As the much anticipated 50th Saturday Night Live anniversary special nears on the 2025 TV schedule, many past and present cast members have been reminiscing, including Leslie Jones and Molly Shannon. Between the behind-the-scenes documentaries that are available with a Peacock subscription and all the press, SNL big hitters have revealed some pretty unique and hilarious anecdotes. This, obviously, includes lots of stories about getting laughs and laughing. In the case of both Jones and Shannon, their tales are about breaking and laughing in the presence of Melissa McCarthy and Brendan Fraser, respectively.
In honor of Season 50, Jones, Shannon and more shared some of their highlights of not being able to keep it together during their tenure on SNL with People. Breaking almost feels like a time-honored inevitability on this show, and it's always delightful to see, what's even better is hearing why it happened, take a look:
These stories really are wild, and hard to fathom. However, they hilariously happened, and we're going to break them down a bit further.
Melissa McCarthy Broke Leslie Jones On SNL
It’s not shocking in the slightest that one of the Five-Timers Club members broke Leslie Jones. Melissa McCarthy has been a modern-day favorite; from her stint as former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer to her Matt Foley impersonation and all the committed oddball bits in between, there’s no question she can break some of the best.
What seemed to help this perfect storm for the Bridesmaids actress to make the former Super Market Sweep host laugh were her SNL castmates. Jones’ former peers, Kenan Thompson and Cecily Strong, used to tell her the wrong camera direction. So, when she did lose it, the camera caught her full-on. And then when she started laughing, she couldn't stop:
So, during Melissa McCarthy’s sketch, you remember? And I’m laughing and I’m thinking I’m turning away from the camera. I’m looking right at the camera laughing. And Chris is like, ‘Get out of…Get away from the camera.’ And I could not. Melissa was doing it on purpose, she was like, ‘I’m gonna break you, bitch.’ Before we went on she was like, ‘I will break you.’ And I could not stop laughing.
With all the upcoming SNL events, hosts and musical acts I'm hopeful that we'll see McCarthy crack a joke or two at some 50th event. Then, maybe, by some lightning strike of luck, she can maybe make Jones break again, because this whole story and moment is delightful.
Molly Shannon’s Wild Story About Brendan Fraser Hosting
I think only Molly Shannon could have a story about her, Will Ferrell, Brendan Fraser and Xena the Princess Warrior and have it make sense.
In the sketch in question, all seemed to be going well for the How the Grinch Stole Christmas actress until she accidentally pulled off a part of Fraser’s Xena costume. She then had a wild thought that made all involved with the bit break, and there was no hope of coming back, as she recalled fondly:
We had a thing with Will Ferrell and Brendan Fraser was hosting I accidentally pulled…he was playing Xena Princess Warrior and I accidentally pulled Brendan’s whole wig off and hats by accident. And I remember having a moment where I was like, wait, can we stop? And then I realized, 'Oh my God, we can’t stop. We’re on live television. This isn’t a movie.' We all started laughing, the entire…We could not stop laughing. It was such a great moment. It was so fun.
It’s wild to watch both the usual players and the special guest of the week perform live with very little practice time, especially knowing former SNL hosts' opinions about just how chaotic this gig can be. It's even better when live and spontaneous moments like this get caught on camera. The instances that break the cast have always been one of the best parts of the historic late-night show, and the situation involving The Mummy actor proves that.
Now, the anniversary show and the rest of the 50th season can’t come soon enough! This onslaught of SNL stories has me pumped, and watching Leslie Jones talk about how Melissa McCarthy broke her along with Molly Shannon’s recounting of the Brendan Fraser-Xena story makes me motivated to go find more Studio 8H fun.
Thankfully, that's not hard to do, as Saturday Night Live airs on its titular night at 11:30 pm ET and the 50th Anniversary Special drops on February 16 at 8 p.m. ET.
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