One SNL Sketch That Never Made It To Air, According To Vanessa Bayer

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Episodes of Saturday Night Live are always packed with sketches from start to finish, and the show isn't always able to air all of the sketches that were pitched. Some are prepped, rehearsed, and even filmed before they get cut for time, while some others simply never get off the ground. Former SNL castmate Vanessa Bayer recently revealed one sketch from her time on the show that never made it on the air, saying this:

Something that never got on [the show] was that I would try to write these backstage sketches where I would go into the host's dressing room and be really scary and aggressive to them because that's not my personality. I'd say, 'Hey, don't step on my lines.' I thought it would be funny that onscreen I'm really smiley, but behind the scenes everyone is really scared of me. It never got on because I think even me pretending to be scary is sweet and silly.

When most of us think of Vanessa Bayer on Saturday Night Live, we probably think of her as '90s Rachel Green or Jacob the Bar Mitzvah Boy or even the meteorologist Dawn Lazarus who found it difficult to report on the weather. All of those characters are funny, but they're not exactly tough or intimidating. I'd say seeing her playing a bully version of herself, dropping by the hosts' dressing rooms and threatening them into not crossing her would definitely be worth some laughs, if only because of how different it would be. I can't even really imagine a scary and aggressive Vanessa Bayer. The kind of sketch she described to THR would have been fun to watch.

Sadly, we probably won't ever get to see a sketch starring a surprisingly aggressive Vanessa Bayer. The actress officially retired from SNL at the end of the latest season, along with Bobby Moynihan. She could very well return as a guest or even host, but this kind of sketch might not work with somebody who isn't on board on a weekly basis. That said, Bayer went on to share the hosts she would have liked to work with in this kind of sketch. Here's what she had to say:

The first time we tried it was with Jeff Bridges because he's a full, big and strong adult man and it would be me saying, 'Jeff, don't mess with me.' It would also be fun to do with Dwayne Johnson.

Oh, what might have been! The good news is that Vanessa Bayer will be keeping busy now that she's left Saturday Night Live. Even if we won't get to catch her threatening the Rock on SNL, we'll be able to see her in Netflix's upcoming movie Ibiza. The project will star Vanessa Bayer, Gillian Jacobs, and Phoebe Robinson as a group of friends on a work trip to Spain that takes a turn when they start hunting for a popular DJ. Hopefully she'll be as funny in Ibiza and all her future projects as she was on SNL.

Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in comedy news. For what's coming to the small screen, be sure to swing by our summer TV guide and our fall TV premiere schedule. If you're not up on all the reboots and revivals that are coming to the small screen, our breakown can help you out.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).