Jack Black's "Sbarro" SNL Sketch Literally Blew Amy Poehler and Rachel Dratch Away
The wind in this 2005 clip caused "scream-laughing," according to costar Dratch.
Who hasn't experienced the pain of sitting too close to the entrance of a restaurant on a cold and windy day? Every time that door opens, you curse whatever new customers are coming in as you brace for the burst of weather and hope your pizza doesn't fly away.
That's certainly what happened in "The Wind," a sketch from Jack Black's third time hosting Saturday Night Live on December 17, 2005. Black and Amy Poehler play a couple who've been shopping with their baby and her Meemaw (Rachel Dratch), and stopped at Sbarro for a pizza break.
Unfortunately, whenever the door by their table opens, it's no light breeze rolling through; they're nearly blown out of their chairs by gale force gusts. The increasingly intense winds blow snow and trash into the restaurant, and it's genuinely impressive that the trio manages to keep it together. Or maybe they're not keeping it together, and the wind just disguises their laughter.
RELATED: Watch Jack Black's Saturday Night Live Monologue & Sketches from April 5, 2025
Watch a clip of Jack Black's "The Wind" sketch below, via SNL's Instagram.
Jack Black's Sbarro sketch was written by Emily Spivey and Rachel Dratch calls it a "joy bomb"
In a February Instagram post shared ahead of SNL50: The Anniversary Special, Dratch shared some memories of the sketch in an Instagram post, along with a few truly incredible stills.
"I was only going to use one of these pictures. But dammit this series of pix just makes me laugh so I’m posting the whole thing like a flipbook!" she wrote. "This scene, written by the brilliant [Emily Spivey], takes place in a Sbarro and was based on the simple idea that every time someone came in the wind blew into the restaurant. You can see Amy and I scream-laughing because the wind machine was so strong. Oh my gosh - joy bomb!"
Dratch posted multiple throwbacks from her time on the show and the people she worked with that same week, highlighting Poehler, Spivey, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Jimmy Fallon, beloved SNL stage manager Gena Rositano, and many more. She even shared a photo of herself with Seth Meyers from the read-through of her very last show in 2006.
"Seth and I used to write this character, old Hollywood producer Abe Scheinwald, together," she wrote. "Pictured, Seth surprised me with a Scheinwald sketch at my last read-through and came equipped with glasses and a signature tub of cole slaw. You might not even know this character because he often appeared in the 12:55am slot!"
If you're in the mood for some very recent and very incredible comedy from Dratch, make sure you listen to — and watch the intro to — the first episode of Amy Poehler's Good Hang podcast.
Dratch was one of several guests invited on to talk about Fey, and as Meyers put it on his episode of Good Hang, "It's like watching a one person show....I feel like it's the movie I've been in that I get the most feedback on." Her headphones are tangled, her laptop died, her doorbell rang which made her dogs bark, and it's truly a sight to behold.
Watch the clip of "The Wind" from Season 31, Episode 9 above, and stream every episode of SNL anytime on Peacock.
