Saturday Night Live’s Celebrity Jeopardy! sketches have provided some truly iconic moments for the NBC sketch show. You hardly have to be an SNL fanatic to have seen the best Celebrity Jeopardy! sketches featuring Will Ferrell as one of the best game show hosts ever, Alex Trebek. So what would Celebrity Jeopardy! look like in the Ken Jennings era of Jeopardy! if SNL were to bring it back as part of the 2025 TV schedule? The host had a couple of amazing ideas when he was asked that very question, but I think he’s overlooking one obvious choice.
Ken Jennings Shares An A+ Idea For Who Could Play Him On SNL’s Celebrity Jeopardy!
Sean Connery on Celebrity Jeopardy! is among the funniest recurring characters on Saturday Night Live, and sketches parodying the quiz show are still some of the most popular SNL clips on YouTube. However, it’s been 10 years the NBC writers dipped into that well, with the last Celebrity Jeopardy! sketch airing in February 2015 during the comedy show’s 40th season. During a recent taping, an audience member asked Ken Jennings who he could see portraying him if they revived the idea for its currently airing Season 50. His response, per the Inside Jeopardy! podcast, was:
She’d have to come back, but I think Kate McKinnon could do it. I think somebody online said Jack McBrayer, but [he’s] also not a cast member. But that doesn’t matter anymore, right? It’s just whoever, now. That’s how Saturday Night Live works?
Regardless of the fact that she left SNL in 2022, Kate McKinnon is such a good answer, and I get the sneaky suspicion this was not the first time Ken Jennings has considered his physical similarity to the Barbie actress.
30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer is also a good choice, although he surprisingly has never appeared on Saturday Night Live. As the Jeopardy! host pointed out, the sketch comedy has been known to call on outside comedians or former cast members to fill certain roles — it took a big risk doing that ahead of the presidential election — but if they did want to go with someone currently working in Studio 8H, I think I’ve got the perfect guy.
Mikey Day Could Totally Play Ken Jennings On Saturday Night Live
Nobody could keep a straight face when Ryan Gosling dressed up as Beavis during his SNL host gig back in April, and Mikey Day’s turn as Butt-Head ensured that people were still talking about that viral Beavis and Butt-Head sketch for weeks after. Day may not look as much like Ken Jennings as the two examples he named, but I think between Day’s smaller stature and, more importantly, the range of the characters he can play, he would be a great choice.
Slap a wig on Mikey Day and call it a … never mind, I’ll leave the dad jokes to Ken Jennings. Another point in Day’s favor is that he's also got some game show experience that he could bring to the role as the host of Netflix’s Is It Cake?
I have to imagine that just like the Jeopardy! host who came before him, Ken Jennings would be nothing but flattered, no matter who portrayed him from behind the lectern. It was said that Alex Trebek loved the Jeopardy! parodies, and he even made an epic SNL cameo back in Season 27.
We’ll have to see what SNL’s future holds in terms of Celebrity Jeopardy! sketches, but for now, take a look at the upcoming Season 50 hosts and musical guests, then tune in at 11:30 p.m. ET Saturdays on NBC and streaming with a Peacock subscription.