Fandom 250: Saturday Night Live fans continue to impact pop culture

In the Fandom 250 rankings, Saturday Night Live fans show why the show has had such a lasting impact.

There has never been a better time in television than right now. Streaming services and on-demand content has only added to the range and quality of content already bolstered by traditional cable programming like Saturday Night Live. This golden age of television is being driven by us, the fans.

To celebrate, FanSided recently released the Fandom 250 rankings for fans of everything from television to athletes to video games. So if you’re going to talk about diehard fans then it’s only right that Saturday Night Live ranked tenth on the television list.

Saturday Night Live is the perfect symbol for what makes television so great in 2018. It’s dependable, showing up every Saturday night on NBC at the same time. It’s portable with clips constantly added to YouTube to go along with the SNL app. It’s streamable, too. And we haven’t even got to the content yet.

Listen, Saturday Night Live fans have heard it all before. People say the show is all but dead, that it used to be funnier, that it’s lost it’s edge. But this debate is just part of the reason fans love the show so much. It’s like following a sports team. The roster changes, there are ups and downs, but at the end of the day you’re still rooting for it.

But even if you’re critical of Saturday Night Live in 2018, you can’t deny the impact the show continues to have. Sketches go viral and get covered by blogs and news outlets. Nowhere else can you get the political humor that comes from Studio 8H. Even President Trump himself has weighed in on the show proving it’s just as influential as ever.

Maybe political humor isn’t your thing and you tune in to get away from all that. If that’s the case, you still won’t be disappointed with Saturday Night Live. Cast members like Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Beck Bennett continue to create new characters each and every week.

Whether you’re a fan from when the show started in 1975 or have only recently come on board, chances are you have a favorite character. No other show has created more insanely unique characters as Saturday Night Live. Bill Murray’s lounge singer. Wayne’s World. The Target Lady. Even if you don’t know these characters you’ve probably still heard their quotes, seen them as GIFs on social media, or seen them inspire a Halloween costume.

This all adds to up to why Saturday Night Live  had such an impressive showing on the Fandom 250. Yes, shows like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones will be talked about for a very, very long time. In fact, they’ll probably be rebooted and reinvented before you know it. But SNL will always be SNL. The show stays fresh and multiple generations can come together and appreciate it as entertaining, funny, and influential.