Peanuts Christmas

In this hilarious parody of "A Charlie Brown Christmas," a pretentious local theater director named Drake Tuttle (Martin Short) and his romantic partner/choreographer Le'Stat (Bowen Yang) take over the school's Christmas pageant, announcing that the original director Charlie Brown is "dead to me." Tuttle proceeds to give absurd theatrical direction to the iconic Peanuts characters, attempting to incorporate modern hip-hop choreography and over-the-top acting notes. He makes uncomfortable comments about Schroeder being "a top," suggests Linus is on the spectrum because of his blanket, and tries to reimagine the wholesome Christmas special as edgy theater. Throughout the chaos, Snoopy (Kenan Thompson) becomes Tuttle's star, earning constant praise with lines like "He gets it!" The sketch perfectly captures both the beloved aesthetic of the original Peanuts special—with the cast nailing the signature dance moves in authentic costumes—and the nightmarish reality of working with an insufferable community theater director.

The sketch opened with the full cast performing the iconic Peanuts Christmas dance to "Linus and Lucy," with each cast member perfectly mimicking their character's signature moves. Props department added excellent details like flies on wires attached to Pig Pen's bass. The costume design was universally praised for making each cast member look exactly like their cartoon counterparts. This was one of the most well-received sketches of the night. Sarah Sherman reached her 200th milestone sketch on SNL during this episode. The sketch may have been inspired by or reminded viewers of the classic SNL sketch "You're a Rat Bastard, Charlie Brown". Martin Short's character channeled every over-the-top local acting coach "who never made it, so he teaches".