‘SNL’: Best Comedy Sketches About the Olympics – Vulture

With all the pomp, pageantry, and superhuman performances, the Olympics are a biannual source of absurdity and thus ripe for comedic gold. Therefore, its only natural that Saturday Night Live would take a few shots at the Games when they roll around, finding laughs in the outsize personalities of the athletes, the unceasing and sometimes overwrought NBC coverage, and the fact that most of us mere mortals could never come close to competing at such high levels.

In celebration of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics kicking off, heres a look back at the best SNL sketches that parodied the athletes and events. Enjoy the sketches and the Games!

Olga Korbut (1976)

With only one punch line, Gilda Radner, playing Russian gymnast Olga Korbut, and John Belushi, playing a European-accented version of himself, perfectly send up how ridiculous it is for athletes to pretend to be diplomatic after a crushing defeat.

Little Chocolate Donuts (1977)

How does Belushi get the energy he needs to win gold in the decathlon? With cigarettes and the sugar he gets from eating these treats every morning.

Synchronized Swimming (1984)

This brief mockumentary is an all-time SNL great with Martin Short and Harry Shearer playing brothers who are aiming to become the first men to compete in synchronized swimming. Christopher Guest plays a coach with the same vibe hed later bring to Waiting for Guffmans Corky St. Clair, and Shearer and Short play the kind of deluded oddball dreamers that would populate all of his films.

The All-Drug Olympics (1988)

Steroids were always a big issue during the 80s Olympics, particularly after their widespread use at the 1980 Moscow games. This Weekend Update segment with Kevin Nealon and Phil Hartman looks at what would happen if the events included only athletes who were juicing with particularly gruesome results.

Figure Skating Cold Open (1992)

In a spot-on parody of those Olympic moments when an athlete just blows it on the biggest stage, Jason Priestly enthusiastically and believably pulls off a bunch of figure-skating moves that end in disaster.

Lillehammer 94 (1994)

Rather than poke more fun at host Nancy Kerrigans assault by Tonya Hardings goons, SNL spoofed pairs figure skating with Chris Farley playing her on-ice partner whose massive weight gain has severely hurt their chances at medaling. Its another reminder of how agile Farley truly was, made even funnier by the gentle commentary of Phil Hartman and David Spade and the soundtrack of Kenny G and Pump Up the Jam.

Kerri Strug and Kippy Strug on Winning Olympic Gold (1996)

After the badly injured Kerri Strug helped Team USA win gymnastics gold in 1996, she stopped by Weekend Update to discuss the moment alongside her equally high-pitched brother, Kippy (Chris Kattan). Mark McKinney appears as her infamously overbearing coach, Bla Krolyi, to encourage Kippy to power through to their next interview despite the fact that his foot has fallen asleep.

SNL Olympics Chris Kattan (2000)

Rather than spoof an actual event, SNL in 2000 sent up NBCs prerecorded behind-the-scenes Olympic segments that give an overly dramatic look at an athletes journey to the games. Here, we see Kattan with an assist from Brendan Fraser and a disqualified-for-doping Tracy Morgan as he readies himself to compete in an upcoming talk-show sketch, Looks at Books. (Watch the sketch here.)

Mormons on the Slopes (2002)

Dan Aykroyd made a return appearance to the show to join Will Ferrell as a pair of Mormons who take to the Salt Lake City slopes and try to convert a skiing Amy Poehler in the middle of her run. It hits on the typical Mormon jokes the overly pushy recruitment, the polygamy, etc. but its still a fun one.

Swimming Instructor (2006)

If you want to become a world-class swimmer, you go to Doug Frangelo. Played by John C. Reilly, the coach instructs Will Forte in the art of the pool, with nearly six minutes full of Speedo-laden, homoerotic gags. Their ability to not break character is astounding.

The Michael Phelps Diet (2008)

If you watched Michael Phelpss record-shattering performance at the 2008 Olympics, you probably heard announcers discussing his massive caloric intake. The swimmer hosted SNL during his post-Games victory lap to tout his absurd diet to average people, which spoiler alert has grave consequences. Dont watch if you cant stomach seeing Subway pitchman Jared Fogle appearing as himself and saying, This diet sucks a foot-long.

Telemundo Winter Olympics (2010)

The premise here is that Telemundos announcers, played by Jennifer Lopez and Fred Armisen, cant understand cold-weather sports or why Canadians dont leave their country for the warmth. Regardless of the premise, you have to admit that ski jumping and curling are pretty strange pastimes for anyone to get into.

Ryan Lochte on the Fall TV Lineup (2012)

Four years before getting caught lying about being robbed at gunpoint during the Rio Olympics, Ryan Lochte was simply known as being a somewhat dim but physically gifted swimmer. SNL ran with the former trait in this Weekend Update segment in which Lochte, played by Seth MacFarlane, talks about upcoming TV shows with all the smarts of a kindergartener. The real Lochte called it harsh and added, Im going to let whatever Seth MacFarlane did Im just going to let it be and just move forward. But anytime Seth wants to race me in a pool, Ill be more than happy to.

The U.S. Mens Heterosexual Figure Skating Championship (2014)

In 2014, SNL decided to take on the Sochi Olympics, which were under scrutiny for myriad reasons including Russias anti-LGBTQ laws, with another figure-skating spoof in which only straight men are allowed to compete. Robbed of the events usual flair, the competitors instead put on a display of oafish masculinity, eating Combos on the ice and getting overly handsy with a female partner, among other desecrations of the sport.

Olya Povlatsky on the Sochi Olympics (2014)

Kate McKinnons downtrodden Russian villager character, Olya Povlatsky, returned to Weekend Update in 2014 to discuss Sochi and wonder why the IOC picked this random city to host the event. This iteration features a bunch of McKinnons trademark bizarreness like when she explains her favorite childhood sport, running away from angry wolf.

Leslie Jones on the 2018 Winter Olympics (2018)

During the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Leslie Jones went viral by live-tweeting along with NBCs coverage, hilariously and passionately dissecting the events even when she didnt understand them. The tweets were such a hit that the network sent her down to South America to work as a correspondent, and she returned to the role two years later for the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She came back to Weekend Update to give a recap of the experience, bringing along U.S. Womens Hockey gold medalist Hilary Knight to give Colin Jost a special message: Yous a bitch!

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'SNL': Best Comedy Sketches About the Olympics - Vulture