Who Is in Your Saturday Night Live Top Ten? — It Turns Out the Naming Rights! Membership Option Was For Real and Someone Is Now Five Hundred Bucks Poorer Presents Nat

One of the reasons I wanted to watch and write about every episode of Saturday Night Live for my Every Episode Ever project at Buttondown is because Lorne Michaels’ comedic institution (which is so crazy sometimes that I think it belongs in an institution) has created more superstars than any other show in television history.

That’s at least partially attributable to the show’s longevity and constant turnover. Saturday Night Live is undoubtedly the only television comedy to have hundreds upon hundreds of cast members over a nearly half-century.

It’s no exaggeration to say that twenty percent of the most successful people in comedy have a connection to Saturday Night Live. Granted, I did pull that number out of my ass but it seems right.

Sometimes, that connection is very strong. A lot of huge names got their start on Saturday Night Live. I’m talking about folks like Eddie Murphy, Chevy Chase, and Will Ferrell, who became big names while they were still on the show.

Then there are people who worked on Saturday Night Live and became incredibly successful despite their time there. With that in mind, I have made a list of the ten most successful Saturday Night Live alumni whose success is built upon their time at the show and ten who became ridiculously successful despite working on Saturday Night Live.

Normally, I write very long posts that get very few comments. This time around, I am going to write a short post that I hope gets lots of comments because I would love to see who is on your top ten lists.

Let the arguing (respectfully) begin!

Stars Because of SNL

1. Eddie Murphy

2. Bill Murray

3. Will Ferrell

4. Tina Fey

5. Amy Poehler

6. Dan Aykroyd