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Two silk-shirted brothers, one synchronized head-bob, and "What Is Love" on infinite loop: SNL's Roxbury Guys stretched to feature length. Critics gave it an 11% and the real Roxbury nightclub had already closed — but the head-bob became immortal anyway.
The SNL goofball who became a box-office machine — Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy. In the '90s his man-child comedies and shouty voices made him one of the most bankable comedians alive.
The physical-comedy wrecking ball of '90s SNL — total commitment, full-body chaos, every moment played like the funniest thing that had ever happened. From Matt Foley's van down by the river to the Chippendales audition opposite Patrick Swayze, nobody gave more to a sketch than Chris Farley.
The NSYNC kid who went solo in 2002 and owned the decade. Justified, the Super Bowl, "SexyBack," "Dick in a Box" — by 2007 nobody thought of Justin Timberlake as the boy-band guy anymore.
"An SNL Digital Short" was the title card that meant Monday's homeroom had material. When "Lazy Sunday" leaked onto a fledgling startup called YouTube in bootleg uploads, it did as much for YouTube as it did for Andy Samberg — and "Dick in a Box" won an actual Emmy.
Two guys broadcasting a cable-access show from a basement in Aurora, Illinois became a $183 million blockbuster — still the biggest movie ever made from an SNL sketch. "Schwing!", "…NOT!", "We're not worthy!" colonized every hallway in America, and one headbanging scene in an AMC Pacer sent Bohemian Rhapsody back up the charts seventeen years after its release.
The eurodance question nobody has ever answered: Haddaway's 1993 debut hit number one in a dozen-plus countries — then became immortal five years later as the head-bob anthem of SNL's Roxbury Guys. Baby, don't hurt me.
For most of a decade, the comedy playing at the multiplex WAS Will Ferrell. From SNL's George W. Bush and More Cowbell to Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and Step Brothers — his movies got recited line-for-line before the credits rolled.