Here’s the Hilarious Reason Why Bobby Moynihan Says the ‘SNL’ Structure Is Outdated
According to nine-year Saturday Night Live veteran Bobby Moynihan, the Saturday Night Live production schedule stopped working efficiently the second the show ran out of booger sugar.
The drug habits of the Saturday Night Live cast and crew are the stuff of comedy legend, often tragically so. The cocaine consumption of series icons like John Belushi and Chris Farley are a dark spot in the show’s powdery-white history, and it’s honestly refreshing that the biggest drug problem SNL has had in the last decade was the time when Louis C.K. tried to get Pete Davidson fired for smoking pot in his dressing room. However, in the first few decades of SNL’s existence, cocaine was to 30 Rockefeller Plaza what Sunoco Green E15 is to NASCAR, and the entire SNL operation moved at about the same speed as a result.
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Today, the creative engine of SNL no longer runs on nearly as much Bolivian marching powder as its progenitors, but the frantic, jittery, sleepless production schedule established by those early artists who were deep in the devil’s dandruff remains, much to the chagrin of the comparatively square current cast. On a recent episode of the podcast The Best Show with Tom Scharpling, Moynihan said that it’s time for SNL to rethink its structure now that the foundations are so commonly laced with fentanyl.
When Moynihan lays out the legendarily stressful week leading up to each and every episode of SNL in cocaine terms, it’s so clear that Lorne Michaels designed the system to be operated by gaunt, sweaty, bulging-eyed maniacs who couldn’t sleep a full eight hours or break for dinner even if they wanted to — or if Michaels allowed it. Monday is for panicking. Tuesday and Wednesday are sleepless. On Thursday, it’s a return to panic. Friday, everyone dies. Saturday, it’s showtime!
With such a strung-out schedule, it’s astounding that anyone can withstand the demanding workplace of SNL for a full week, let alone for nine years. For that reason, you have to wonder how Moynihan made it so long, or why he’s so in-tune with the behavior of the average blow-hard — we’ll ask him about it as soon as he gets back from the bathroom.