It's a mashup of performances from artists that few people would think of putting together, like R.E.M. and Morris Day, Rick James and Duran Duran, Hanson and Cher. Filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson's experience as a DJ taught him enough about beats per minute and musical keys to meld things seamlessly.

The sketch comedy show is celebrating 50 seasons with two documentaries and an upcoming prime-time special that reflect on its standing as an American institution.

Kenan Thompson has the honor of being Saturday Night Live’s longest-tenured cast member, with 22 seasons under his belt. In this week’s PEOPLE issue, the comedian, 46, calls working on NBC's late-night sketch variety series “hands down” the best job in television.

The highly entertaining Ladies and Gentlemen gets into the best and most controversial musical moments from 50 years of SNL history. But what about the dregs?

Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon, Seth Meyers, Molly Shannon, Kenan Thompson and Bowen Yang sit down with PEOPLE to talk about how they got to Studio 8H, their biggest laughs on the show and how hard it wa