Sarah Silverman Recreates the Time She Stabbed Al Franken at ‘Saturday Night Live’ (Video)

Comedienne randomly attacked the current Senator during their time together as writers on NBC’s venerable sketch comedy show

Sarah Silverman on "Late Night with Seth Meyers"
NBC

Sarah Silverman was a featured player and writer for “Saturday Night Live” for only one season in the early 1990s, but she was there long enough to violently assault a future senator of the United States.

The comedienne, who hosts the NBC staple this weekend, recreated for Seth Meyers on “Late Night” how she came to stab a pencil into Al Franken‘s head.

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It was in the writers’ room, while they were working on the show. She recalled that it was winter because Franken “had a really big Jewfro,” she explained, turning to the audience to add with a smile, “They grow them for the winter.”

She found herself mesmerized by his hair. “In my mind, I just thought, I’m gonna stab this through his hair,” she said of the pencil. “But what everyone saw — because this is what happened — was I just went and stabbed him.” She held the pencil directly to her temple.

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After the random assault, she said that Franken just screamed “Why?”

“I would have answered that question but I couldn’t because I was laughing so hard and crying from laughing, which looked even crazier I think,” she recalled. “And I somehow wasn’t asked back the next season.”

Only two decades later she has been asked back. Sarah Silverman hosts NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” with musical guest Maroon 5 this Saturday at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

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