and funny.

The Five-Timers Club continues SNL has become a popular sketch, and whenever a celebrity joins the club, you never know who will be involved. Although Hanks inspired the sketch, he was actually not the first to achieve this milestone. Chevy Chase was the first to host the late night sketch series five times, but Hanks was the first to mention it on the December 8, 1990 episode. Since then, over a dozen celebrities have officially “joined” the club, both and SNL Hosts and musical guests. (Yes, the club also includes members like Jack White.)

Whenever someone joins, you never know who else will be there to introduce the newest member. Martin Short included Tom Hanks, John Mulaney, Melissa McCarthy, Alec Baldwin, Emma Stone, Scarlett Johansson, Kristen Wiig, Paul Rudd and Tina Fey, with some of them also appearing in skits throughout the episode. Who will join the Five-Timers Club next is unknown, but there are sure to be more fun cameos!

Some of the greatest SNL Hosts are part of the elite club, and the list keeps getting longer Saturday Night Live remains on air. Luckily, even if the show is already 50 years old^Th There doesn’t seem to be an end to the season in sight. While it will be difficult for most to keep up with Baldwin and Steve Martin, who have hosted 17 times, it’s always exciting to see who’s next and which fan favorites return to Studio 8H.

If you have a Peacock subscription, you can watch all of the Five Timers sketches as all 50 seasons are streaming, and yes, that includes this latest episode. Saturday Night Live is taking a short break for the holidays, but will be back on TV in 2025, and it’s very possible that the next addition to the Five-Timers is imminent.