How ‘Saturday Night Live' taught us to talk
This was a strange response, but also a perfectly sensible one. I hadn't thought of Mr. Bill — the little clay man subject to all forms of comical physical abuse in Walter Williams's long-running series of short films for 'Saturday Night Live' — in decades. The first-ever Mr. Bill short, in which he's impaled, cut into pieces and catapulted into space, ran two Saturdays before I was born.
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New York Post
11 minutes ago
- New York Post
Pete Davidson didn't know 'SNL' was still on before he auditioned
Pete Davidson didn't realize 'Saturday Night Live' was still airing when he auditioned for the popular sketch show more than 10 years ago. During an appearance on 'The Breakfast Club' radio show earlier this week, the 31-year-old comedian opened up about his experience joining 'SNL' back in 2014. 'I was so lucky,' he said Wednesday. 'I was so young. I was super naive. So I just was like, I'm just going to smoke weed and talk about, you know, what's going on in my life.' 8 Pete Davidson stopped by 'The Breakfast Club' radio show on Wednesday, Aug. 11. Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM/Youtube 8 Pete Davidson on 'The Breakfast Club' on Wednesday, Aug. 11. The Breakfast Club/YouTube However, the 'King of Staten Island' star did not regularly watch the Lorne Michaels-created show, which made it difficult for him to answer questions about his favorite sketches and cast members. 'I was like, 'I like the Californians or whatever,'' Davidson, who rushed to the bathroom to look at older 'SNL' clips on YouTube at the time, said. 'But I had no idea what I was talking about.' The 'Bodies Bodies Bodies' actor also admitted that it was hard for him to connect with his fellow cast members, particularly because of the significant age gap between him and 'SNL' stalwarts like Colin Jost, 43, Michael Che, 42, and Kate McKinnon, 41. 8 Pete Davidson and Colin Jost on 'Saturday Night Live' in November 2017. NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images 8 Pete Davidson during the Weekend Update segment of 'SNL' after joining the show in 2014. 'Not saying I didn't work hard, but I was only doing comedy, like, three, four years,' Davidson, who revealed in July that he's expecting his first child with girlfriend Elsie Hewitt, explained. 'And a lot of what people liked about me was like, 'Oh, this is, like, a kid from Staten Island that's just talking s–t.'' 'So you got to remember all of these people are 10, 15 years older than me working so hard,' he added. Although Davidson ultimately departed 'SNL' in 2022 after eight seasons, he returned for the show's 50th anniversary special back in February. 8 Pete Davidson on 'SNL' in November 208. 8 Pete Davidson, Norman Reedus, Colin Jost and Michael Che on 'SNL' in April 2015. NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images He opened up about the 'terrible' event during an appearance on 'Late Night With Seth Meyers' earlier this week. 'It's a terrible audience,' Davidson said. 'It's just famous people, and famous people only like themselves.' But not all of the star-studded guests at the 50th anniversary special were that bad, according to the 'Meet Cute' comedian, because Meryl Streep was also in the audience. 8 Pete Davidson and Colin Jost at the Empire Hotel Rooftop in New York City on May 19, 2015. Getty Images 8 The 'SNL' alum on 'The Breakfast Club' radio show on Wednesday, Aug. 11. Breakfast Club Power 105.1 FM/Youtube 'Meryl rules,' Davidson said of the 76-year-old Oscar winner. 'I get to my seat and I just look and I'm like, 'This can't be right.' And it was Meryl Streep and I just sat down and I was like, 'I'm so sorry that I'm sitting next to you. You're the best.' And she was very nice.' But despite Davidson's remark that the crowd at the anniversary special was 'terrible,' he admitted that it provided him with some newfound respect for the comedy 'institution' that 'SNL' is. 'This is like, you know, the Harvard of comedy,' he concluded.
Elle
2 hours ago
- Elle
Pete Davidson Felt ‘Guilty and Horrible' When Elsie Hewitt Was Forced to Announce Pregnancy
THE RUNDOWN In July, Pete Davidson and girlfriend Elsie Hewitt announced they were expecting their first child together. In an August 13 interview with The Breakfast Club, the Saturday Night Live alum explained how his fame pushed Hewitt to make the announcement and expressed regret over the loss of privacy. 'I feel bad for my girl because I bring a lot of shit,' Davidson admitted. 'Anything I do or she does now is gonna be a thing. She's a very private person and she's the one doing all the work. It's supposed to be a beautiful experience.' The comedian added that he feels a lot of responsibility for the situation even though at this point in his career, the attention is out of his hands and Hewitt doesn't seem to blame him. 'She's never made me feel this way or said anything,' he explained. 'But I feel so guilty and horrible that I could not allow her to have the ideal pregnancy that almost every woman gets to have and enjoy.' The Bupkis star said they 'held off as long as we could' before posting about the pregnancy on Instagram. On July 16, Hewitt shared her sonogram and pics with Davidson, joking in the caption, 'Welp now everyone knows we had sex.' Shortly after, Davidson told E! News, 'I'm very lucky and very, very happy,' adding that he hopes to be able 'to take care of something and show it the childhood I didn't have.' 'I assume you just try to give then what you didn't have, and what you didn't like, not do it,' Davidson continued. 'Everybody's just been super excited for me, because they know it's been my dream. They all just have been like, 'You're going to be great at this. It's the best thing you'll ever do in your life.'' He added, 'It's been really nice that everyone's super excited. When you do something, when we do anything, you want everyone to be excited, especially having a child.'
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bob Odenkirk Discusses How Hard It Is to ‘Turn a Comedy Writer's Body Into an Action Hero's Body'
According to comedy and, now, action great Bob Odenkirk, Nobody can turn a Saturday Night Live writer into a stone-cold killer. Throughout the history of comedy and drama, accomplished performers in both genres have always wanted to know what life was like on the other side of the fence. That urge for greener grass has long helped SNL to attract A-list movie stars who will slap on a silly costume and try out their best impression in hopes of getting a few laughs to go with their Oscars, but efforts to move in the opposite direction have yielded mixed results. For every Robin Williams who blows us away in Good Will Hunting, there's a dozen Dane Cooks starring in awful child abduction dramas like the 2011 disaster Answers to Nothing. Then, even more rare is the comedian who doesn't just become a dramatic actor, but a bona-fide action star on top of that. Odenkirk is one of the seldom few comics to pull off such a career turn with the Nobody film series, which just released its second installment today. In a conversation with Variety, Odenkirk explained that it took him years to shed the shape of a professional funnyman and become the semi-retired black ops assassin Hutch Mansell. And it's a good thing, too, that Odenkirk kicked himself into shape for his Jason Bourne arc – the first formidable foe he faced following the two-year training regimen was a widow-maker heart attack. During the talk, Odenkirk, 62, revealed that, leading up to the filming of the first Nobody, he spent two years training with the movie's stunt coordinator Daniel Bernhardt so that he could perform all the fight scenes himself and not rely too heavily on a stunt double. But, as Odenkirk discussed during the Variety talk, the comedy legend's quest to throw a convincing punch required him to become a punchline. 'I was trying to turn a comedy writer's body into an action hero's body,' Odenkirk recalled of that grueling two-year training period. 'I laughed a lot, but it was not a fun laugh. It was an embarrassed kind of red-faced laugh.' And, as Odenkirk has previously mentioned, all that exercise ended up being even more valuable in his own life than it ended up being onscreen. Odenkirk accredited his ability to survive a heart attack while on set for Better Call Saul in 2021 to the rigorous training he completed for Nobody. Thankfully, Odenkirk has the natural work ethic to transition from comedy to action as well as to live long enough to enjoy the rewards. 'I put in the hours because I'm kind of nuts that way,' Odenkirk said of his transformation. 'I can be really determined and unflagging about these things. With the first film, I was challenging myself. When you get older and you turn 50, you think, what can I do that will make me a different person, because I've been this guy for long enough.' Becoming an action star this close to retirement age is an accomplishment in itself, and doing so after subjecting your body to 50-plus years of the comedian's diet and exercise is downright unheard-of. Imagine how blown away we would all be if Lionsgate suddenly announced that the next John Wick movie will star David Cross. Get more Cracked directly to your inbox. Sign up for Cracked newsletters at Cracked News Letters Signup. Solve the daily Crossword
