My Most Embarrassing SNL Memory

We asked dozens of Saturday Night Live writers and cast members to share their most embarrassing SNL moments, expecting stories of flubbed lines, awkward celebrity encounters, and maybe, if we asked nice enough, some good after-party debauchery. What we learned was that, for a show that airs live every week with plenty of opportunities for error and mishaps, a lot of people’s most embarrassing moments happen in hallways and offices rather than under the spotlight. Turns out, even the most successful comedy writers in the world have bombed at table reads and made asses of themselves in front of co-workers. Other revelations include more than one accidental flashing (underwear and full-on peen), and I guess we’re not that shocked to learn that a truly staggering degree of people’s most embarrassing memories have to do with acting a fool in front of Lorne Michaels. Here are 25 moments of Studio 8H cringe.

Read our complete SNL50 caucus here.

After I got fired, I tweeted “FIRED FROM NEW YORK IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!” and Tim Robinson asked, “How long ago did you come up with that?” And I was honest with him and replied, “December.” —Brooks Wheelan  

Colin Farrell told me after a sketch bombed that maybe I should have stayed in the Marines. That sucked. —Rob Riggle  

Sometimes on Friday nights, Lorne would call John [Mulaney] and I into his office and have us pitch the host our monologue by performing it for them ourselves, in its entirety, while they stared at us in dead-eyed silence. Some of these monologues had songs in them, which meant we had to sing to the host, a cappella. On at least one occasion, we danced. —Simon Rich

Accidentally knocking a beer into Lorne’s lap. I almost shat myself typing this. —James Anderson

A silent elevator ride with Lorne. Two painful floors. I said something like stupid like “Thanks for having me on the show,” and he just looked at me like I had ten heads and exited. —Michaela Watkins  

Getting reamed out by Lorne on my second show for making a suggestion between dress and air to Steve Martin for his opening monologue. —Walter Williams  

Being chastised by your boss, by Lorne, is pretty embarrassing. I was told by somebody to leave and go take care of some business while a meeting was going on, not realizing that I probably should have told that person, “I’m not leaving, Lorne is talking right now.” I walked back in and he’s like, “Where’d you go?!” I was like, “… I went to go do that thing.” “You don’t leave a meeting!” —Jerry Minor  

The very first sketch I wrote was some awful thing about a car dealership. There are like 200 people in the read-through room, and the only sound you could hear for five straight minutes was 200 people flipping the pages over one by one. I remember realizing that the term “flop sweat” was literal, because rivulets were running down my back from the shame. It felt like the world had ended. And then afterwards I realized: Literally no one even noticed. Bombing — in the read-through, at dress, even on air — is part of the basic landscape of the show. —Michael Schur  

I ate shit almost every table read. When Trump hosted, I bombed so hard at the table read you could hear the protesting 17 floors below. —Jon Rudnitsky  

I once wrote a piece for Seth for “Update,” and it was absolutely dying during dress. I was under the bleachers with Lorne, who watched the whole thing unsmiling and wordlessly. Then when it ended, he looked at me and said, “Do you want me to help you bury the tape?” I think I said “No, I got it.” —Alex Baze  

My most embarrassing moment is also a humblebrag. My first year, while I was still super new, I wrote a sketch where Channing Tatum and Nasim Pedrad had to do this complicated dance, and Nasim was on the floor blocking something else, so Channing asked me to do the dance with him in my office and play Nasim’s part — and also let him record it, so he could watch it back at his hotel that night and practice. I remember doing a full-on (sexual?) dance with Channing in my office, in front of another writer, and feeling truly embarrassed. Oh, and one time I got ballsy and used Lorne’s private bathroom on the ninth floor and got away with it, because it was just a quick pee! But then I sort of learned to love the danger, and once I’d been at the show longer, I started using it more because I thought, What are the chances he needs to use it the exact second I do? But then once, after I used it, I opened the door right as he was coming in, and he saw me. It wasn’t my favorite moment at the show! —Chris Kelly  

Once, I was dressed as an old woman and walked directly in front of the camera with my old granny wig during dress rehearsal, because I didn’t quite know how the cameras and blocking worked. I was convinced I’d get fired. —Cecily Strong  

During a quick change on the studio floor, changing from one pair of pants to another, and let’s just say anyone in the immediate vicinity accidentally got the full-frontal experience. —Paul Brittain  

In the makeup chair next to Sting, I asked him if he wrote his own songs! He looked at me weird. I’d never heard of him! I wasn’t embarrassed but I should have been, I guess. —Victoria Jackson  

I saw a department head, who had been working on SNL from its inception, in the elevator probably on a Friday, or maybe even Saturday morning, and I timidly asked them if it was possible to change something they’d prepared for a sketch myself and Slovin had going to dress. Admittedly, it was probably pretty late in the process. They just looked at me, said “Fuck you,” and got off the elevator. Welcome to the big leagues, baby! —Leo Allen  

I got a sketch on that John Malkovich was in. It got cut after dress, but nobody tells you how stuff works; you just have to figure it out as you go. So John Malkovich looks at me and says, “I’m so sorry. I messed up my lines.” “Don’t sweat it, you’ll get it on the live show!” And another cast member looked at me like I was a fucking asshole: “Look at the board, dummy. It’s cut!” —Sarah Silverman  

I forgot a line that I was staring at on a cue card. —Noël Wells  

Passing out for a minute in a dumpster after John Goodman flipped me over his shoulder. —Amy Poehler  

I was an extra in a funeral sketch. I played the corpse lying in a casket. In those days, I used to get so nervous being on live TV that when the camera cut to me you could see my hands shaking. —Alan Zweibel  

Doing Jay-Z in front of Jay-Z … But I think he liked it. —Jay Pharoah  

Choking on a prop tater tot as Lindsey Graham on live TV. I don’t know why I ate the prop food. You’re supposed to sketch-eat. Kenan Thompson is the funniest sketch-eater of all time. Watch out for it next time his character is supposed to be eating something. —James Austin Johnson 

I had two minutes to get out of a harness that I wore in a Jack Handey sketch, and my two dressers — who were both sisters and over 80 years old — couldn’t get me out of it, and Bruce Springsteen, who was the musical guest, saw what was happening, jumped in, and helped tear off the harness to get me into my next outfit. He saw me in my undies, which was both embarrassing and the greatest moment of my life. —Julia Sweeney  

The time I was shooting a rom-com parody with Justin Timberlake where we had to pillow fight. Somehow my knee accidentally launched into his face, and chipped his front tooth the morning of the live show. —Nasim Pedrad  

Jason Segel was hosting, and the sketch premise was he had invented a robot son (played by Paul Brittain), but the robot son really sucked. I came in as a competing scientist’s robot son and was supposed to be flawless. I had one line, and there was a typo on the cue card. My line was, “Father, I have just finished converting your car so that it runs on water.” But on the cue cards the word “so” was “to.” So I enter as the perfect robot son and say my line, “Father, I have just finished converting your car toooooooo …” and I drag out the word and try to recover, “… ooo the power of running on water.” It was less than perfect syntax. Everyone started to break. —Taran Killam  

At my first good nights, standing there with Mikey D. and Melissa V., taking it all in. After Margot Robbie finished thanking everyone, the first person to walk over to me was Larry David. I thought he was going in for a hug, but I was clearly off. I went to wrap my arms around him, and he just sort of patted my chest firmly, said “okay,” and walked away. When I got back to my dressing room, my then-fiancé-now-wife said, “Well, Larry David is on my shit list.” —Alex Moffat  

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• After Lorne