Live in New York starting Monday, November 16: Barneys’ holiday windows, which will have a Saturday Night Live theme. Simon Doonan’s elves are toiling in their studios, but the wild and crazy creative director—the same genius who gave us the “Tribute to Cher” holiday window in 2002—took a moment to tell TONY about why Barneys chose this year’s theme: “SNL was the perfect match for us: 35 years of imagery and names and phrases which have embedded themselves in the national consciousness. Cheeseburger! Cheeseburger! King Tut! Debbie Downer! Roseanne! The Coneheads! Whatever we did, I knew it would give people a chuckle. And God knows this is the year of the much-needed chuckle.”

The tableaux will include “The Coneheads at Christmas,” “The Guys of SNL,” “The Gals of SNL” and “A Salute to 35 Years of Saturday Night Live.” Doonan recommends keeping an eye out for the wallpaper in the Coneheads window. “There are loads of bad puns,” he says. “Like Tallulah Conehead and the Cone Ranger.”

This is Doonan’s 24th year dressing the holiday windows for Barneys. He says he’s determined to be the world’s oldest window dresser (if he isn’t already) and has fond memories of early SNL: “I came to the U.S. in the late ’70s when it all began. I worked at a store called Maxfield in L.A. and all the cast members were big customers. I especially remember Laraine Newman and Gilda Radner shopping their brains out. The show was already having a huge impact on the culture. Everybody could imitate Gilda doing Baba Wawa or Steve Martin saying, “Excuuuuuse ME!”"

And if he could spend the holidays with one SNL character? “Tracy Morgan as Brian Fellows is my fave of recent years,” says Doonan. “I would love to spend time with him and find out where the hell he got this idea from. What a demented concept!”