Saturday Night Live Honors Matthew Perry

Saturday’s episode of featured a tribute to Matthew Perry. News that Perry had died from an apparent drowning broke earlier in the day on Saturday. SNL paid tribute to Perry by showing a card from when Perry hosted the show on October 7, 1997, with musical guest Oasis. That was at the height of Perry’s popularity playing Chandler Bing on NBC’s sitcom Friends. During his opening monologue, Perry urged the audience to recreate the iconic water fountain scene used in Friends‘ opening sequence throughout the show’s 10-season run. You can see SNL’s Matthew Perry tribute card below.

Perry was the fourth Friends star to host Saturday Night Live after Courteney Cox and David Schwimmer hosted separate episodes in 1995 and Lisa Kudrow hosted in 1996. Jennifer Anniston would follow him in 1999 and then again in 2004, while Matt LeBlanc has never hosted.

Perry’s SNL episode included a Friends sketch that saw various members of the show’s cast at the time doing impersonations of his Friends co-stars as their characters: Cheri Oteri as Anniston/Rachel, Ana Gasteyer as Kudrow/Phoebe, Molly Shannon as Cox/Monica, Chris Kattan as Schwimmer/Ross, and Perry swapping roles to play LeBlanc/Joey. The sketch hinged on Perry taking offense to Colin Quinn’s playing Perry/Chandler as a “gay, foppish guy,” leading to Perry breaking character (within the sketch) to call him out. It ends with Perry deciding to use Quinn’s interpretation while filming Friends.

Reports say that Perry was found unresponsive in his home’s hot tub. First responders treated Perry for cardiac arrest. Both TMZ and the Los Angeles Times cited law enforcement sources as saying that no drugs or signs of foul play were found at the scene.

Perry earned a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2002 for his role as Chandler on Friends, specifically for the episode “The One Where Chandler Takes a Bath.” He earned a second nomination in 2007, this time for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, for his role as Ron Clark in TNT’s The Ron Clark Story.

Perry’s other television credits include Sunset Strip, Go On, and The Odd Couple. He also appeared in films including Fools Rush In, The Whole Nine Yards, and 17 Again.

Perry touched the world of video games by voicing Benny, the mobster villain of 2010’s Fallout: New Vegas. Perry landed the role after presenting Ellen DeGeneres with an Xbox 360 and a copy of Fallout 3 during a 2009 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Fallout fans remember Perry’s performance fondly and paid tribute to the late actor on social media.

In 2021, Perry reunited with his Friends co-stars during a special that streamed on HBO Max. In 2022, he released a memoir titled in which he wrote about the struggles he’d had with addictions to drugs and alcohol for years.