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10 Top SNL Sketches With Cats: Feline Funnies

Written by: Stephanie Harwin

Last Updated on March 6, 2024 by Catster Editorial Team

Funny cat in a puppet costume of a pirate on the pier

10 Top SNL Sketches With Cats: Feline Funnies

Saturday Night Live has been producing comedy sketches for decades, and it occasionally has ones with animals in them. It seems like many SNL writers are also feline fans because numerous skits star cats. A few of these sketches were so well-received that they became regular series on the show.

Here’s a list of our favorite SNL sketches that feature cats, and we hope that they give you as good of a laugh as they do for us!

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Top 10 SNL Sketches With Cats

1. Laser Cats

Air Date: 04/15/2006
Season: Season 31
Host: None

“Laser Cats” is a series of digital shorts created by Andy Samberg and Bill Hader. The first aired on April 15, 2006. The series opens with Samberg and Hader making a pitch to Lorne Michaels to create a short film that “combines two things that everyone loves: cats and lasers.”

The series parodies low-budget home videos and includes low-quality visual effects. It also features many well-known actors, but each part always ends with a disappointed Lorne Michaels.


2. Toonces the Driving Cat

Air Date: 05/20/1989
Season: Season 14
Host: Steve Martin

This classic SNL sketch features Steve Martin and Victoria Jackson. They discover that their cat Toonces can drive. However, Toonces isn’t very good at driving and gets the family into a significant car accident. Despite the accident, the couple allows Toonces to take a driver’s license test. This sketch was a hit, and Toonces became a fan favorite. There have been several subsequent sketches that carried the story of Toonces the Cat throughout multiple seasons.


3. Pet Chalet’s Feline Culinary Creations

Air Date: 12/11/2010
Season: Season 36
Host: Paul Rudd

This sketch is a cat food commercial spoof that all cat owners can relate to. It starts by advertising the food as specially curated gourmet recipes developed by professional chefs. The camera pans over beautiful shots of high-quality ingredients while the narrator lists fancy names for each recipe. However, the beauty is immediately interrupted by a realistic shot of the food, which looks like typical canned cat food. This spoof does a great job of depicting the stark difference between what’s advertised and the actual product.


4. Litter Critters

Air Date: 10/16/1999
Season: Season 25
Host: Heather Graham

“Litter Critters” is a children’s toy commercial spoof. It starts with a woman getting disgusted by the smell coming from her cat’s litter box. She complains about how her children don’t help with cleaning up after their cat. Litter Critters is presented as the solution to the problem. It is a set of molds that children can fill with cat litter to create different figurines. The commercial proceeds to show people having fun playing with the toy and comments on how it is a creative way to deal with cat litter.


5. Pet Cat

Air Date: 01/22/2005
Season: Season 30
Host: Paul Giamatti

This sketch stars Rachel Dratch, Paul Giamatti, and Fred Armisen. Dratch and Giamatti play a couple that returns home from a date. Dratch introduces Giamatti to her pet cat, who is Armisen dressed in a cat costume.

Armisen begins to intrude and invade the couple’s personal space while Giamatti tries to get to know Dratch better. Many people can relate to Armisen’s depiction of cats that want attention without caring about what else is happening in the room.


6. Christmas With the Cat Lady

Air Date: 12/18/2004
Season: Season 30
Host: Robert De Niro

This SNL sketch is a favorite for the holidays. It opens with Robert De Niro dressed as an old cat lady named Margie. She is surrounded by cats and tells the cats a Christmas story. However, the story doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas. Rather, it is about her own life and how she was kicked by a horse. The sketch has a very simple premise. However, seeing De Niro dressed as a cat lady and doting on cats is a hilarious contrast to some of the tough acting roles he’s had.


7. Action Cats

Air Date: 04/11/1992
Season: Season 17
Host: Sharon Stone

Action Cats is a toy commercial spoof that features live cats as action figures. The voiceover for the commercial claims that there are 22 Action Cats and proceeds to show some of them off. The collection includes Skele-Kitty, Laser Gal, Cat-Atomic, and Spider Cat. All the cats are wearing costumes with fake weapons, and the commercial ends with the disclaimer that batteries and cats aren’t included with the Action Cat toys.


8. America’s Funniest Cats

Air Date: 01/16/2016
Season: Season 41
Host: Adam Driver

This sketch is a spoof of the popular TV show, America’s Funniest Home Videos. It stars Adam Driver, Cecily Strong, and Kate McKinnon. Driver is the host of a TV show that narrates videos of cats. Strong and McKinnon are his guests from France who also enjoy narrating cat videos. Hilarity ensues when their narrating styles clash. Driver wants funny and comedic commentary, while Strong and McKinnon provide very literal descriptions of what’s happening in each cat video.


9. Whiskers R We

Air Date: 12/20/2014
Season: Season 42
Host: Amy Adams

“Whiskers R We” is a series of sketches that features cats. The first sketch aired in 2014 and featured Kate McKinnon and Amy Adams. Kate McKinnon plays a character named Barbara DeDrew. She works at a cat rescue and showcases cats up for adoption. The cats are presented in a variety of funny ways, including having celebrity names and wearing cute costumes.

This sketch was such a hit that it had several runs with other guest hosts, including Tiffany Haddish, Reese Witherspoon, Charlize Theron, and Billie Eilish.


10. We Got Her a Cat

Air Date: 03/12/2022
Season: Season 47
Host: Zoë Kravitz

This sketch involves the comedy writing team Please Don’t Destroy and Zoë Kravitz. The writers of Please Don’t Destroy want to surprise Kravitz with an adorable calico cat because she starred as Catwoman. The first scene shows the cat being extremely docile. However, chaos ensues when the writers lose the cat. They team up with Kravitz to look for the cat and end up destroying an entire room while they look for it.

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Conclusion

We love these SNL sketches because they capture all the different aspects of cats, including their playfulness, curiosity, and chaotic energy. We hope you enjoyed watching them just as much as we did, and we’re looking forward to seeing how SNL will continue to feature cats for many more seasons to come.

See also:


Featured Image Credit: Daykiney, Shutterstock

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