Saturday Night | 2024 | R | – 4.4.10

Why is “Saturday Night” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language throughout, sexual references, some drug use and brief graphic nudity.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes several suggestive jokes and comedy acts, an implied exposure of male genitals, flirting and sexual advances, a few stage accidents with one leading to a small fire, a couple of scuffles and name-calling exchanged, many arguments about programming and funding, and over 50 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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A behind the scenes look at the first live broadcast of “Saturday Night Live” in 1975. With Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Colby James West and Nicholas Braun. Directed by Jason Reitman. [Running Time: 1:49]

Saturday Night SEX/NUDITY 4

 – A skit is rehearsed where several women dress in hardhats and overalls, they grab their crotches and catcall to a man wearing a tank T-shirt and hot pants as he walks by; they whistle and make crude remarks, tell him to pick something up off the ground and when the man bends over a woman bumps his buttocks with her hips (simulating sex) and grabs his chest when he stands up. Several women wearing skimpy outfits that reveal cleavage, bare abdomens, backs and legs dance onstage and a man dances between them holding one dancer around the waist and touching her buttock. A man touches a woman from behind and she jumps and laughs as they flirt. A woman slaps a man on the clothed buttock.
► Two men exchange remarks about their genital size in front of a woman; one man unzips his pants (presumably to expose himself) and the other man and the woman seem shocked (we do not see any nudity). A man trips over a garbage can and falls on the floor; when he stands up he says, “I tripped over my [anatomical term deleted].” A woman sits on a dolly operator’s lap and they spin around in the air above a stage.
► A man asks another man to tell his staff not to leave Muppets in compromising positions and that they left a suggestive note on them. A man says that he slept with Gloria Steinem. A man introduces a woman and another man says, “She looks expensive.” A man jokes about “Playboy” magazines being burned and emitting the smell of roast bunny. A man talks about self-medicating with heroin, sex workers and booze.
► A woman wears a sweater that reveals her nipples through the fabric in a few scenes. A man wears a robe and boxer shorts and we see his bare legs to the upper thighs.

Saturday Night VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A man on a loading dock punches another man in the face (we see the man with a bloody nose). A man throws a glass ashtray across a room at another man and the two men fight briefly (no injuries are seen). A large array of stage lights fall from the ceiling and crash onto a set where actors are rehearsing; the lights catch fire and spark and a sofa catches fire (no one is harmed), and an actor and a director confront the stage crew and argue. A man sets script pages on fire and drops them out the window and the flaming pages fall near a man on the sidewalk below. A skid piled with bricks bumps into a stage and the bricks fall onto the stage where a man is rehearsing and he becomes upset and yells. A man throws a Polaroid camera across a room (no injuries are seen). A man breaks a glass door to enter a building.
► A man yells at another man and tells him that people want him to fail. People argue about a TV show’s budget in several scenes. Several people confront a woman that edits a script for compliance with broadcast standards and one man says, “I refuse to comply.” A man pretends to shoot two Muppets and another man becomes upset with the idea saying that other members of the cast had wrapped a belt around Big Bird’s neck and hanged him at this dressing room door. People talk about a TV show being the start of a revolution and an insurrection. A man jokes about “Playboy” magazines being burned and emitting the smell of roast bunny. People talk about a script for the Muppets including having them on a plantation. As time passes, people become more nervous and anxious about a live broadcast. A man tells another man that if a TV show doesn’t make his ears bleed he will be disappointed. A character quotes Adolf Hitler. A man describes the “virgin birth” of Jesus Christ and his later murder. A man says that he went to Julliard and that he is being underutilized. A man tells jokes about particular states, making fun of the men in the room from those states. A man and woman make fun of another man and call him names, and refer to his Albanian heritage.
► A man ice skates, trips and falls on his abdomen (we do not see injuries). A man moans when he can’t open his mouth and we hear that he has lockjaw from doing too much cocaine. A man pretends to jam knitting needles into his eyes in front of a crowd and he screams. Two men grab their chests and fall out of their chairs on a stage during a skit (pretending to have heart attacks). Two men practice with stage blood for a skit (we see one man’s hands stained with the red liquid); later another man is sprayed with the liquid and we see his face and shirt stained. A man trips over a garbage can and falls on the floor (he is unharmed). During a rehearsal, two men wearing ski masks break through a stage door advertising a security program. A woman sits on a dolly operator’s lap and they spin around in the air above a stage. People scramble through hallways carrying scripts, pulling racks with costumes, bustling to prepare for a live TV broadcast. A man walks through a studio and hallways carrying a tube that is smoking, presumably for good luck.
► Two young men run through city traffic handing out flyers inviting people to a live comedy “extravaganza” while cars honk their horns. A man sniffs another man’s jacket and pulls out a vial that he opens and snorts from (we assume that it is cocaine) and the man tells him that it’s “medical grade.” A man offers a drugged cigarette to another man and the second man locks himself in a room after he is affected by the drug and doesn’t know how to handle it.
► A Llama is shown in a studio in a few scenes. A box of cereal labeled “Colon Blow” is shown but not addressed. A remark is made about “blood and vomit.” A woman jokes about wearing a catheter.

Saturday Night LANGUAGE 10

 – About 54 F-words and its derivatives, 1 obscene hand gesture, 13 sexual references, 23 scatological terms, 14 anatomical terms, 8 mild obscenities, name-calling (thugs, hobo, troll, death trap, animals, arrogant, pony tailed vulture feeding off Lenny Bruce, ghost of television past, stud muffin, stray, skeptic, sinner, cheap, degenerates, halfway decent writer, little talent show, full of baloney, handsome funny gentile), exclamations (jeez, atta boy, freaked out, boom-ba-ba-boom, bouncy bouncy, break a leg, shut the [F-word deleted] up), 2 religious profanities (GD), 18 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, God, Jesus, Holy [scatological term deleted], Jesus Christ, Satan). | profanity glossary |

Saturday Night SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man gives another man a vial with a “medical grade” drug (implied to be cocaine) in it to help him relax before a show (the man does not use it), a man pulls a vial out of another man’s jacket pocket and snorts from it (we assume that it is cocaine and we see powder on his mustache later), a man talks about self-medicating with heroin and booze, we see a pile of cocaine on a tray in a dressing room, and a man smokes a drugged cigarette and offers it to another man who takes a drag. Many men gather in a room and we see them drinking from glasses of liquor and smoking cigarettes, a man takes a glass of liquor as he walks through a room filled with men drinking and smoking, and a man jokes about his mother being an alcoholic. People smoke cigarettes in and around a studio as well as on the set and in the control room in many scenes throughout the movie, and a man lights a cigarette from the flames burning in a fallen stage light.

Saturday Night DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – “Saturday Night Live,” live television, budgetary constraints, planned failure, sacrifice, counter-culture, jealousy, advertising, vulgarity, hedonism, communism, infanticide, instinct, network affiliates, Che Guevara, Mr. Rogers, Prometheus, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Milton Berle, New York City, believing in your vision, doing things differently.

Saturday Night MESSAGE

 – “Saturday Night Live” set a new standard for contemporary comedy television.