45 Bits of Trivia From Behind the Scenes of ‘Saturday Night Live’
There’s a lot of drama behind this comedy show
![45 Bits of Trivia From Behind the Scenes of ‘Saturday Night Live’](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/0/9/1040009_320x180.jpg)
Some of the show’s biggest stars have had some of its biggest beefs.
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![JAY PHAROAH CRACKED.COM SNL producers put people into boxes, and whatever they want you to do, they expect you to do.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/5/2/1040052.jpg)
![CHRIS KATTAN GRACKED.COM Norm gives me a hard time. If Norm says I'm gay, then put in that I say he's an a--hole.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/5/3/1040053.jpg)
![JANEANE GARAFALO CRACKED.COM Juvenile and homophobic. The most miserable experience of my life.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/5/5/1040055.jpg)
![HARRY SHEARER CRACKED.COM Living hell.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/5/4/1040054.jpg)
![NORA DUNN CRACKED.COM SNL is a traumatic experience. It's something you have to survive.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/5/1/1040051.jpg)
![NORM MACDONALD CRACKED.COM I don't know, but to me seems gay. I don't find him funny. What can I say? Never made me laugh.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/5/0/1040050.jpg)
![VICTORIA JACKSON IVE CRACKED.COM Castmates returned her audiobook Bibles. Maybe I'm overcompensating because everybody here is dying and going to Hell, and I'm supposed to tell them about Jesus.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/4/9/1040049.jpg)
![ANTHONY MICHAEL HALL CRACKED.COM They were idiots. They had no idea how to write for me. They had no affection for my abilities. I feel like I'm a talented kid.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/4/7/1040047.jpg)
![CHRIS ELLIOTT CRACKED COM It was just such a miserable experience that I have sort of blacked out a lot of these things. That whole year I was just embarrassed.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/4/6/1040046.jpg)
![MICHAEL O'DONOGHUE CRACKED.COM It's like watching old men die. It's sad, sluggish, old, witless and very disturbing. If I were grading it I'd have to give it an F.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/4/5/1040045.jpg)
![TRACY MORGAN CRACKED.COM None of the cast I came up with saw this future for me. No, sir. All I have to say about that is, where's Chris Kattan now? Where's Cheri Oteri now? That b-h can't even get arrested.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/4/3/1040043.jpg)
![CHEVY CHASE CRACKED.COM It just drives me nuts. A whole generation of sh-heads laughs at the worst f-ing humor in the world. Pete Davidson's response: F- Chevy Chase.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/4/4/1040044.jpg)
![ADAM SANDLER CRACKED.COM The writing sucks this season. If the show comes back next year, it better be a lot funnier, or you'll see the entire cast go to Hollywood.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/4/8/1040048.jpg)
![EDDIE MURPHY CRACKED.COM I'm one of you guys. How many people have come off this show whose careers really are f---ed up, and you guys are sh---ing on me?](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/4/2/1040042.jpg)
![JAY MOHR CRACKED.COM I decided to make a statement and not go onstage for good-nights. Not exactly Gandhi's hunger strike but I somehow had to protest.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/4/0/1040040.jpg)
![LESLIE JONES CRACKED COM I don't miss it. At all. That job was hard, man. That job was like two jobs, and very restrictive too. I wasn't very free there.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/4/1/1040041.jpg)
![DAMON WAYANS CRACKED.COM I was angry. That's the reason why it wasn't funny. It wasn't funny because I was angry.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/3/9/1040039.jpg)
![CRACKED WILL FERRELL WORE THE SAME OUTFIT BACKSTAGE FOR A YEAR Will Ferrell once appeared in a sketch that parodied Smokey And The Bandit, where he wore wrangler jeans, a trucker hat, a plaid shirt, and a vest, which he ended up wearing for the entire day so as to not change in and out of costume. Fellow writer Tom Gianis saw Ferrell wear the costume a second day in a row and begged Ferrell to wear the outfit for the rest of the year, which Ferrell ended up doing.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/3/8/1040038.jpg)
![CRACKED SARAH SILVERMAN STABBED AL FRANKEN Sarah Silverman said she was taking part in a rewrite session with Al Franken and some other writers, when the overwhelming urge came over her to poke a pen through Franken's frizzy hair, but instead ended up stabbing him in the temple. Silverman told Seth Meyers, I was just kind of like a million miles away looking at his hair. The whole table has really sharpened pencils, like super sharp... and in my mind, I just thought, I'm gonna like stab this through his hair. But what everyone saw, because this is what happened,](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/3/7/1040037.jpg)
![CRACKED EDDIE MURPHY PISSED OFF THE WHOLE CAST AT ONCE Nick Nolte got so drunk the night before he was supposed to host that he had to back out of the hosting gig on the day, leading Eddie Murphy to host as the only person to host and be a member of the cast at the same time. When his cold open came to an end he yelled, Live from New York, it's the Eddie Murphy Show, which aggravated the entire cast.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/3/1/1040031.jpg)
![CRACKED THE SNL BLACKLIST Over the years, several celebrities have been banned from ever returning to the show. As of right now, that list includes Adrien Brody for a racially insensitive improvised Jamaican impression, Rage Against The Machine, Martin Lawrence, Sinead O'Connor, Cypress Hill, Stevan Seagal, Robert Blake, The Replacements, Andy Kaufman, Fear, Milton Berle, Charles Grodin, Frank Zappa, and System Of A Down.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/3/6/1040036.jpg)
![CRACKED JON HAMM'S DARK JOKE THAT MADE AMY POEHLER STOP CRYING Amy Poehler's ob-gyn sadly passed away the day before she was supposed to give birth while she was still at 30 Rock. She was rehearsing a Mad Men sketch with Jon Hamm before she got the call and burst into tears. Poehler told Vulture, Jon Hamm held me by the shoulders and looked at me and said, 'I know this is very sad, but this is a really important show for me, so I'm going to need you to get your shit together.' This made me laugh so hard](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/3/5/1040035.jpg)
![CRACKED ANDY SAMBERG'S FAVORITE MOMENT ON THE SHOW Andy Samberg describes Nicolas Cage's cameo during Samberg's Get In The Cage Weekend Update segment as one of the high points of his life. Samberg said, It was not even remotely like Nic Cage. It was just a lunatic person that we called Nic Cage. To his enormous credit, he recognized that and thought that was funny and came on 'SNL' and we did it as twin Nic Cages. Samberg said before they ran the bit at dress rehearsal it seemed as though Cage had not yet seen the script, but was](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/3/2/1040032.jpg)
![CRACKED EDDIE MURPHY KEPT HIS JOB BY EATING DOG FOOD Curmudgeon/ Head Writer Michael O'Donoghue fired the entire cast from SNL except for Eddie Murphy due to his commitment to one bit live on air. Murphy was doing a bit on Weekend Update playing off the fact that old people were eating dog food in the news, and so Murphy ate the dog food live on air. O'Donoghue respected Murphy's commitment to the bit so he let him stay, but Murphy didn't tell O'Donoghue that it was really just hash in a can, not dog food, until after he had](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/3/3/1040033.jpg)
![CRACKED FRED ARMISEN'S PRINCE MEETING Fred Armisen recounted the story of when he first met Prince as being at one of Prince's self-thrown afterparties after he had appeared on Saturday Night Live. Armisen recalls that the rock legend had a D.J. and a buffet filled with mac and cheese. Armisen spent much of his life idolizing the artist, as he performed an impression of him on the show and has a musical background himself so he decided to finally go meet him while he sat alone eating macaroni. Armisen said he approached Prince and said, I just want to let](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/3/4/1040034.jpg)
![CRACKED CHEVY CHASE FIST FOUGHT BILL MURRAY Chevy Chase left Saturday Night Live just six episodes into his second season and Bill Murray was added to replace him. When Chase came back to host, tensions were high and the two actually got into a fist fight in John Belushi's dressing room just minutes before the taping actually began. Laraine Newman said, I think they both knew the one thing that they could say to one another that would hurt the most, and that's what I think incited it. It was very sad and painful and awful. The insults that sent](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/7/1040027.jpg)
![CRACKED PAUL MCCARTNEY AND ROBIN WILLIAMS WERE BILL HADER FANS Bill Hader revealed in Live From New York that he had two big fans of his character Stefon visit the SNL stages. Hader wrote, Paul McCartney came up to me and said, 'My daughter is a clothing designer.' And I was like, 'Uh-huh.' And he said, 'This guy that works with her, he's that way.' And he put his hands over his mouth like Stefon, and my wife was behind me and, not quietly, she went, 'Oh my God! Paul McCartney is doing your character to you.' And I was](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/8/1040028.jpg)
![CRACKED THE WRITERS USED PEE JARS Tina Fey revealed that the Frank peeing in jars storyline from 30 Rock was actually based on the Weekend Update writers who had a jar of urine. Fey told the New Yorker, In the Weekend Update offices-which were like the smarter but meaner older brother of the regular writers' offices-there weren't any cups. There was a jar. It was a jar of p*ss with a lid on it, and, judging by its consistency, I suspect that the writers sometimes spat into it. Or that one of them was terribly ill. You could see it](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/3/0/1040030.jpg)
![CRACKED TINA FEY REFUSED TO SHARE THE STAGE WITH SARAH PALIN Tina Fey refused to appear on camera with Sarah Palin when she cameoed on Saturday Night Live. Fey explained on David Tennant Does a Podcast With... that she felt a two-shot with her and Palin would come back to haunt her later in life, as she disagreed whole-heartedly with Palin's platform. To make the sketch work, producers instead kept Palin backstage with Lorne to make her guest appearance.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/6/1040026.jpg)
![CRACKED JENNY SLATE DROPPED AN F-BOMB IN HER FIRST SKETCH TENNE AUG and TRAILER 00 68 847 QM9 575NU1 1 ITI MONTGOMERY 15 OHIO WT LAND OF LINERL APRIL JSG 927 PC 102 9 use 63 JUNI MAINE 1935 1.99m CARD 00 ANE You may not remember that Jenny Slate of Marcel The Shell was a member of the Saturday Night Live cast, but that's probably because she was only there for a single season. In her first ever sketch on air with Kristen Wiig, Slate accidentally dropped the F-bomb on live T.V.. Slate says it wasn't the reason she was let go](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/9/1040029.jpg)
![AUBREY PLAZA CRACKED.COM I wanted to be on that show for as long as I could remember, says Plaza. She landed an SNL internship in 2005 but didn't make the cast after her 2008 audition.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/5/1040025.jpg)
![PAUL REUBENS CRACKED.COM After losing a spot on SNL to Gilbert Gottfried, Reubens borrowed five grand from his parents to develop his own stage show. And Pee Wee Herman was born.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/3/1040023.jpg)
![ZACH GALIFIANAKIS CRACKED.COM Galifianakis thought he'd landed a spot in the cast but I got to New York and I realized quickly that I was writing. That less-than-dream job lasted only two weeks.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/4/1040024.jpg)
![LISA KUDROW CRACKED.COM The thing about my characters that I did at The Groundlings is they weren't the big crowdpleasers, said Kudrow. She was passed over for Julie Sweeney so you can blame Kudrow for Pat.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/2/1040022.jpg)
![LOUIS С.К. CRACKED.COM I'm so glad I didn't get cast on SNL. I'm way better off because I host it now. That's a million times cooler and more fun because to be a cast member... is a perilous, difficult, grueling office job - like the worst kind of office job, a 12-hour-a-day job with no end in sight.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/1/1040021.jpg)
![JOHN MULANEY ALL STAR CRACKED.COM After his audition, Mulaney got a call from Seth Meyers with a writing job offer. I want to be clear, said Meyers, this is not the cast. Mulaney responded, I want to be clear. I would never think I would be in the cast.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/7/1040017.jpg)
![TIFFANY HADDISH CRACKED.COM If they don't give it to me, f*** them,' Haddish said after her audition. They didn't. Haddish got the last laugh as the first black female comic to host the show.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/8/1040018.jpg)
![STEVE CARELL إلى - CRACKED.COM Did he or didn't he? Lorne Michaels says he kicked himself over not hiring Carell after his audition. Carell claims he never tried out.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/2/0/1040020.jpg)
![MINDY KALING CRACKED.COM I had these fantasies of going to SNL and falling in love with some writer on SNL, of getting married and living in New York. Kaling wasn't cast but her Office job was a good consolation prize.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/9/1040019.jpg)
![KEL MITCHELL CRACKED.COM Keenan's Good Burger buddy did a song about Michael Jackson if he was allergic to trees! I did like a moonwalk move and flipped the table with someone's drink on it over, it was a MESS!](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/6/1040016.jpg)
![STEPHEN COLBERT CRACKED.COM When Lorne Michaels was asked Whom did you overlook that you kicked yourself over later? his first response was Stephen Colbert.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/3/1040013.jpg)
![JOHN GOODMAN GRACKED.COM 13-time host (third place all-time!) but it was a hard no when he auditioned for the cast in 1980.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/5/1040015.jpg)
![JIM CARREY CRACKED.COM Carrey was only 18 years old when he auditioned for SNL. Didn't get I N the gig but he was MING quickly hired at LOR](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/2/1040012.jpg)
![GEENA DAVIS GRAGKED.COM Geena Davis met with us in the lobby of the Century Plaza Hotel, remembers Harry Shearer, and it was all quite awkward and uncomfortable for everybody involved. Especially considering she didn't get the job.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/4/1040014.jpg)
![DAVID CROSS GRACKED COM His sketch group Cross Comedy did a showcase for SNL producers, which bombed big-time. Не and SNL writer Bob Odenkirk went on to create the iconic Mr. Show.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/0/1/1/1040011.jpg)