Did you know you can watch SNL clips on YouTube? Yeah, you probably knew that.

‘Saturday Night Live’ had its 50th anniversary special Sunday night.

There are far bigger experts on ‘Saturday Night Live’ than me, I’ll say that right off the bat.

But it’s only at the 50th anniversary celebration that I stopped to think what a huge role the show has played in my life.

It’s kind of amazing how much of the show’s history people my age have actually experienced.

The ‘70s and early ‘80s seemed like old-time stuff when we watched re-runs, but really what we were watching live was still the show kind of in its infancy…or at least childhood.

As I was thinking about that 50th anniversary special and all of the hoopla surrounding it I was thinking about the show as a whole - like, now people who watch it who have an eye on the comedy scene could possibly know someone before they are on SNL.

And when we were kids I guess comedy nerds could have known someone before they were on SNL. If someone was a frequent comedy club-goer, for example. But for a kid like me? That’s how I learned about comedy.

I knew of Adam Sandler because he was on SNL. And then his CDs came out and I listened to those, and then he had his movies…etc. But I didn’t know Adam Sandler as a comedian who then got picked to be on the show.

I knew Dana Carvey from SNL…then I learned about his stand-up.

So that’s the first thing. The second thing is just how big a cultural role SNL played in my teenage years. I still quote Jon Lovitz to this day. A couple of years ago my daughter took an acting class elective and of course I shouted, “ACTING!” (And then I played the Phil Hartman ‘eeewwww’ clip for everyone.) My cousin was the first person to introduce me to the ‘that’s the ticket’ catchphrase.

We loved “Deep Thoughts” so much we bought the books filled with them. (And it was a nice touch to see one on the 50th anniversary special.)

It was exciting to stay up for ‘Saturday Night Live.’ Maybe there will be a Wayne’s World sketch tonight! or Jerry Seinfeld is hosting! or Ray Romano is hosting! or Billy Joel is the musical guest!

If we didn’t do something else on a Saturday night in college we were parked in front of a way-too-small TV set in someone’s room watching SNL.

It’s nice seeing everyone’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ reflections - it’s a real cultural touchstone that has meant something to so many people. I figured I’d add mine.

I was a little surprised I stayed up for the whole anniversary special. I mean, it wasn’t a school night, so that helped.

But I never stay up for the show on Saturday nights anymore. I’m kind of an in-betweener. I don’t stay up for the show, but it is not my habit to watch clips the next day on YouTube like my friends do. (I do catch many on Instagram.)

Because I don’t stay up to watch it I have blank years where I didn’t watch the show…but watching that special I realized I had the gist of it - I knew who everyone was, I know all the major sketches.

And I have a pretty good understanding of the history of the show because I lived through a lot of it.

If you haven’t seen the 50 years of SNL music documentary, find that - it’s great. There are some mini-docs on Peacock that I need to find somehow. (We don’t have Peacock.) I enjoy seeing those things. I’m particularly interested in seeing the one about the auditions.

And if you didn’t watch the 50th anniversary special, well, you can find the clips online.

I laughed really hard at Bill Murray’s Weekend Update bit.

But the one must-see thing from that night was Adam Sandler’s song.

It was a beautiful summary of the show’s 50 years.

I teared up watching it live. And I teared up watching it again getting the link. See it here.