As the 456th season of Saturday Night Live winds down, I’m taking stock of where the show is at. No, I’m not one of those dinosaurs that laments how far the show has fallen from its “heyday” of the original cast (check the tape, folks – it was just as hit-or-miss then as it has been in recent years). The new additions have been fine, I guess. I’m mystified by the recurrence of a few sketches, namely the laugh-free “Girlfriends” talk show and the grating “Drunk Uncle”…and the underutilization of truly funny ones, such as “What Up With Dat” and — my personal favorite — the Dateline NBC parody. Not surprisingly, the success of an episode hinges largely on the host; it usually crackles when he or she has comedy experience (Seth MacFarlane) and falls flat when the host does not (umm, Jeremy Renner). The recent coronation of the wildly overrated Justin Timberlake as a member of the Five Timers Club got me thinking: who are the most surprising celebrities to have never hosted SNL?

1.) Will Smith: Kind of shocking, as he has the comedic chops to handle this sort of thing. Perhaps his recent comments about why he turned down Django Unchained shed some light upon the subject: he needs to be the lead. Meshing with an ensemble cast sounds like a dicey proposition.

2.) Brad Pitt: This one absolutely baffles me. Mega-star. Has been in a ton of movies; I would think he’d have hosted to promote at least one one of them…or at least broken down and hosted after likely being asked 50 times. Plus, there’s that point in every ascending actor’s career where he or she would be flattered just to get the offer to host – you’re gonna tell me this wasn’t him in 1997?

3.) Stephen Colbert: You watch enough of Stephen Colbert, and pretty soon realize that you’re not just witnessing one of the most talented comedic performers working today… forget the genre, he’s one of the most talented, period. He does have a longstanding association with SNL as the voice of Ace, one half of The Ambiguously Gay Duo. Furthermore, he has experience with sketch comedy, having been a cast member of the early Comedy Central show Exit 57 and ABC’s The Dana Carvey Show. I think the mitigating factor may be that he’s pretty intimately involved with all aspects of The Colbert Report, which may not leave much time for outside projects.

4.) Kevin James: A few hit movies under his belt, had a long-running sitcom (and actually a very funny performer)…just seems like someone who would thrive as a host.

5.) Chelsea Handler: She’s a pretty polarizing figure, but has been an “it” celebrity for awhile now.

6.) Ryan Gosling: He’s been on an absolute tear over the past few years and recently said that he’s going to take a break from acting. He seems to shun the limelight, too, so I’m not counting him showing up at Rock Center anytime soon.

7.) Denzel Washington: Given the length of this guy’s illustrious career, he’s the most stunning entry on the list. At least we have Jay Pharoah’s spot-on impression.

8.) Christian Bale: Such a super-serious actor, never done a comedy, a reputation of being kind of a douche…which is why I think he’d be a perfect host. The possibilities for lampooning his image are limitless. Plus, he’s known for simply inhabiting every character he plays, so it would be interesting to see him throw himself into comedy.

9.) Julia Roberts: She’s in the Smith/Pitt/Denzel category: given how long she’s been around…

10.) Sandra Bullock: Sandy, no excuse for this. You made several appearances on the insipid George Lopez Show, but snub one of TV’s great institutions?!