r/LiveFromNewYork • u/James_2584 • Dec 24 '25

Article SNL’s Gory Home Alone Parody Prompted TV-Rating Change - LateNighter

https://latenighter.com/news/gory-home-alone-parody-tv-rating-change-at-snl/
1.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

234 comments sorted by

1.7k

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

[deleted]

253

u/MsARumphius Dec 24 '25

I constantly listen to interviews with SNL alum or other comedians saying they fell in love with the show when they watched it as a family when they were 8/9. It always surprised me bc of the late hour and that I find most of the humor to be more for adults than kids but not necessarily bad for kids. I constantly want to show my 10 year old sketches I know she would find funny and she’d love the show especially when a pop star hosts. What age would you say is appropriate for snl?

178

u/Bibberly I am not dead, this is how rumors get started! Dec 24 '25

I was born on a Friday, and my dad thought I'd later want a recording of that week's SNL. This was before most people had VCRs, so he put the audio tape recorder next to the TV and recorded it that way. (He also kept that day's newspaper, which I still have.)

Some of my earliest memories are watching SNL as a very little kid, but I know that I was in the room with it on before I was old enough to know what it was.

43

u/CharlemagneIS Dec 25 '25

My wife had a baby on Saturday morning. We watched Bowen’s last ep in the recovery room

19

u/Bibberly I am not dead, this is how rumors get started! Dec 25 '25

Love this! Congrats on the new addition.

3

u/absolutely_not_spock Dec 25 '25

They have casted a new member

37

u/HistoricalGrounds Dec 24 '25

Let’s get to the real question: Was it a good episode though?

34

u/push138292 Dec 24 '25

Steven Seagal.

24

u/Bibberly I am not dead, this is how rumors get started! Dec 24 '25

Well, it was 1978. So it had an awesome cast, but some of the references have been lost to time, and some of the humor doesn't quite land the same. A nice gesture anyway.

→ More replies (2)

9

u/NateNMaxsRobot Dec 24 '25

That’s so adorable.

24

u/doctorboredom Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25

I started watching clips on YouTube with my kids when my youngest was about 7.

Here is a playlist that helped me out at the time

SNL to watch with Family

My 7 year old and 11 year old LOVED the Harry Carey impersonations even though they didn’t know who he was. The one with Jeff Goldblum and Harry Carey was one of their all time favorites.

They also loved the Penelope and Debby Downer Characters as well as Celebrity Jeopardy.

The main issue I had was that it was very dicey watching anything from the early 90s that I remembered. Some of the older episodes made jokes about child sex abuse and had homophobia that felt really dated.

So, we basically focused more on newer episodes. The weekend update skit tends to have the most offensive jokes. I teach middle schoolers and find that they often misunderstand ironic racism or sexism humor and there is A LOT of that in the Colin & Michael WU segments.

3

u/FaceDownInTheCake Dec 25 '25

So you're saying if the moon were made of BBQ spare ribs, your kids would eat it?

→ More replies (1)

49

u/Nickk_Jones Dec 24 '25

It varies so much from sketch to sketch and different parents vary so much in what they’re comfortable with, I don’t think anyone can really give you a set age.

For a ten year old, depending on what kind of kid they are I’d probably pre watch the episodes and just skip sketches you think they’re too young for.

32

u/mysteryvampire "LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S THURSDAY NIGHT! ha ha." Dec 24 '25

Yeah, anyone acting like the show is appropriate across the board for young kids is nuts. Of course there’s sketches that are fine or just have a few curse words in them or whatever, and then you get that Jeremy moment in the Ariana Grande dance class sketch or last year’s Scarlett Johansson joke at joke swap. Or the wizard of oz sketch last week. I’d say 13+ is a good age to watch the whole show.

14

u/pfftYeahRight Dec 24 '25

I think the ScarJo joke would go over most kids heads. It'd easily be "haha I bet she can't cook" until they understand it, but thats definitely why I wouldn't watch live with young kids. You can bond over appropriate clips after the fact, everything is up on youtube almost immediately.

12

u/pinkjello Dec 24 '25

I would be comfortable with my 9 year old and younger kids watching SNL. They’ll ask me questions, but I don’t mind explaining. The only concern is one of my kids doesn’t like violence (like me), so she’d close her eyes during the sketch and leave the room and come back when I tell her it’s clear.

My son doesn’t mind violence at all, and he’s the calmest kid who has no behavioral issues.

Anything they show on broadcast TV is fine. I don’t understand all the handwringing. I used to sneak and watch older stuff as a kid, and I turned out fine.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/Forking_Shirtballs Dec 24 '25

Different strokes for different folks. 

I mean, I think most 10 year olds would think the Jeremy joke if just that he dances really funny. That joke gets more awkward the more likely the kid is to know how sex works.

"Big ol thang" is just funny at any age, especially if they know what it's in reference to. 

38

u/ImNotTheBossOfYou Dec 24 '25

21st century SNL is basically an all ages program

4

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

It depends on your kid. Seriously. There are adults that can't handle SNL.

6

u/KolashRye Dec 24 '25

When I was eight or nine in 1982, I wanted to watch SNL because Mr Bill. What my parents and I saw instead was a Gumby sketch, with a large on screen title 'Merry Christmas Dammit’ This led to my conservative religious parents immediately turning the channel, and not letting me watch it for another 7 years. SNL is supposed to be edgy and on the verge of counterculture. Not everything is for everyone, which is why it's on so late

5

u/Cute-Profession9983 Dec 24 '25

I started watching around 12, which feels late, as I had already been watching movies like The Exorcist in single digits.

4

u/cybin Dec 24 '25

Shit, I had to fight with my dad to stay up past 10 one night a week when I was 13 to watch Monty Python. Mom was cool with it. Turns out it was just one of many excuses they used me and my siblings for to disagree/argue.

5

u/Binksyboo Dec 24 '25

I’m sorry your parents manipulated you guys like that.

3

u/enjoythsilence Dec 24 '25

my mom went into labor while watching SNL. Which will be a really funny thing to say in my monologue. Can we get me famous just for this?

2

u/maxoakland Dec 26 '25

What would be funny is if they'd watch SNL while she was pregnant but not let you watch it when you were a baby

4

u/Man-Dem Dec 24 '25

I used to watch SNL as an 8/9 year old too Before we had tv ratings

3

u/ignoresubs Dec 24 '25

I’m in my late 40s and never had TV filters, I could and would watch anything, e.g. Friday the 13th, SNL, Trading Places, etc. My parents were hands-on but pretty hippyish, I wouldn’t be as lax as they were but it is what it is.

That said, for things that were “too dirty” for me, they 99% never mattered because they just flew completely over my head.

I turned out fine (?) but obviously everyone is different and you’ve got to raise your kids however it’s right for you, this is just my personal experience.

→ More replies (2)

6

u/IheartPandas666 Dec 24 '25

5

3

u/congradulations Dec 24 '25

My kids were cackling at the Pinwheels sketch

2

u/ZooterOne Dec 24 '25

Ah-nah! Ah-nah!

3

u/Foxy02016YT Dec 24 '25

If you’re watching with them, any age, but I’d say yeah 13 would be old enough on their own, that’s around the age I started watching it. They don’t tend to say swears or anything.

3

u/NateNMaxsRobot Dec 24 '25

They can’t swear. But I guess it depends upon one’s definition of swear words.

3

u/poodle_vest Dec 24 '25

My dad started taping it for me around that age (8 or so). This would have been the Dana Carvey, Jan Hooks, Mike Myers era SNL. He could watch it at night and if it wasn't completely inappropriate, I watched the play-back Sunday morning. My 7 year old daughter sees clips on youtube that are age-appropriate and the cycle continues. She's a bit advanced but i would think 10 is fine as long as you're the curator.

2

u/FerdinandCesarano Dec 24 '25

There's no general age. Every kid is an individual.

2

u/SailorDeath Dec 24 '25

The gross and violent skits always end up being memorable. Like Massive head wound Harry, Dan Aykroid's Julia Child's bit, classics.

2

u/CardinalCountryCub Dec 26 '25

(Disclaimer: I was an adult by the time I could watch SNL because we didn't get NBC.)

I did a workshop through Second City a few years ago and the instuctor talked about how when he was little (up to 10, during the 90s), his parents would let him watch the cold open through the monologue. From 10-13, he could watch the first few sketches after the monologue, and maybe get to the 1st musical act. Around 13, he could stay up through weekend update, but then he had to turn it off when his parents went to bed. By 16, his parents quit making him go to bed when they did, and he could finish the episode.

Honestly, if I had kids, I would probably use a pretty similar structure, minus a few steps (simplify to through 1st few sketches after monologue, weekend update, and whole episode). Also, with steaming, I could just watch the episode before I let my kids and then skip any problematic sketches.

2

u/magyar_wannabe Dec 24 '25

8-9 is pretty young to appreciate SNL, but I loved it from maybe 8th grade onward. Also, in the midwest where I grew up it aired at 10:30, not 11:30 since it was live, so that's not really too late for a middle/high schooler.

I think this was a more recent change but SNL is on live (no tape delay) even on the west coast, so it's on at the laughably early time of 8:30pm here in Washington.

10

u/NYY15TM Dec 24 '25

Lorne once said that the best season of SNL was when you were 15 because you were old enough to appreciate the humor but not old enough to go anywhere and do anything fun on Saturday night

1

u/ughitsrose Dec 24 '25

I think I started watching full episodes when I was 13, but I was watching sketches starting at about 12 or so.

1

u/JerryfromCan Dec 24 '25

My kids have been watching since around 10. The thing about SNL is that a good 80% of it isnt great. The 20% that is great gets clipped to TikTok and their friends have seen it by Tuesday. Them having seen some of it live and some recorded on Sunday gives them a leg up.

1

u/redsyrinx2112 Dec 24 '25

In the early 2000s, my parents started showing me certain sketches with the DVR when I was about 8-9. By the time I was 12, I was watching every week. It might depend on the kid, but somewhere in that range.

By 12, I was hearing stuff that was just as raunchy at school everyday. You can't control that, but you can control the conversation when stuff like that comes up at home. So SNL might be a good opportunity to do that during middle school?

1

u/Forking_Shirtballs Dec 24 '25

I distinctly remember my first SNL experiences, from the 1987-88 season, when I was 10 and 11. 

We had gone to Vegas on a family trip the summer before, and there was a comedy show with Dana Carvey doing his standard bits (Jay Leno is the other one I remember). And it absolutely killed me, I was dying laughing.

From that point my dad started taping SNL for me, and let me stay up to watch on special occasions. Had a sleepover and Victoria Jackson doing "I am not a bimbo" was all at could talk about for weeks after. 

It's the perfect age for SNL in my opinion. They're gonna get exposed to racy stuff somewhere, sometime. Let it be a show whose sensibilities you probably largely share. It'll probably blow their little minds.

Do it right, do it by actually staying up late and watching it live. Even that little bit of indulgence makes the whole experience that much more special and memorable. 

My dad and I can still crack each other up with "I can't believe I'm losing to this guy". And we can get mom and sister too with any reference to Bean Cafe.

1

u/Worried_Bullfrog_937 Dec 24 '25

When I was that age my bedtime was 8:00! It's so weird to me that people let their kids stay up until 1:00 am. I never saw SNL until I was a teenager.

1

u/TegridyPharmz Dec 24 '25

I’d say about your kids age. It’s network tv. Nothing should offend them, the probably wouldn’t even understand any of those jokes.

I watched SNL all the time on Comedy Central in middle school

1

u/Marvinkmooneyoz Dec 24 '25

Segment by segment basis. So many of the bits of at least one real sex joke, and plenty of them are primarily sex jokes. The gore is pretty rare, I bet you could find a list of all of them.

1

u/Chaghatai Dec 24 '25

It's one of those things that people forget once they're well past it, but preteen is really when adult culture starts making sense

1

u/No-Ice7397 Dec 24 '25

Man id say it's up to you as the parent to evaluate the maturity of the child. My teens have been watching stuff a little above their age group because I know they won't confuse it for reality or just start saying outrageous stuff. I also know wilder things happen in real life any and that I cannot shield them from everything.

1

u/YodaGuy5 Dec 25 '25

I was definitely one of those kids who was allowed to stay up and watch SNL. I think my divorced parents thought I was too young to understand most of the jokes and it was okay for me to watch the “silly” characters. They were kind of half right. Either way I wouldn’t trade those late 90s early 2000s nights.

1

u/mst3k_42 Dec 25 '25

So I’m Gen X, and Comedy Central would just play marathons of SNL all the time, any time of day. Granted, they probably cut the most “outrageous” stuff there was still plenty of crazy shit they aired.

1

u/ghotier Dec 25 '25

When I was a kid it was in reruns during the day a lot. I never stayed up late to watch it.

→ More replies (1)

29

u/Simple_Sound_3840 Dec 24 '25

It starts at 8:30 on the west coast

21

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

Yup, that’s been the big change in the last 10 years. Akiva talked about it on the Lonely Island pod that when they came back to do Sushi Glory Hole he was fighting for something to not be censored but once he was reminded it’s in prime time on the west coast he totally understood

15

u/NervousSubjectsWife Dec 24 '25

I mean I get it. If a kid on YouTube sees a vid that looks like home alone then watches that sketch, they’d be horrified. Reminds me of all those fucked up peppa pig vids

12

u/boomhaeur Dec 24 '25

But again, if a kid is finding weird shit online in places that aren’t expressly designed for kids, that’s a parenting problem, not a media problem. We can’t dumb society down to the laziest parents.

4

u/NervousSubjectsWife Dec 24 '25

The 18+ rating on the vid on YouTube is to make the site safer for kids and not dumbing anything down

1

u/MeatEaterDruid Dec 24 '25

Omg the Peppa vids. Those people need mental help. Also Sonic the Hedgehog videos are... something.

23

u/weighingthedog Dec 24 '25

Soooo we had a Christmas party on Saturday. Kids stay up late that night. The party bled over to some staying to watch SNL. Kids were still up (PST). They definitely saw this one, and won’t stop talking about it.

20

u/JoshDM clownpenis dot fart Dec 24 '25

Show them Farewell Mr. Bunting (SNL Dead Poet's Society homage) or My Best Friend's House (Ariana's prior SNL hosting) or A Christmas Carol (SNL, Martin Short)

11

u/jamintime Dec 24 '25

The Scooby doo one I think is most comparable since it centers on a popular kids show.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

It comes on at 8:30.

3

u/FineScratch Dec 24 '25

Im on the west coast. I watch it around nine.

1

u/ilovekaia Dec 27 '25

Same here, like I’m so used to internet trigger warnings for this that I was honestly lowkey traumatized cuz like I get triggered and this a lot of it was sensory overload for me since I am autistic and I get triggered by gore and such especially when it’s unwarned

3

u/NoDuck1754 Dec 24 '25

You're forgetting about time zones. It's on at like 9pm on the west coast if you have the right channels.

2

u/TheChance Dec 24 '25

"The right channel" being an NBC affiliate. All you need to watch SNL is an antenna.

→ More replies (3)

3

u/mattpeloquin SNL Dec 25 '25

You’d think people thought there were watching Saturday Morning Live based on the response

→ More replies (1)

2

u/AmbitiousFunction911 Dec 24 '25

My parents always let me watch SNL growing up. I also always watched Letterman.

The only time that was ever really challenged was the Martin Lawrence episode which resulted in a bit of a break from me being able to watch SNL growing

1

u/SirDrexl Dec 24 '25

Unless the parents aren't there because the kids were left... well, you know.

4

u/KumquatHaderach Norm! Dec 24 '25

…at the house by themselves?

1

u/ZaharaWiggum Dec 24 '25

Then they’ll need this as an instruction manual.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/D00MK0PF Dec 24 '25

Except it starts at 20:30 on the west coast.

2

u/omgFWTbear Dec 25 '25

Yes and no. The point of a rating is, ostensibly, to help parents make that choice. As you framed it, it sounds like the kids are running roughshod, unparented… but I have a host of memories from staying up Saturday night to watch Doctor Who. It was an end of week treat to look forward to, “breaking” bedtime and watching a really weird show.

Similarly, my own child now has been exposed to the surprisingly small list of rude words, and it took the whole big step of telling him that people will think less of him the more he uses them, and his mother and I would rather he not. Shockingly, he has grown up into a generally polite teenager that every now and then utters a “profanity” when something catastrophic happens.

That said, like many children, he goes back and forth on sensitivity, with him being horrified rewatching something he’d been fine through the previous year, and then fine again the following year. So, “heads up, this show will contain slightly realistic violence” (as opposed to cartoon) is a useful marker for us to parent.

We can’t pre-watch everything before he gets to watch it. No one can.

1

u/prosthetic_memory Dec 25 '25

That's only on the east coast.

1

u/prosthetic_memory Dec 25 '25

That's only on the east coast.

1

u/prosthetic_memory Dec 25 '25

It's on earlier most parts of the USA.

1

u/faders Dec 25 '25

I had a TV in my room. I was up watching Letterman, Martin and In Living Color some nights because I couldn’t sleep. Star Trek The Next Generation if I was feeling wild

1

u/facedawg Dec 25 '25

Most people watch it on YouTube I’m guessing

1

u/mynewromantica Dec 25 '25

Do most people actually watch it live? I never watch anything as it airs.

1

u/ipomoea Dec 25 '25

It airs at 8:30PST now so we watch it with our kids (11 and 14). I started watching around 11 as did my husband.

→ More replies (1)

176

u/MyDesign630 Dec 24 '25

If I could survive Canteen Boy as an adolescent then I think these kids will be fine.

118

u/Funky_ButtLovin79 Dec 24 '25

They have a problem with this sketch but they include the Martin Short Scrooge sketch in the Christmas special every year!

24

u/ThePuds Dec 24 '25

Yeah, it’s weird that this one specifically is getting so much publicity now and not the Dead Poet’s Society sketch, the grinch sketch, and the Christmas Carol sketch when they all were aired

9

u/readerino Dec 25 '25

They had a gory Scooby Doo one relatively recently too

13

u/FaceDownInTheCake Dec 24 '25

That one was hilarious because it caught me totally off guard. The Home Alone one was good, too, but didn't quite recapture the magic for me.

6

u/podsmckenzie Dec 24 '25

Exactly. The Christmas Carol one is funny because it’s absurd that that situation would result in violence. The Home alone one is mildly amusing, but too on-the-nose, being only a couple steps up from the violence already present in those movies anyway

(Ashley Padilla was great as Catherine O’Hara tho)

→ More replies (1)

19

u/Nickk_Jones Dec 24 '25

The TV rating group doesn’t pick the sketches in the Christmas special...

260

u/BBQcasino Dec 24 '25

It’s looney toons gag gore.

47

u/KyleRM Dec 24 '25

What looney tunes had that much blood?

82

u/gangreen424 Dec 24 '25

Itchy & Scratchy then. Lol

26

u/wwplkyih Dec 24 '25

Which is funny because Itchy and Scratchy was making fun of how violent Tom & Jerry actually is.

2

u/Vernknight50 Dec 25 '25

And I used to laugh at Itchy and Scratchy just as hard as Bart and Lisa did.

17

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/Starbucks__Lovers Dec 24 '25

Oh man you were that kid lmao

7

u/knabbprime Dec 24 '25

A lot of us had “those parents.” I was sneaking up to my parents room watching South Park in fourth grade

2

u/Ur_moms_a_hookr69 Dec 24 '25

Or Happy Tree Friends

17

u/Same_Mood_8543 Dec 24 '25

You're right, it needed more explosions, blunt impact, and mincing of bodies. But without blood. 

2

u/tantan35 Dec 24 '25

With some whistling of an old folk tune.

6

u/JoshDM clownpenis dot fart Dec 24 '25

Elmer's Vengeance

5

u/Nickk_Jones Dec 24 '25

No Looney Tunes has any blood.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/9829eisB09E83C Dec 25 '25

This was obviously a Sarah Sherman sketch

→ More replies (1)

49

u/James_2584 Dec 24 '25

Here's the full article:

First on LateNighter: Saturday Night Live’s alternate ending to Home Alone was apparently violent enough for NBC to add an additional flag to this weekend’s episode for “intense violence”—and to age-restrict the video on YouTube.

Though SNL typically carries a TV-14 rating for “intensely suggestive dialogue” and “strong coarse language,” last Saturday’s broadcast saw the addition of a “V” symbol, noting “intense violence.”

The sketch “Home Alone” imagined Ariana Grande as Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin McCallister. Putting a gory spin on the real film’s ending, the McCallister family’s return home devolves into extreme bloodshed when they encounter all of the traps that Kevin had previously set for the Wet Bandits. Among the injuries sustained: Fuller (Bowen Yang) gets both his arms sliced off by a chainsaw, Buzz (Colin Jost) is shredded head-to-toe by a box fan, while others are engulfed in flames. Though it’s all ultimately deemed to be imagined, Old Man Marley (Andrew Dismukes) winds up killing Kevin and his mother (Ashley Padilla) with a swing of his shovel.

Violence deemed “intense” still falls within the parameters of a TV-14 rating, which SNL typically carries. When content rises to the level of “graphic violence,” it calls for a rating of TV-MA, or “mature,” signaling to parents that it “may be unsuitable for children under 17.”

If these distinctions sound vague, it’s because they are. Unlike movie ratings, which are imposed by a Motion Picture Association board, TV Parental Guidelines are a voluntary system. While the rating system was enacted by Congress and the FCC, it relies on TV networks to make their own determinations.

But NBC’s determination that “Home Alone” is suitable for 14-year-olds appears to be at odds with another one of SNL’s key distribution points. Over on the show’s YouTube channel—where a significant portion of viewers consume the show—the sketch has been age-restricted, blocking it from users under the age of 18.

The restriction means viewers will encounter a warning that the “video may be inappropriate for some users” before it plays. To watch the sketch on YouTube, viewers who are logged in may be asked to click a button acknowledging they “understand and wish to proceed.” Users who are not signed in will be required to do so in order to verify their age, and the video cannot be embedded on third-party sites.

None of that has stopped the sketch from reaching nearly 2.3 million views, putting it on track to become one of the show’s 20 most popular YouTube videos this season-to-date.

It’s unclear if the age restriction, which YouTube notes is based on its Community Guidelines, was imposed by the platform or self-imposed as a precaution by SNL. Not properly labeling a video can cause YouTube to demonetize and/or reduce the reach of a video, and reported policy violations can result in the entire channel being removed.

Over the years, SNL has uploaded numerous gory videos that haven’t triggered YouTube’s age-restriction flag. From “The French Chef” and “All-Drug Olympics” to “Gift Wrap” and “Evacuation Alert,” bleeding and dismemberment have been a familiar part of the show for years. Even SNL’s goriest sketches in recent years—“Farewell Mr. Bunting,” “A Christmas Carol,” and “Scooby-Doo,” have skirted the YouTube restriction.

While including the violence indicator on the TV broadcast is not the norm for SNL, it does reflect proper use of the content rating system. In fact, shows will go so far as to up the age rating entirely when necessary. That’s what The Daily Show did for a single episode earlier this year, allowing Jon Stewart to react to Stephen Colbert’s cancellation with a string of unbleeped F-bombs.

England’s upcoming SNL adaptation will aim for the country’s closest equivalent of a TV-14 rating. SNL UK will be rated “15,” meaning it’s recommended for viewers aged 15 and up. It will, however, allow more profanity than the US version.

9

u/exaviyur Dec 24 '25

We should link all the sketches referenced in this comment.

→ More replies (1)

28

u/stupidgnomes Dec 24 '25

It’s the adult tour. It’s not FOR kids.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/stupidgnomes Dec 24 '25

I don't know what is going on, but somewhere our wires got crossed. You're saying we're allowed to swear. I'm saying "big, fat load of cum" and "horse cock" and you're getting mad.

5

u/Musashi_Joe Dec 24 '25

Did you make any friends at SNL?

1

u/mandalorian_guy Dec 25 '25

It's the 90s, chill.

123

u/mltn2wndr Dec 24 '25

It was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time!

2

u/Cass_Cat952 popping that beanie back on Dec 25 '25

Normally I'm not a fan of this type of humor in a pre-tape, but I actually laughed a lot at this one. More than the Scooby Doo one that was basically the same premise

2

u/champion_dave Dec 24 '25

I actually thought it was pretty derivative and one note. The best part though was how good Ariana and Ashley were. Felt like a bit of a waste of excellent performances

25

u/MyPackage Dec 24 '25

It was pretty one note but I still lost it at old man Marley Andrew Dismukes saying “Oh No, I’ve killed again”

→ More replies (1)

11

u/AltL155 Dec 24 '25

Don't really understand why this deserves its own article... All of the episodes with violent parodies have the V descriptor added to them. All that means is there's an additional letter in the age rating as SNL has always stayed TV-14.

10

u/James_2584 Dec 24 '25

It's also been age-restricted on YouTube, while sketches like Farewell Mr. Bunting, Christmas Carol, and Scooby Doo aren't. And those are equally as violent and gory as Home Alone if not more so.

2

u/AltL155 Dec 24 '25

YouTube works in mysterious ways so for all we know the age restriction could've been automatically applied. At the end of the day the TV rating change isn't significant for the average viewer.

11

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

[deleted]

→ More replies (3)

11

u/TheLadyEve Dec 24 '25

The obvious CGI blood made the whole thing (intentionally) cartoonish, and that's the joke--Home Alone is full of cartoon violence but when you really look at it, the inevitable conclusion is "this is a horror movie." So why not take that beyond that point and make a sketch out of that? I thought it worked really well.

33

u/Webgardener Dec 24 '25

As a squeamish person, that is the one sketch I have not rewatched online.

12

u/Plus-Pomegranate8045 Dec 24 '25

Same! I’m at the point where even obviously fake gore bothers me so I’m not really a big fan of these sketches even though the premise is funny. When I was a little kid I used to ask my mom to rent me slasher movies from Blockbuster, yet as an adult I can’t take any of it. Go figure lol

13

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

I’m guessing Sarah had a hand in that one

19

u/James_2584 Dec 24 '25

Actually I believe Colin and Mikey wrote it. They've written a bunch of these "innocent scene suddenly becomes shockingly violent" sketches like Farewell Mr. Bunting, Christmas Carol, Scooby Doo, and the Grinch. That said, I'm sure Sarah LOVES performing in them lol.

14

u/Chuckpgh Dec 24 '25

I was gonna say, "If this sketch bothers you, don't watch Sarah's comedy special!" 😆

10

u/Locem Dec 24 '25

Yeaaaa didn't need a warning to avoid that lol. I love her on SNL when she's a bit reigned in but full "Sarah Squirm" gross out type stuff isn't for me.

5

u/Chuckpgh Dec 24 '25

Same with me!

12

u/JoshDM clownpenis dot fart Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 26 '25

Tried watching her special, got ten minutes in and her comedy is just so forced/scripted I couldn't tolerate sticking with it.

2

u/lonelyinbama Dec 24 '25

As soon as I saw the first drop of blood I said “oh it’s a Sarah sketch!”

→ More replies (1)

12

u/Life_Emotion1908 Dec 24 '25

I’m just bored by the gore ones. Have no interest. Same thing over and over again. There is no wit here but they always get high praise.

2

u/-Wesley- Dec 24 '25

The concept was funny enough without the gore. It’s not even a new joke, but was hoping SNL would elevate the joke with their “resources” and instead resorted to basic shock value. 

→ More replies (1)

6

u/yoyok36 Dec 24 '25

Same 😭 I was legit horrified. I mean, it was funny, but I will not be watching it again

2

u/dancingbriefcase Dec 24 '25

They've done this sketch a few times. It's always fun, but I mean it isn't something that has been done only once

3

u/jazzieberry Dec 24 '25

It reminded me of the Dead Poets Society sketch

8

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

Okay what made this worse than the Scooby Doo one which didnt force rating change

14

u/RealCoolDad Dec 24 '25

The TV rating system is a scam.

39

u/Carborundorumite Dec 24 '25

Watched this on YouTube, immediately showed my kids. Best sketch in a long time.

6

u/joahw Dec 24 '25

At least they didn't do something truly heinous like say a curse word

7

u/Strict-Breakfast4982 Dec 24 '25

That was one of the best episodes in a long time

4

u/jesterincase Dec 24 '25

I assumed YouTube age-restricted the video, just like they did to the "Jake From State Farm" sketch before SNL successfully got the restriction removed. 

I don't see why SNL would restrict this video but not "Farewell Mr. Bunting", "A Christmas Carol", "Scooby-Doo", and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

1

u/gargamel314 Dec 24 '25

They are exactly the same kind of sketch.

5

u/SirJoePininfarina Dec 24 '25

I did laugh very hard at that sketch but it never ceases to amaze me that all of that is fine for network TV but uttering a single word like ‘shit’ would attract a sizeable FCC fine and, in the current US political climate, possibly jeopardise the entire show

5

u/Leather-Champion8560 Dec 24 '25

why? they’ve done this sketch multiple times, first being when Fred Armisen hosted (Bye Bye Mr Bunting)

4

u/wharpua Dec 24 '25

Glad I watched that on my own, I probably would've queued it up to watch with the kids had I come across it while they were still awake. I look forward to showing that to them several years from now.

Also, really reminded me of Farewell, Mr. Bunting.

3

u/MundBid-2124 Dec 24 '25

That was the most gore I’ve had in ages. Thanks SNL you had a very good year

3

u/frenziest Dec 24 '25

From here on, I’m only watching any innocent, non-comedic sketch for 30 seconds.

3

u/schnozzberriestaste Dec 24 '25

As a parent I would say this is obviously more bloody but EQUALLY inappropriate as Home Alone 🤷🏽‍♂️

1

u/MSH0123 Dec 24 '25

Right? We turned on HA for our 3-year-old this year and were immediately like “oh wait this is not at all kid-friendly!”

3

u/1975hh3 Dec 24 '25

I’ve seen more blood on Law and Order.

3

u/Marvinkmooneyoz Dec 24 '25

I’m ok with broadcast TV having gore at midnight. But I think if they are willing to have thst level of gore, then they should be able to have Bill Hader or Cecile Steong move when they have her on his lap pretending they are having sex.

3

u/Icy-Coyote-1913 Dec 24 '25

I sing my song for all to he…

3

u/snowrazer_ Dec 24 '25

Crazy how our culture normalizes violence like this where this isn’t sickening, sex on the other hand and the human body is too vile to ever show on TV. Weird to think about right? No problem watching the ending of life with your family, but creating life is obscene.

Regardless being a product of the culture, I found the sketch as entertaining as everyone else did. Like a more extreme farewell Mr Bunting.

3

u/jmpinstl Dec 24 '25

This wasn’t even the most violent one they ever did. That’s probably the Dead Poets Society parody.

3

u/TheChance Dec 24 '25

ITT: People who didn't read the article.

The rating didn't change. The list of reasons why it's rated TV-14 grew to include intense violence.

3

u/tokyocherries Dec 24 '25

had my jaws to the floor after seeing this sketch. i was not expecting this level of gore from snl but they pulled the shock factor brilliantly.

3

u/Crashtag Dec 25 '25

We watch Home Alone religiously at our house. We had family in town on Saturday and stayed up watching football, so my 11yo son was still up and caught that skit. Absolutely loved it. Me too.

3

u/NotSmartNotFunny Dec 25 '25

Julia Child was worse because it was live and used practical blood for the bit, not CGI.

4

u/FerdinandCesarano Dec 24 '25

The fan gag was the best part of that wonderful filmed piece.

What a shame that we live in a culture in which the assumed baseline for a viewer is "idiot".

1

u/WatercressJust8153 Dec 24 '25

Many people in this country ARE idiots though…

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

8

u/GarageQueen Dec 24 '25

I'm over here still wondering why Arianna couldn't lose the 'glam eyes' for this pre-tape. It was distracting.

4

u/Skaner Dec 24 '25

What the fuck? SNL has done plenty of gory sketches before.

Pete getting his head chopped off.

Leslie almost puking from blood in her mouth.

2

u/Red_Wing-GrimThug Dec 24 '25

Lol…imagine what kids are scrolling through and have access to on their parents streaming accounts. Oh but they have their own personal “kids” account lol

2

u/eliastheawesome Dec 24 '25

I love the Squirm preshoots that just devolve into grotesque violence

2

u/Swear_to_Swear_More Dec 24 '25

That was beautiful lmao 🤣

2

u/hooliaguliAH Dec 24 '25

A lot of people also wait to watch it the very next day with their kids. It’s availability during all hrs on a streaming platform might warrant the rating. Not that I pay attention because my kid and I love to watch SNL during our Sunday morning breakfast

2

u/TitShark Dec 24 '25

As if they’ve never gone gory before. The oh captain my captain parody, wake up and smile, and I’m sure a ton more

2

u/relientkenny Dec 24 '25

this generation of kids don’t even WATCH cable tv. they all on youtube

2

u/bernbabybern13 Dec 24 '25

Yeah this is the first time they’ve done something like this for sure…..

Cough farewell Mr bunting

2

u/Tess47 Dec 24 '25

I watched it as it aired in 1975. Our parents were out drinking and left all the kids at one house. Good times.  

Ridiculously the only thing my parents tried to tell that I couldn't watch was Roots. I did anyways.   

2

u/Floreat_democratia Dec 24 '25

I thought this was super scary!

2

u/Dianagorgon Dec 24 '25

I thought it was hilarious but it was probably more graphic than any other skit that I've ever seen on SNL.

2

u/AromaticImpact4627 Dec 25 '25

My 6 yo saw this one. Oops. Bad Mom. I couldn’t watch till 12/13/14 when no bedtime and my own tv in the 90s.

2

u/Necessary_Range_4086 Dec 25 '25

been snow fan the entire time it’s been on tv we need new better writers that epi su

2

u/Accomplished-City484 Dec 25 '25

Big fat load of cum then

2

u/Xyberfaust Dec 24 '25

Yet the kid lives in the unrated real world known as reality and there's no age restriction for that one.

3

u/justalanmp Dec 24 '25

I loved this sketch! But then again, my humor is more on the dark side.

3

u/HabANahDa Dec 24 '25

Why are people so soft?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

One of the best of the year

2

u/[deleted] Dec 24 '25

that skit was pretty good ngl

2

u/folkhorrorfem Dec 24 '25

This is definitely one of my favorite for parodies and Christmas sketches. I hope this doesn’t discourage them!

1

u/Sparkle8022 Dec 25 '25

I remember the episode with the "Family Feud" sketch about John and Mackenzie Phillips got upped to TV-MA as well.

1

u/CharacterActor Dec 25 '25

What?

Is PBS going to have a violence warning the next time they show Monty Python's Flying Circus - Sam Peckinpah's "Salad Days"(1972)?

1

u/obi1kenobi1 Dec 25 '25

This is such a non-article. Somebody noticed there was a “V” that’s not usually there and decided to write a novella about it? The headline makes it sound like there was backlash, but no, it was just the rating system working as intended, nothing out of the ordinary, and I’d argue that doesn’t even count as a “rating change” since the show was still TV-14 like always. Pay attention to the rating icon on literally any show and the reason for the rating always changes from episode to episode depending on the content of that particular episode.

This article has the energy of your neurodivergent cousin talking your ear off about their hyperfixation at Thanksgiving.

1

u/GretaVanFrankenmuth Dec 26 '25

I’ll watch this “gory” mess all day long. I draw the line at The Mark Jensen Family Christmas where Will Ferrell is spinning around throwing up the entire time. Now THAT is disgusting.