Sarah Sherman Says She Still Hasn’t Figured Out A Key Part Of SNL Yet

By pretty much any metric, Sarah Sherman has had a great run at Saturday Night Live. She’s in her fifth season on the show and while she’s maybe not the biggest star at 30 Rock, she’s emerged as one of the key cast members even casual fans know. From her perspective, however, there’s a very key part of SNL she still hasn’t totally figured out: the sketches.

Sherman has, of course, appeared in a ton of sketches during her half decade on the show, but many of her more memorable appearances have come playing goofy characters on Weekend Update. That’s not by chance. During an interview with Chappelle’s Show co-creator Neal Brennan, she admitted she’s way more comfortable on Weekend Update because it’s a lot “looser” and less real-bound than the more traditional sketches the show is known for.

Appearing in one of those traditional sketches means adhering to very specific cues and a very pre-organized structure. There are five cameras. You have to work with everyone during the week to figure out the blocking. You have to make sure your timing is right so you don’t step on other people’s lines. It’s a very organized process, and to work, the sketches need to be doing a bunch of different things at once and have a well-organized structure.

The Weekend Update bits she has become known for, however, are typically put together the day of the show, and there’s a much greater ability to play around with them because they’re shot using a single camera and don’t involve other characters, only interactions with co-anchor Colin Jost, who she’s very comfortable with.

Sherman has, of course, had so many standout moments at the Weekend Update desk. She clearly has an amazing rapport with Jost, and she’s really good at reading the tone of the crowd and either leaning into a bit or pulling back a bit, depending on how much they’re into it. She had a great moment earlier this season in which she even called out the crowd, as an example. I’d happily watch her continue to play her goofy characters for another five years, but it’s obvious from this interview that she wants more than that.

She appears in plenty of sketches other people have written each week, and she’s gotten some banger sketches on the air in the past. It’s not like she’s just struck out every week for years, but Sherman was honest that she gets told no a lot more often than she gets told yes. She wants to get better at the process so that she can get more things through and so that when they get through, they get a better reception than some of the things she’s written in the past.

It’s a very different style of comedy than the Updates though. She’s clearly someone who is comfortable winging it and figuring out how to get laughs, but that’s harder to do when you add more people and a more organized structure. Given her natural talent and the charisma she has, I think there’s a future in which she’s going to be really good within more traditional comedic mediums, whether it be sketch comedy, movies or television shows. It’s just a work in progress right now.

Sherman and the rest of the SNL cast will return for three more episodes with some dynamic guest hosts starting at the beginning of May. She hasn’t made any announcements about her future after the season, but fans are very hopeful she’ll return to Studio 8H again. Maybe next season will be the year she really breaks out in more traditional sketches, or maybe it’ll just be another year of her delivering standout moments with wacky characters on Weekend Update. Either way, we’ll be in for some laughs.