SNL fans have a lot to look forward to in the upcoming months. Not only will Season 50 premiere on the 2024 TV schedule, but the sketch comedy series is getting its own biopic! It’s about time the NBC series finally got a movie treatment of its own considering how many films we have based on SNL characters, and the project’s cast and crew is excited to celebrate it. So, as Saturday Night’s crew promotes the flick with llama pics, you might be asking- what’s the deal with that? Now seems like the perfect time to tell the story behind the infamous visual gag.
We know Saturday Night is a biopic that follows the events leading up to SNL’s first episode, with some favorite cast members and crew from the famed series reenacted by stellar talent like Dylan O’Brien, Cooper Hoffman, Nicholas Braun, Finn Wolfhard, and more. Plus, Juno director Jason Reitman co-wrote and directed the film, and his father Ivan Reitman worked with many former OG SNL cast members.
Many of them celebrated the film with llama picks recently, and I don’t think we all want to wait until the movie premieres in October to understand the connection. So, now seems like a good time to see what the deal is with SNL’s long-running visual gaga.
The Origin Story Behind SNL’s Backstage Llama
If you look back at SNL seasons, and by back, I mean backstage, there are a lot of unusual things you’ll find. How unusual? Saturday Night Live’s production designer Eugene Lee told Vanity Fair what exactly you’ll find when a camera goes behind the scenes:
I don’t know if you ever noticed. When we shoot in the hallway, we go outside the studio. We always have, 99% of the time in the background, Abe Lincoln, a chorus girl—like Radio City—and a llama. We always have that.
Seeing this wooly mammal may not have been so apparent looking back at the ‘80s and ‘90s of SNL. Unless, of course, you count a couple of Eric Idle episodes from 1979 and 1980. If anything, you can thank long-running Saturday Night Live cast member Seth Meyers for keeping the gag going since he started as a writer on the Emmy-winning sketch series in 2001. The llama was very prominent in Season 38 when hosts like Martin Short and Kristen Wiig took us backstage. And lo and behold, there was no hiding that adorable animal.
It’s an incredibly hilarious form of writing to go backstage and see something as random as a llama hiding back there. The only time a llama made an appearance in an actual sketch was when Kevin Hart was a Season 43 host, and a llama played the part of a camel in the “Nativity Play” sketch. At least we know for sure they had one. The visual gag is still ongoing, but Eugene Lee jokingly admitted he had no idea why:
We don’t know why we do it anymore. We get a script [set] in the hallway, so we call the prop department and say, ‘Order up a llama.’ Sometimes it’s the wrong llama—it has the wrong color. We send it back.
Now we know that a llama is a very important mascot for the SNL cast and crew to have. In the future, we know to look more closely backstage to see if the llama is having some downtime back there.
With the origin of SNL’s llama story clarified, we can see the true significance the mammal plays on set. So, why not commemorate the SNL biopic with some cute llama photos? One of the film’s stars Andrew Barth Feldman sure did in this Instagram photo below of him petting the famed llama:
I can’t get over how cute and calm that llama looks as the No Hard Feelings actor pets him in a hallway. Compared to the llama staying cooped up backstage, Feldman confirms we’ll actually see the furry creature in the movie which is making me all the more excited. Another social media pic from Finn Wolfhard shows this llama is ready for its closeup:
With so many comments asking for this dear llama’s name, it proves the precious animal is getting folks excited about the movie. Just like Pixar has the desk lamp and MGM has the lion as mascots, clearly, the llama is the unlikely furry mascot the sketch comedy series needs.
Along with the cast, this Instagram post from Saturday Night shows that the llama is ready for their close up:
Even Jason Reitman’s post couldn’t help promoting the mammal’s star quality for his project on the 2024 movie schedule. It looks like this llama is gonna need an Instagram page of their own now once the new film releases.
Saturday Night’s promotion has been a series of llama photos to represent the visual backstage running gag that Seth Meyers helped keep going, and we love it! Now, I can’t wait for the upcoming movie to show us the llama, and possibly its origins, when it hits theaters on October 11. Also, while we’re on the topic of the legendary sketch comedy series, make sure to add Season 50 to your list of things to watch as it premieres on NBC on September 28. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a llama in the hallway?