10 Times the SNL Cast Apologized for Their Jokes

MsMojo

From controversial impressions to insensitive sketches, Saturday Night Live cast members have occasionally crossed the line. Join us as we look back at memorable moments when SNL performers expressed regret for their comedy choices, both on and off the show, and how they handled the aftermath.

Transcript

00:00Because I once spent the summer on a farm. You feel me?

00:06Welcome to Ms. Mojo. And today, we're taking an apology tour through the most notable moments

00:12Saturday Night Live cast members expressed regret over jokes they made, whether on the show or off.

00:18It was a poor choice of words. The man is a war hero and he deserves all the respect in the world.

00:23Shane Gillis.

00:24Most of you probably have no idea who I am. I was actually, I was fired from this show a while ago.

00:33Although he hadn't technically performed on the show, Shane Gillis was officially a cast member

00:38when he came under fire for remarks he had made in the past. Just before the 45th season,

00:44Gillis was announced as a new addition, alongside Bowen Yang and Chloe Fineman. However, on the same

00:50day, clips resurfaced of Gillis using homophobic slurs and making racist jokes about Chinatown

00:56in Manhattan.

00:56A video of Gillis from about a year ago surfaced from Matt and Shane's secret podcast in which

01:02he mockingly mimicked a Chinese accent and used a racist slur to refer to Asian people

01:08in Chinatown.

01:09The backlash was especially intense, given that he was hired alongside Bowen Yang, the

01:14show's first Chinese-American cast member who was also gay. As the heat mounted, Gillis

01:20apologized for his past comments. But that wasn't enough to prevent him from being fired

01:25before the season even premiered.

01:27It's funny, it was, look, I don't have any material that can be on TV, all right? I'm trying

01:34my best.

01:35Bill Murray. You'd think if an SNL cast member were apologizing for their material, it must

01:40have been something edgy or offensive. But that wasn't the case with Bill Murray. In

01:45season two, Murray appeared in a sketch to say sorry, for not being funny.

01:49It's not the material, it's me. It's not that I'm not funny, it's that I'm not being

01:55funny at the right time. Honest.

01:58He'd joined the show earlier that season, stepping into the big shoes of fan-favorite

02:02Chevy Chase. But as the newbie still trying to find his groove, he was often stuck with the

02:07forgettable supporting roles. So in this sketch, Murray promised the audience that he was indeed

02:13a funny guy. He might just need some help from them sometimes.

02:16If you could see it in your heart to laugh whenever I say something, I don't care what

02:20it is. Or if you can't laugh, think about my family.

02:25Thankfully, he didn't have to beg for long. By the next season, Murray found his rhythm,

02:30kicking off his legendary comedy career.

02:32Oh, that cast makes me so sad. Oh, don't it make my brown eyes. Don't it make my brown

02:38eyes. Don't it make my brown eyes blue.

02:44Tina Fey. Tina Fey isn't one for big apologies, but she can acknowledge when she's made a mistake.

02:50I've seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, and I wasn't confused by it. No, Colin, Nazis are always

02:57bad. I don't care what you say. We all remember the 2017 alt-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

03:04You know, the one with the tiki torches and racist chants that apparently included some very

03:08fine people? Well, in the aftermath, Fey returned to Weekend Update in her capacity as a University

03:14of Virginia alum to weigh in. Ultimately, her advice to those considering counter-protests was to

03:21stay home and eat cake instead. The response was mixed. Many felt her comments were tone-deaf and

03:39out of touch, and to her credit, Fey agreed. On David Letterman's My Next Guest Needs No

03:44introduction, she expressed regrets over how she wrapped the segment and promised to do better.

03:50I promise, I swear to God, anyone who is mad at me, I hear you and I will learn and I will continue

03:56to, but I'm also not going to stop trying, right? Bill Hader. When it comes to LGBTQ plus themed

04:02sketches, SNL hasn't always stuck the landing. I'm becoming the person I want to be and without

04:08the hassle. Thanks, Estromax. One notable misstep was the season 36 sketch, Once Daily Estromax,

04:15a faux commercial featuring Bill Hader as a transgender person in the middle of transitioning

04:20who supposedly gets all their hormones from a single daily pill. But most hormone replacement

04:25therapies require you to take five estrogen supplements a day. Five. Who has time for that?

04:32But now there's hope. Once Daily Estromax. When it first aired, GLAAD condemned the

04:38sketch as dehumanizing and called on NBC to apologize and pull it from their website.

04:44While the network never responded publicly, Hader sort of did. In a 2014 interview with Pride

04:50Source, he admitted that the backlash was fair, stating that while the sketch wasn't intended

04:55to be harmful to anyone, he still regretted taking part in it.

04:58Men taking estrogen may develop an interest in TLC's Say Yes to the Dress.

05:03Once Daily Estromax. Nature got in your way. Your estrogen pills shouldn't.

05:08Sarah Sherman. In April 2025, SNL aired a sketch parodying the third season of The White Lotus,

05:14which was set in Thailand and starred English actress Amy Lou Wood.

05:18We are so lucky that America will always be a rich and powerful nation.

05:27Wood played Chelsea, a young woman vacationing at the wellness resort with her much older boyfriend,

05:32Rick. In the spoof, Sarah Sherman impersonated the actress, but the portrayal wasn't particularly

05:37flattering. Wood took to her Instagram to call out the show, labeling the sketch mean for taking a

05:50cheap shot at her. Many viewers shared her sentiment, and apparently so did Sherman. She reportedly

05:57apologized privately to Wood and sent her flowers as a gesture of goodwill. Later, in a Vanity Fair

06:03interview, Sherman admitted that she felt terrible after seeing Wood's reaction to the sketch.

06:08Never in a million years did I get into comedy to make anyone upset. I feel terrible that anyone

06:13would feel bad. Seth Meyers. SNL and politics have long gone hand in hand. The sketch show made a name

06:20for itself with its depiction of public figures, but not every impression has been a hit. Case in point,

06:26David Patterson. Judge me by what I say, not what I do. Other things to not judge me by my record.

06:32My leadership skills and my free throw percentage. Fred Armisen's portrayal of the former New York

06:39governor painted him as a clueless blind man who stumbled into office. In the season 36 premiere,

06:46Patterson came on Weekend Update to clap back. He got in quite a few digs at the show,

06:51then took the cast to task for turning his disability into a punchline.

06:55But while I have a good sense of humor, jokes that degrade people just for their disabilities

07:01are sophomoric and stupid. Eventually, Patterson managed to get an apology from Myers as well as

07:07guest host and former cast member Amy Poehler, who promised to be more respectful toward people

07:12with disabilities. Governor, I think I speak for everyone here that will be more respectful of

07:18the blind. Hopefully. Blind Americans are incredibly capable and we make use of our other senses as well.

07:25Michael Che. You know, before I tell another joke, I want to take this opportunity to apologize to

07:29someone I hurt. Uh, Scarlett, can you come out here? With their infamous joke swap segment,

07:35Weekend Update co-anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che are always finding new ways to land each other in

07:41hot water. That seemed to finally happen in December 2024, after Che slipped in a joke about Jost's wife,

07:48Scarlett Johansson, which she didn't find funny.

07:51Costco has removed the roast beef sandwich from its menu, but I ain't trippin'.

07:56I've been eating roast beef every night since my wife had the kid.

08:02Che got the opportunity to revisit that material at the season 50 finale,

08:06which just so happened to be hosted by Johansson. Reading lines clearly written by Jost,

08:12Che was forced to tender an apology to Johansson, blaming the tasteless jokes on nothing more than his

08:17jealousy of her husband. Yes, I remember that. Well, the fact is I was just lashing out because

08:23I'm jealous. Jost also managed to work in an apology to himself, compelling Che to publicly

08:29credit him for discovering his career. Pete Davidson

08:32The 2018 midterm elections brought along a flurry of SNL political-themed sketches,

08:38including a Weekend Update segment where Pete Davidson gave his first impressions of various candidates.

08:44Davidson would ultimately spark controversy due to his comments about Dan Crenshaw,

08:49a candidate from Texas and former Navy SEAL who lost his right eye while serving in Afghanistan.

08:55You may be surprised to hear he's a congressional candidate from Texas and not a hitman in a porno

09:00movie. I'm sorry, I know he lost his eye in war or whatever.

09:07The following week after Crenshaw won his seat, he was invited on the show where Davidson offered a

09:14public apology for his poor choice of words. The reason you're wearing an eye patch right now is

09:19that you lost your eye to an IED in Afghanistan during your third combat tour. And I'm sorry.

09:25Thank you, Pete. I appreciate you saying that. Although Crenshaw did accept his apology,

09:30he didn't let up on the opportunity to deliver a few pointed jokes of his own.

09:34He looks like Martin Short in the Santa Claus 3. By the way, one of these people was actually good

09:42on SNL. Mike Myers. Shortly after Bill Clinton won the 1992 U.S. presidential election,

09:50cast members Mike Myers and Dina Carvey did a Wayne's World sketch where they ranked the top

09:5510 things they loved about him. But if you watch a rerun today, you'll notice that number two,

10:10his daughter Chelsea, is completely edited out. That's because the sketch originally featured Myers

10:15and Carvey calling Vice President Al Gore's daughters Babealicious and then describing Chelsea

10:21as a babe in development. Considering she was a minor at the time, this comment was heavily

10:37criticized by viewers, as well as by Bill and Hillary Clinton. As a result, the segment was

10:43removed. Myers wrote an apology to the Clinton family and producer Lauren Michaels issued a public

10:49statement of regret. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to

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11:12Jimmy Fallon. Before he began hosting Late Night and The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon cut his comedic

11:20teeth as a cast member on SNL for six years. Yeah, look, we don't carry diesel. We work at

11:26Jeffries. We read Italian Vogue. It's our deal. I don't come to where you work and knock the corn dog

11:32out of your hand. During a sketch back in 2000, Fallon made the regrettable decision to impersonate

11:37former cast member Chris Rock while in blackface. The sketch went largely unnoticed for years until

11:44clips resurfaced in 2020, leading many to call for Fallon's removal as host of The Tonight Show.

11:50Story came out about me on SNL doing an impression of Chris Rock in blackface,

11:55and I was horrified. Not at the fact that people were trying to cancel me or cancel the show.

12:01The comedian first apologized on Twitter, calling the sketch an unquestionably offensive

12:07decision. When the Late Night program returned to the air a few days later,

12:12Fallon opened the episode by directly addressing the incident and offering a more heartfelt apology.

12:17I thought about it, and I realized that I can't not say I'm horrified and I'm sorry and I'm

12:25embarrassed. Which of these mea culpas did you find the most sincere? And which ones do you think

12:31fell flat? Let us know in the comments. We need to say something. We need to keep saying something.

12:36And we need to stop saying that's not okay more than just one day on Twitter.

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