25 best cold-opens in SNL history

4. Clinton, Saddam and Lewinsky have a three-way … call

One of the all-time great SNL sketches. When Bill Clinton was embroiled in his sex scandal with Monica Lewinsky, late night shows were the place to be. It seemed like they had great new material cooked up about it every week, and this sketch may have been the pinnacle of all of it.

Of course, Will Ferrell steals the spotlight as Saddam Hussein. Before the season started, he had left the show, so seeing him return this episode was a moment of magic. Having Clinton act all buddy-buddy with Hussein was not something he needed to see with his reputation already in tatters. Even more hilarious was seeing Clinton prefer to invade Iraq than negotiate a treaty. When Clinton bombed Iraq in 1998, many saw it as a distraction from his impending impeachment.

But this sketch really kicks into high gear when Hussein greets Lewinsky like an old friend while revealing that he got his beret from her. He even tries to get her to come to Iraq, since “nobody cares who I sleep with here.”

Hussein later reveals that his dream is to one day host SNL. While he never got to do that, he did appear in a cold open, which is the next best thing. And this cold open just happened to be one of the show’s best.