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When looking back at the hundreds of episodes of “Saturday Night Live” over the last four decades, it’s near impossible to narrow down one full episode that could be considered the “quintessential” “Saturday Night Live” moment. By nature, the show is meant to change week to week, as it reacts to the events of the week. In the winter of 1990, “Saturday Night Live” may have come as close as possible to a perfect episode, with the mega star power of Aerosmith and Tom Hanks.
At the time, Aerosmith were in the heart of their promotional tour for “Pump” the followup to their 1987 comeback album, “Permanent Vacation.” Though he was still three years away from his breakout acting year of 1993, Hanks was already one of the most popular actors in the country, with several big films slated for release that year.
More than twenty-five years later, Aerosmith and Hanks’ contribution to SNL lore has held up with their appearance in a “Wayne’s World” sketch together, a sketch that Complex named the 6th best of all time in a 2015 listicle.
In the sketch, which was the seventh time Dana Carvey and Mike Myers donned their “Wayne’s World” get ups on SNL, Hanks plays Aerosmith’s roadie and cousin to Carvey’s Garth Algar. During a trip through Illinois, Hanks’ character convince Aerosmith to stop by Myers’ Wayne Campbell’s public access show.
When the band finally head downstairs for their “Wayne’s World” appearance they answer some viewer questions and end the bit with a perfect performance of the “Wayne’s World” theme song, giving SNL fans a performance that would show up in highlight reels and “best of” specials for years to come.