50 ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast Members Talk About the Greatest, Weirdest Sketches You Never Got to See

CultureSNL performers past and present recall ideas too out-there to make it past table read, seemingly hilarious concepts that bombed at dress rehearsal, and would-be classics cut for time.By The Editors of GQJanuary 30, 2025Chris Panicker; Getty ImagesSave this storySaveSave this storySaveSaturday Night Live turns 50 this year. A scrappy sketch-comedy moonshot launched by a band of Canadians and stoners has become a pop-cultural institution—the longest-running scripted show on TV that isn’t a soap opera or Sesame Street. Late last year, to mark this historic anniversary, GQ interviewed over fifty other past and present SNL cast members and asked each of them the same eight questions about the show’s broader cultural footprint and their own experiences making it. A feature story drawn from those conversations, “Saturday Night Forever,” will appear in the March print edition of GQ—but all this week on GQ.com, we’re bringing you an expanded, Bill Brasky-size version of that story, along with answers that didn’t make it to the page. Today, Saturday Night Live writer-performers talk about lost sketches that live in their hearts, despite never seeing the light of the Studio 8H stage.Tell us about the best sketch you wrote or worked on that didn’t make it to air.Alex Moffat, cast member, 2016–22: A commercial parody for Wrangler Peekaboos, which were like men's jeans that had a little peekaboo window for the upper butt. That was for a Will Ferrell week, so I have great memories of watching him with his ass hanging out of these jeans, hip-checking a jukebox.Tim Meadows, cast member, 1991–2000: I did a sketch called “Leon the Centaur,” about a centaur who was in high school. Christopher Walken was the coach of the track team, and he wanted Leon the Centaur to run track, but Leon was really into partying and having a good time. Christopher Walken was like, “You're the fastest person in this school! Nobody can run faster than you!” And I was like, “Listen, man, [pantomimes taking a drag of a cigarette] I ain't got the time for this.”Laraine Newman, cast member, 1975–80: Raquel Welch was the host and there was a sketch Rosie Shuster wrote that featured my Lina Wertmüller character. It was elaborate and bent, and Raquel nixed it so she could sing “Ain’t Necessarily So.” Years later she got Lina Wertmüller’s autograph for me.NBC/Getty ImagesEllen Cleghorne, cast member, 1991–95: There’s this sketch that I wrote where I was Reverend Hightower. It was a nod to Flip Wilson’s preacher character from the Church of What’s Happening Now. It passed the table read, it went to dress rehearsal, but it didn’t get to go to air. And I didn’t bring it back. I didn’t know that that’s what you do. You just keep trying until you weaken everybody and they’re like, “Oh God, let’s please put it on so she’ll stop bringing it to table read.”Melanie Hutsell, cast member, 1991–94: Some people are more adamant about things like that and don't give up quite as quickly as other people. I was quite young at the time, so I maybe didn't handle my emotions quite as well as I maybe should have. I would get really sad if something that I wrote didn't get on. And now I look back on that and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I was so lucky to be there.Jay Pharoah, cast member, 2010–16: Once you resubmit it the next week, man, people have heard the jokes. They're not going to act the same. You feel me?Andrew Dismukes, writer, 2017–20; cast member, 2020–present: I did one with Beck Bennett where he played a guy who had no forehead. That was kind of the whole sketch. It was very stupid, and they were probably right not to put it on, but we put it to the table read like eight different times over four years, and every time it killed. And we were like, you gotta let us do it. But they were like, This is so stupid, there’s no way.Chris Parnell, cast member, 1998–06: There were a couple of things that I did for my audition that we tried [on the show.] One was a dance routine to the Mortal Kombat theme, and the other was me doing this sort of audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as this character who was playing Zephyr the monkey from the Babar children's story books. Ian McKellen was the host, and we made it to dress rehearsal, but I guess it was more of a stage piece. It was too weird for the show.Sarah Silverman, cast member and writer, 1993–94: I had learned some fun fact at that time about how flies’ whole life expectancy is 24 hours. I thought that was so cool and tragic and beautiful. Phil Hartman goes, “Hey, why don’t you write something for us do together?” So I did. He was an elderly fly, like 23 and a half hours old, and I was a young fly who’d just sprouted wings.It was him telling me the ways of the world, saying things like “I remember noon.” At the end, a dog comes in and takes a shit and leaves and then Phil says, “Go get it, kids.”Ego Nwodim, cast member, 2018–present: It was me and Cecily Strong playing door girls at a club who can't read. We're

Jan 30, 2025 - 21:19
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50 ‘Saturday Night Live’ Cast Members Talk About the Greatest, Weirdest Sketches You Never Got to See
SNL performers past and present recall ideas too out-there to make it past table read, seemingly hilarious concepts that bombed at dress rehearsal, and would-be classics cut for time.
Laraine Newman's Lina Wertmüller and Jason Sudeikis and Will Forte as Jon Bovi on 'Saturday Night Live'
Chris Panicker; Getty Images

Saturday Night Live turns 50 this year. A scrappy sketch-comedy moonshot launched by a band of Canadians and stoners has become a pop-cultural institution—the longest-running scripted show on TV that isn’t a soap opera or Sesame Street. Late last year, to mark this historic anniversary, GQ interviewed over fifty other past and present SNL cast members and asked each of them the same eight questions about the show’s broader cultural footprint and their own experiences making it. A feature story drawn from those conversations, “Saturday Night Forever,” will appear in the March print edition of GQ—but all this week on GQ.com, we’re bringing you an expanded, Bill Brasky-size version of that story, along with answers that didn’t make it to the page. Today, Saturday Night Live writer-performers talk about lost sketches that live in their hearts, despite never seeing the light of the Studio 8H stage.

Tell us about the best sketch you wrote or worked on that didn’t make it to air.

Alex Moffat, cast member, 2016–22: A commercial parody for Wrangler Peekaboos, which were like men's jeans that had a little peekaboo window for the upper butt. That was for a Will Ferrell week, so I have great memories of watching him with his ass hanging out of these jeans, hip-checking a jukebox.

Tim Meadows, cast member, 1991–2000: I did a sketch called “Leon the Centaur,” about a centaur who was in high school. Christopher Walken was the coach of the track team, and he wanted Leon the Centaur to run track, but Leon was really into partying and having a good time. Christopher Walken was like, “You're the fastest person in this school! Nobody can run faster than you!” And I was like, “Listen, man, [pantomimes taking a drag of a cigarette] I ain't got the time for this.”

Laraine Newman, cast member, 1975–80: Raquel Welch was the host and there was a sketch Rosie Shuster wrote that featured my Lina Wertmüller character. It was elaborate and bent, and Raquel nixed it so she could sing “Ain’t Necessarily So.” Years later she got Lina Wertmüller’s autograph for me.

50 ‘Saturday Night Live Cast Members Talk About the Greatest Weirdest Sketches You Never Got to See
NBC/Getty Images

Ellen Cleghorne, cast member, 1991–95: There’s this sketch that I wrote where I was Reverend Hightower. It was a nod to Flip Wilson’s preacher character from the Church of What’s Happening Now. It passed the table read, it went to dress rehearsal, but it didn’t get to go to air. And I didn’t bring it back. I didn’t know that that’s what you do. You just keep trying until you weaken everybody and they’re like, “Oh God, let’s please put it on so she’ll stop bringing it to table read.”

Melanie Hutsell, cast member, 1991–94: Some people are more adamant about things like that and don't give up quite as quickly as other people. I was quite young at the time, so I maybe didn't handle my emotions quite as well as I maybe should have. I would get really sad if something that I wrote didn't get on. And now I look back on that and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I was so lucky to be there.

Jay Pharoah, cast member, 2010–16: Once you resubmit it the next week, man, people have heard the jokes. They're not going to act the same. You feel me?

Andrew Dismukes, writer, 2017–20; cast member, 2020–present: I did one with Beck Bennett where he played a guy who had no forehead. That was kind of the whole sketch. It was very stupid, and they were probably right not to put it on, but we put it to the table read like eight different times over four years, and every time it killed. And we were like, you gotta let us do it. But they were like, This is so stupid, there’s no way.

Chris Parnell, cast member, 1998–06: There were a couple of things that I did for my audition that we tried [on the show.] One was a dance routine to the Mortal Kombat theme, and the other was me doing this sort of audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as this character who was playing Zephyr the monkey from the Babar children's story books. Ian McKellen was the host, and we made it to dress rehearsal, but I guess it was more of a stage piece. It was too weird for the show.

Sarah Silverman, cast member and writer, 1993–94: I had learned some fun fact at that time about how flies’ whole life expectancy is 24 hours. I thought that was so cool and tragic and beautiful. Phil Hartman goes, “Hey, why don’t you write something for us do together?” So I did. He was an elderly fly, like 23 and a half hours old, and I was a young fly who’d just sprouted wings.

It was him telling me the ways of the world, saying things like “I remember noon.” At the end, a dog comes in and takes a shit and leaves and then Phil says, “Go get it, kids.”

Ego Nwodim, cast member, 2018–present: It was me and Cecily Strong playing door girls at a club who can't read. We're asking people for their names at the door, and it'd be a simple name, like “Ryan,” and we’d be like, “How do you spell that?” And then they'd spell it, and then we go, “OK, but, like, what does it look like on paper? Like, what are the shapes of those letters?” Man, I still wish I could do that. It's so fun, because they have so much power at the door, and they're deciding who gets to go in and they're kind of snotty. But then you realize, Wait—these girls can't read.

Michael Che, writer, 2013–present; cast member, 2014–present: I shared an office with Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin. I used to love working with them and we would write crazy things, and a lot of times it wouldn't go, but it would make me laugh so hard sometimes.

There was one sketch that we wrote for an episode where Andy Samberg was the host. He was a guy giving a eulogy at his father's funeral and Aidy Bryant played a lady who knew his father and wanted to give a 21 human cannonball salute. And it was just such a silly thing where she kept shooting herself out of a cannon and running back into the cannon to shoot herself out of the cannon again, 21 times, during a eulogy.

I think there was kind of a weird discrepancy on how to shoot it or whatever and it never went, but it was so funny for the table and I wish we could have got a chance to do it.

Will Forte, cast member, 2002–10: Jason Sudeikis and I would do these characters who were in a Bon Jovi opposite band called Jon Bovi. We would spend so much time working on these things. And then without fail, whenever we would put them up at the table read, Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen would do their characters Garth and Kat, who were also singers. And they would always get on instead of us. Jason and I, outside of work, we would go and do karaoke almost every night. I guess it wasn't that painful. We could then go to do karaoke together the next night.

50 ‘Saturday Night Live Cast Members Talk About the Greatest Weirdest Sketches You Never Got to See
NBC/Getty Images

Moynihan: Seth [Meyers] wrote a sketch when Mike Myers hosted. I don't even think I was in it. I just loved it so much. It was either a monologue or a cold open. It was right when Inception had come out and it was this elaborate SNL homage where all I remember about it was a lot of, it was when Inception came out so it was like Mike Myers getting Inception-ed by all his old SNL characters, and all I remember is that it ended, it was a pre-tape and it ended with Wayne and Garth driving off a bridge in slow motion while Toonces was driving, and it went into slow motion, like “the kick.” And you just started seeing all these old SNL characters. And just as a fan, I was like, "I cannot believe that I am sitting here while they do this." And it was amazing. But for some reason it just didn't get made.

But that happened all the time. Seth wrote a Lost sketch that was amazing. Alec Baldwin was hosting, and we were all the Lost characters, and Seth wrote this thing where Alec Baldwin just came out of the jungle and was like, "What's up, guys? I've been here the whole time. I have a hut over there." Just a real cool guy that they hadn't met yet. That one made me laugh a great deal.

Sarah Sherman, cast member, 2021–present: My first year, me and the Please Don't Destroy boys wrote a sketch where I wake up in the middle of surgery and spray people with my intestines. It was my favorite thing, but it was my third show and it was insane. I didn't know how to do anything. That was always a little darling that I had, and maybe one day I'll be able to bring that back. This past week we were able to bring it back and repurpose it for parts, where it's like, Adam Sandler wakes up in the middle of surgery and starts spraying people with blood. It was a totally different sketch, but I got to use the one thing that I really liked from it, and I got to take three years of experience doing the show and make it an actual sketch and not just me being like, “Wow, I'm crazy!”

Robert Smigel, writer, 1985–93, 1996–2008; cast member, 1991–93: I remember there was one about Reagan. It was just very cute that he loved jelly beans and he gets presented with a giant jelly bean by some dignitary. It's supposed to be a whimsical little fun gift, and it's gigantic. And then he just loves jelly beans so much that he starts gnawing it and everybody's horrified by it. And he basically loses his mind, becomes obsessed with the jelly bean, and he calls it ‘My bean.’

It's like when a dog has a false pregnancy with a chew toy or something, they just become incredibly manically possessive. He's like eating it and protecting at the same time. It was insane.

Heidi Gardner, cast member, 2017–present: There's one I kept on trying to get on with two of the writers here—Jimmy Fowlie and Ceara O’Sullivan—where I'm a Miami Dolphins cheerleader, and we’re at, like, a calendar shoot, and they put a big fan on me, and all of my extensions just start flying out and hitting all the other cheerleaders in the face. And we really loved that one, but we could never really get the hair flying quite right.

Janeane Garofalo, cast member, 1994–95: I actually failed miserably there in every way. I can't answer that. I just wasn't good enough. I didn't work hard enough. I must admit I enjoyed New York nightlife and things far too much, if you catch my meaning, and I squandered. I didn't have that hardcore work ethic that many people do and that I envy a great deal. And so that was a huge reason for my failure. And I also got easily defeated, had low self-esteem, you know what I mean?

Finesse Mitchell, cast member, 2003–06: I, to this day, regret the fact that I didn't try as hard as I could have tried to really pop and stand out on that show. And I also didn't necessarily have a mentor to tell me what to expect. It was sort of like Alright, guys, you start Monday. Y'know? And I didn't know a lot about show business. I didn't know a lot about show business. I just thought it was about being funny. But I just wish I had tried harder.

I was just thinking about showing up to work on time. And those afterparties. Because I will say this, we also had some of the best after parties during my year, probably in history of that show. Everybody would hang out and you'd be leaving these parties at five in the morning. These things were enough to just make you say, Hey, I want to do this for the rest of my life. I think I tried to wing SNL sometimes.

Kyle Mooney, cast member, 2013–22: There was one with Benedict Cumberbatch where we were actors in a big-budget movie, and I played a guy playing a farting troll suspended on wires. I kept on telling everyone on set how much the wires were hurting me, and then I was accidentally doing flips and farting a ton. The audience was fully silent.

50 ‘Saturday Night Live Cast Members Talk About the Greatest Weirdest Sketches You Never Got to See
NBC/Getty Images

Bill Hader, cast member, 2005–13: There was a sketch called “The Kasems” that me and John Mulaney wrote. It was me and Dana Carvey, when he hosted—he was Casey Kasem, and I was his son, JC Kasem. And the idea was I was coming to his house in the middle of the night, and it’s a very serious talk between a father and a son who were estranged because of the son’s drug problem, but we’re both talking like Casey Kasem the whole time: “Dad, just hear me out.”

I worked with John a lot, and to be honest, it was mostly John writing, and me laughing and throwing out some ideas. But that was one of the few ones where it was very equal—John and I were sitting at the keyboard together coming up with it and laughing so hard. And then we did it at the table read, and it went so well at the table read. And then somehow we got a note: "Casey Kasem has a son. We don't want to [imply] that he has a drug problem." And I was like, "Well, is his son named J.C.?" And they’re like, "It doesn't matter. We just don't want to do that.” So we made it Casey and his brother. And somehow it wasn't the same, with a brother.

And then we did it at dress, and you could just feel the audience be like, Who’s Casey Kasem? Like, "What the fuck is this?" And I was just like, "Fuck." I was bummed out.

David Spade, cast member, 1990–96: There were a lot of Weekend Update bits that got shot down that I wish would've made it. If the show was 10 minutes longer, I would've been a huge star.

As told to Brittany Loggins, Gabriella Paiella, Alex Pappademas and Zinya Salfiti

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