From Horatio Sanz mercilessly cracking up Jimmy Fallon to giggly guest host Ryan Gosling, breaking character on “Saturday Night Live” has become a bit of a … thing.
Not to be a Debbie Downer – did anyone get through those alive? – but longtime castmember Kevin Nealon has no respect for the encroaching trend.
“I never broke character on SNL,” Nealon, a regular from 1985 to 1996, posted Tuesday on X. “I knew how much time the writers put into those scripts. You don’t want to be the one who throws it off.”
That may be true, but it sure gets attention, the latest example being Gosling, who couldn’t get through a sketch earlier this month wherein the writers made some last-minute joke changes that weren’t revealed until they were live, from New York. Moments like that may be viral, but there’s one other “SNL” heavy who famously doesn’t approve: Producer Lorne Michaels.
“Lorne doesn’t like when the cast breaks,” Nealon continued. “Even if the audience laughs, it doesn’t work for the sketch. If I could get through the Chippendales sketch, I could get through anything.”
To be fair, Nealon did play the famous “Chippendale’s” audition sketch from 1990 – in which Chris Farley jiggles alongside a gyrating Patrick Swayze – perfectly straight. Also to be fair, Nealon played everything straight, including his stints as “Weekend Update” anchor, since that was pretty much his schtick.
Nealon and Michaels may be in agreement about breaking character, but “SNL” hasn’t exactly been demure about the spontaneous phenomenon that’s been around as long as the NBC show. Andy Samberg and Adam Sandler devoted an entire digital short about for the 40th anniversary special – including a non-sequitur into “praise” for Michaels:
Not pictured: Kevin Nealon.
