It’s not often that a television show can claim to have five whole decades of entertainment under its theoretical belt, which is why when Saturday Night Live recently celebrated its 50th season it was a massive occasion. The one/two punch of the SNL50: The Homecoming Concert and the SNL50 Anniversary Show two nights later served as star-studded tributes to the amazing sketch series, with the concert seeing a front row appearance by soon-to-be-four-time SNL host, Jon Hamm. The star was seated next to someone who went viral because no one recognized him, and his story is way better than I would have imagined.
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What Did Jon Hamm Say About The Guy Sitting Next To Him At The SNL50 Concert?
If you’re like most people, you sat in your comfy clothes on your couch and did maybe the most celeb-watching you’ll be able to do on the 2025 TV schedule by checking out the weekend of SNL50 celebrations in mid-February. Your Friends & Neighbors (which you can watch with an Apple TV+ subscription) star Jon Hamm was in attendance, but one of the people sitting next to him for the concert was, well, decidedly non-famous.
During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the Fargo star was asked about the man sitting on his right in the front row, whom Hamm calls “the luckiest person in New York City,” and who was, apparently, a paid seat filler for the event. The actor said:
This kid got to sit from the beginning of the show to the end of the show, whoever's seat he was filling never showed up. So, he got the whole concert, front row, got paid, and got to sit next to me. And I kept checking in with him, I'm like 'Dude, don't leave, whatever you do.'
WOW. Can you imagine? Simply taking a job as a seat filler for a major event like this (which is common for things like awards shows and other extravaganzas where producers don’t want there to be empty seats visible in front rows of the audience whenever famous attendees step out to go to the bathroom/take phone calls/etc…) is one thing. But, ending up with the person you’re filling in for never coming really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Fallon followed up, noting that the man actually went viral for being a regular, non-famous human in the front row of a celeb-filled event:
There was a Reddit post that said ‘Does anyone recognize this front-row attendee of the 50th homecoming concert sitting next to Jon Hamm?’ There’s a whole article about this guy. And no one knows who he is.
If becoming famous (however briefly) for not being famous isn’t the most 2025 thing that’s happened so far this year, then I don’t know what is! The host (who turned 50 during the same year as the long-running comedy show that made him famous) showed photos from the event, and you know what I noticed about this guy first and foremost? He’s wearing regular clothes!
That’s right, this was not like the Oscars, where seat fillers have to get all gussied up like the famous people to fit in. Everyone, the Mad Men star included, was in normal duds, so not only did the guy next to him get to attend the whole show, get paid, and sit amongst stars, he also got to do it while being extremely comfortable. What a win! Hamm continued on his seat mate’s unknown status, and said:
No! And I was so pleased. By the end of it, I was like, ‘Is this the greatest night of your life?’ And the guy was like, ‘Yeah.’
Man, alive. “Yeah,” indeed. With this guy’s luck as a seat filler, he should maybe do nothing but that professionally from now on!