Sarah Sherman on What Happens When an SNL Sketch Is Cut Mid-Show: "They Take the..."
The Season 50 cast member described the chaos backstage at Saturday Night Live during the show's June 2 FYC panel.
Any sketch could be cut at any time on Saturday Night Live — including during the live broadcast. And as Season 50 cast member Sarah Sherman told Fred Armisen during the show's June 2 FYC panel, it's quite a whirlwind for the performers involved.
Sherman and fellow cast members Ego Nwodim, Bowen Yang, Heidi Gardner, James Austin Johnson, and Chloe Fineman sat down with SNL alum and panel moderator Fred Armisen and to share behind-the-scenes secrets from the legendary comedy show's milestone season. And as Sherman explained, no sketch is ever fully safe.
"What you guys don't know is that we have stuff that's cut, like, when we write something on a Tuesday night, it gets cut even before the table read," Sherman revealed. "We have stuff that goes to the table read, gets cut after the table read. We have stuff that goes to dress rehearsal, gets cut after dress rehearsal. We have stuff that gets cut after it goes to the live show."
"While the live shows happen, they, like, take the wig off of you," she added, "and you're like, 'What's going on?!'"
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Sarah Sherman on getting an SNL sketch cut mid-show: "Someone comes and snatches the wig right off my head"
Wig snatching may sound like an exaggeration, but Sherman described the scenario as it's often happened.
"Many times, [Bowen Yang] and I have been getting our hair and makeup done together and someone comes and snatches my wig right off my head," she recalled, and she and Yang both imitated their usual response: "No, no, no, no, no!"
Sherman also teased a cut sketch that she was particularly salty about.
"You guys don't even know about this. I had a thing for the finale that we wrote on a Tuesday night 'til 5 am — no problem, not like I'm holding a grudge about it — that didn't even make the table read," she teased. "I was, like, f---ing jacked. I had giant veiny, jacked arms. So keep your eyes peeled."
She first said she was not going to share the sketch idea, but then Ego Nwodim reminded her that they were in the presence of Emmy voters, and she changed her mind. Watch Sherman describe the Jurassic Park-inspired sketch in the full panel video below.
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The current cast asked Armisen, who was a cast member from 2002 to 2013, whether he was still holding any grudges over cut sketches.
"I wish I could say that I did, but I loved every minute of being on that show," he said, which caused a lighthearted ripple across the stage.
"Oh, shut up!" Nwodim shouted.
"Lorne is not here!" Sherman pointed out.
"I know, it sounds crazy," Armisen insisted. "But everything I wanted to do, I ended up getting to do on the show, and stuff that got cut, I forgot about anyway."
"Must be nice," Yang and Chloe Fineman joked in almost-unison.
Watch Saturday Night Live's FYC SNL50 panel below.
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Watch cut-for-time SNL sketches on Peacock
The great thing about sketches that are cut after dress rehearsal: They can often be found online!
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Watch a wide variety of bonus sketches on Peacock here,
