SNL App Emoji Explained

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To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the show, Saturday Night Live has a brand App. You can get clips from all 40 years, bonus footage, other goodies and most of all, SNL emoji! (Download here.) We consulted a team of 25 “SNLHeads” to decipher the new emoji. Here is what, we, think, is the meaning of each SNL emoji.

	1. Abe Lincoln – Recurring backstage character
	2. and 3. Ace and Gary Watch HERE
	4.Bennet Brauer Watch HERE
	5. Tales of BILL BRASKEY! Watch HERE
	6. The Olympia Restaurant (Cheezborger) Watch HERE
	7. Derek Stevens’ Comeback: Choppin’ Broccoli Watch HERE
	8. Alarm Clocks and More Watch HERE
	9. Coffee Talk Watch HERE
	10. Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet Watch HERE
	11. Buckwheat Watch HERE
	12. KeyRock the Unfrozen Cave Man Lawyer Watch HERE
	13. Chippendales Audition Watch HERE
	14. The ConeheadsWatch HERE
	15. Lazy Sunday Watch HERE
	16. NPR’s The Delicious Dish Watch HERE
	17. D*** in a Box Watch HERE
	18. I’m on a Boat Watch HERE
	19. The Continental Watch HERE
	20. Bill Swerski’s Super Fans Watch HERE
	21. Debbie Downer Watch HERE
	22. Doooneese of The Maharelle Sisters Watch HERE
	23. Drunk Uncle Watch HERE
	24. The Killer Bees Watch HERE
	25. Llama- Recurring backstage character
	26. Saturday night
	27. Spartan Cheerleaders Watch HERE
	28. Laser Cats Watch HERE
	29. Gilly Watch HERE
	30. Pumping Up with Hans and Franz Watch HERE
	31. The Ladies’ Man Watch HERE
	32. Land Shark: Jaws II Watch HERE
	33. More Cowbell Watch HERE
	34. Jeffrey’s Watch HERE
	35. Bring It On Down to Liquorville Watch HERE
	36. Lorne Michaels (creator of SNL) Watch HERE
	37. MacGruber Watch HERE
	38. Mary Katherine Gallagher Watch HERE
	39. Matt Foley Watch HERE
	40. sloppy swish skit with taran killem and Anne Hathaway
	41. Mr. Peepers Watch HERE
	42. A Night at the Roxbury Watch HERE
	43. What’s Up With That? Watch HERE
	44. Bass-O-Matic Watch HERE
	45. Judge Judy?
	46. Celebrity Jeopardy! Watch HERE
	47. Weekend Update: Really!?! Watch HERE
	48. Logo
	49. Sally O’Malley Watch HERE
	50. Showgirls – Recurring backstage character
	51. Stefon Watch HERE
	52. Sue Watch HERE
	53. Toonces the Driving Cat Watch HERE
	54. USA Day in the Office Watch HERE
	55. Samurai Hitman Watch HERE
	56. (Do It on My) Twin Bed Watch HERE
	57. Astronaut Jones’ telephone WATCH

MORE INFO: Kevin McCauley is the amazing artist behind these and some other well known emoji. (He also designed the Seinfeld Emoji, which, if you haven’t seen, do yourself a favor and check it out.) Kevin was kind enough to give me a little more info about the SNL emoji. Here is what he had to say.

ME: How does one become the official emoji artist of SNL?

KEVIN: “My first project with the Emoji was Seinfeld Emoji, which was a huge viral thing last year and kind of put me on the map for this sort of thing. That’s how SNL found me. Working with Saturday Night Live was pretty much a dream come true. I’ve always been a fan. After the app was released and I watched the 40th anniversary show, it really put it in perspective how special it was to be a small part of that. ”

ME: How did the subjects get picked, some are very obscure while some major characters and themes are omitted?

KEVIN: SNL picked the subjects. They approached me, asked me for some suggestions, and they considered those and came back to me with a list. I made all 60 of the items on the list — none were cut, and none were left un-created. I have to say, they really ‘got it’, they picked good objects and characters and gave me a lot of freedom. They understood that ‘X rendered as Emoji’ is the joke, there doesn’t have to be a joke within the joke or something heavy-handed to make them funnier. They were really great to work with.

ME: Which is your favorite emoji in the bunch?

My favorite is probably chopping’ Broccoli, because I’ve always loved Dana Carvey and I was thrilled that I got to depict one of his iconic comedy bits. When you see it, you know exactly what it is. My favorite character is Stefon, I liked how it turned out, and it think the Emoji is somehow very expressive, because you immediately think of Bill Hader’s incredibly and hilarious performance as the character, so the Emoji really benefits from that. Also it was cool to see personalities and some of the cast reference the emoji on Twitter!

ME: What program or programs do you use to make emoji?

I use Illustrator to create the Emoji characters. I frequently reference the standard iOS Emoji and always try to stay true to that aesthetic, while still making them personalized and unique to what I’m trying to depict.