Introduction: Situating Saturday Night Live in American television culture / Nick Marx, Matt Sienkiewicz, and Ron Becker -- pt. 1. Live from New York on NBC -- The evolution of Saturday Night / Michele Hilmes -- "Live from New York!" / Susan Murray -- Michael O'Donoghue, experimental television comedy, and Saturday Night Live's authorship / Evan Elkins -- pt. 2. Staying alive on Saturday night -- Politics and the brand: Saturday Night Live's campaign season humor / Jeffrey P. Jones -- Speaking too soon: SNL, 9/11, and the remaking of American irony / Matt Sienkiewicz -- Live music: mediating musical performance and discord on Saturday Night Live / Alyxandra Vesey -- Going backstage: network heritage, industrial identities, and reiterated mediation of Saturday Night Live's work worlds / Derek Johnson -- pt. 3. Social politics and comedic representation -- Bringing the black: Eddie Murphy and African American humor on Saturday Night Live / Racquel Gates -- "Is this the era of the woman?": SNL's gender politics in the new millennium / Caryn Murphy -- SNL's "Fauxbama" debate: facing off over millennial (mixed- ) racial impersonation / Mary Beltrán -- pt. 4. Beyond Saturday Night, beyond television -- Skits strung together: performance, narrative, and the sketch comedy aesthetic in SNL films / Nick Marx -- Andy Samberg's digital success story and other myths of the Internet comedy club / Ethan Thompson and Ethan Tussey -- Sketches gone viral: from watercooler talk to participatory comedy / David Gurney.