Seth Meyers says farewell to Saturday Night Live
PREVIEW Saturday Night Live Saturday, 11:35 p.m. Global, 12:30 a.m. NBC
He might be a Not Ready For Prime Time Player, but here’s hoping he’s ready for late night. This weekend marks Seth Meyers’s last Saturday Night Live episode before he takes over Late Night from Jimmy Fallon on Feb. 24.
Though Meyers has been on the sketch comedy show for more than 12 years and has fronted the Weekend Update segment since 2006, his legacy is a quieter one than that of other alumni like Tina Fey, Will Ferrell or Kristen Wiig.
Meyers excels at writing sketches and playing the straight guy who anchors his colleagues’ downright weird characters.
Here are five of his top contributions to SNL. 1. Helping launch Stefon
Bill Hader’s flamboyant New York City correspondent Stefon gets laughs for his freaky nightclub suggestions — and Hader cracking up in the middle of them — but Meyers is the glue that holds the segment together. If it weren’t for Meyers’s calm guiding questions, Stefon would surely explode in a ball of nervousness, faux tattoo shirts and hair product. 2. A non-partisan message from Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Hillary Clinton
Meyers wasn’t on-camera for this memorable sketch, the 2008 debut of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, but he was a co-writer. With Fey as the then-governor of Alaska, and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton, the bit not only was funny but it also slyly addressed sexism in the U.S. presidential campaign. 3. Dave (Zinger) Clinger
This Meyers character was a scientist with a penchant for hurling insults at his coworkers. In one appearance he tells a scientist who has lost contact with the Mars Spirit Rover: “If you want to focus on Mars, maybe you should start by taking your head out of Uranus! Ha, you just got zinged!” 4. Jarret’s Room
This recurring sketch featured Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz as the slacker hosts of a low-budget Hampshire College webcast. But getting his groove on in the background was Meyers, playing the unnaturally blond DJ Johnathan Feinstein. 5. The Needlers
Meyers teamed up with Poehler — his future Weekend Update co-host — to play the Needlers, the couple that should be divorced. Meyers, as bitter hubby Dan Needler, constantly sparred with his wife, spitting out barbs like this one at a meeting with a fertility doctor: “Sally’s going to be a great mom. She’s been treating me like a child for years.”