The Saturday Night Live cast members are very used to doing sketch comedy in front of a live audience, but the same cannot be said for all of the hosts. Some of them would come in quite nervous, and if the monologue and first few sketches don’t go well, it could turn into a long and uncomfortable night. Fortunately, during his tenure on the show, longtime Not Ready For Primetime Player Pete Davidson got really good at lying. In fact, there was one lie he used over and over again.
Davidson recently appeared at Netflix Is A Joke alongside stand-up comedian and longtime SNL writer John Mulaney. The subject of host monologues came up, and they were very open about how most of them suck. Mulaney estimated that 8 out of 10 of them go poorly but said he’d reassure them afterwards that it went well.
If the audience didn’t laugh, he’d tell them not to worry because the viewers that matter are the ones at home. That's famously the exact opposite message showrunner Lorne Michaels gives the cast, but the host doesn't need to know that.
That's how Davidson feels too. He owned up to his version of the same lie. He said he repeatedly told hosts that the people in the audience are often tourists who don’t speak good English. Here’s a portion of his quote, per Deadline…
I always would go: ‘They’re tourists. They wait outside and they try to win a lottery. Half of them probably don’t even speak English.’ They do. They’re big fans of the show; they camp outside.
Fans like to think about SNL like each sketch exists in a vacuum, but it’s definitely more complicated than that. Good shows can build up a nice momentum and good vibes with the audience. When one sketch works, it puts everyone in a good mood heading into the next sketch. Laughter tends to beget more laughter, and a cast member or host who crushes it during one sketch, always appears to go into the next sketch looking looser and more comfortable.
Unfortunately, the opposite can also be true. If the monologue and then a few sketches in a row bomb, it can be harder to earn laughs from the audience from that point forward. It can also be hard to get a good performance from a host especially if they feel like they’re bombing out there. They can’t be worrying about the reception and whether it’s going well. They just need to commit.
That’s why Mulaney was always in favor of lying too. During the same conversation about not being honest, he admitted he told a major comedy star who once bombed his monologue that he shouldn’t worry because Studio 8H has “bad acoustics.” That’s an outrageous lie, given it was formerly the home of the NBC Orchestra and has a really intricate system of microphones that pick everything up, but once again, sometimes a little fib to keep everyone’s confidence up is the right call.
Davidson and Mulaney have both been off SNL for awhile now, but they remain extremely popular and well thought of former contributors. They each returned for SNL 50, a show that contained a famously bad audience that Davidson put on blast. They have also returned many other times for cameos and full-blown hosting stints. They’ll each almost certainly be back. Fingers crossed the next time they come, none of the current cast will have to lie to them about the crowd reaction.
