These SNL Mother's Day Sketches Are Funny, Heartwarming, and Deeply Relatable
Emma Thompson, Amy Schumer, and Kristen Wiig have all starred in Saturday Night Live's hilarious (and relatable) takes on motherhood.
Calling all Motherlovers — by which we mean folks who love their mom, of course! May 11 is Mother's Day in 2025, so we're taking this opportunity to look back on the many Saturday Night Live sketches that have tackled the subject. And frankly, there should be a lot of them, since there's a hundred ways to be a mother, and to have one.
All of the sketches below find infinite ways to be relatable, such as "The Perfect Mother" starring Emma Thompson, and Amy Schumer's hysterical and the VERY real "The Day You Were Born." Several SNL Mother's Day episodes have even featured the SNL cast introducing their real moms, while "Weekend Update" visitors like Adam Sandler and Pete Davidson have honored those who brought them into this world.
There are the surprisingly tender sketches, like Maya Rudolph's "Can You Pick Me Up" from Season 49, and just plain surreal ones like "Hallmark Mother Collection," because it is Saturday Night Live, after all.
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Watch SNL's best Mother's Day sketches through the years
Below, revisit some of Saturday Night Live's funniest, sweetest, truest, and weirdest tributes to Mother's Day. Don't miss the May 10 episode with Host Walton Goggins, and stream all 50 seasons of SNL on Peacock anytime.
"The Lawrence Welk Show: Mother's Day" with Betty White
In this very special Season 35 Mother's Day cold open, the mother of Kristin Wiig's Doonese is played by the legendary Betty White. The sketch also doubles as an "iconic women of SNL" reunion with appearances from alums Rachel Dratch, Molly Shannon, Tina Fey, Ana Gasteyer, and Maya Rudolph.
"The Perfect Mother" with Emma Thompson
In this Season 44 sketch, an exhausted new mom (Heidi Gardner) asks her own mother (Host Emma Thompson) how she managed to be so perfect. As we learn in very funny flashbacks, the mind has a way of glossing over memories of the dark times.
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Adam Sandler's Mother's Day Song
If you love Adam Sandler's musical odes to Thanksgiving turkey and Hanukkah, you've got to hear his falsetto-heavy 1993 Mother's Day tribute.
"1-800-Flowers"
Kate McKinnon and Kristen Wiig are gold playing a mother and her (increasingly frustrated) daughter in this pitch-perfect commercial parody.
"The Day You Were Born" with Amy Schumer
One woman (May 2018 Host Amy Schumer) gives her son's birth story a major edit as she describes it to him on Mother's Day morning.
"Snoop's Mother's Day Message"
Before he was an Olympics influencer and a Coach on The Voice with eight grandchildren, Snoop Dogg was a Death Row rapper — and this 2004 poem was an unexpected move, as he sat surrounded by flowers. Snoop released a gospel album dedicated to his dear mother, the late Beverly Tate, in 2025.
"Mother's Day Gifts"
In this Season 47 sketch co-starring Host Benedict Cumberbatch, a woman (Aidy Bryant) unwraps all of her Mother's Day gifts with family..and every gift is a wordy wooden sign, each one less appropriate than the next.
"Weekend Update: Pete Davidson on Living with His Mom"
Long before he bought a ferry with Colin Jost, Davidson he stopped by the "Weekend Update" desk in 2019 to talk living with his mom, Amy Waters Davidson, and she joined to weigh in.
"What do you have planned?" Jost asked Davidson about his Mother's Day plan.
"What do you mean? I put her on TV, this is it," Davidson joked.
"Stefon on Mother's Day's Hottest Tips"
Where better to bring your mom than a new hotspot from Italian club owner Baloney Danza?
"Amazon Mother's Day Ad for Fifty Shades of Grey"
Breakfast in bed is great, but why not give Mom what she really wants: Some alone time. Preferably with the door locked, if she's reading about Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey.
David Spade on Mother's Day
In 1992, David Spade mixed salty with sweet in a sardonic take on his relationship with his parents.
"Protective Mom" with Pedro Pascal
You can't talk about iconic SNL moms without including Pedro Pascal's passive-aggressive Latino mother, who made appearances in Season 48 and 49 (and was inspired by sketch writer and star Marcello Hernández's real mother).
"Hallmark Mother Collection"
Happy Mother's Day to all the "weirdos" out there who celebrate the day in more of a Norman Bates in Psycho kind of way.
"Can You Pick Me Up"
Maya Rudolph's Season 49 pretape just gives us the warm fuzzies inside.
Stream all 50 seasons of Saturday Night Live on Peacock anytime.
