Jenny Slate Explains Why ‘SNL’ Isn’t the Be-All and End-All of Comedy

Jenny Slate is an acclaimed author, a hilarious stand-up comedian, a movie star, and she’s lent her voice to all-time great animated shows like Bob’s Burgers and Big Mouth, not to mention the Oscar-nominated Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. And oh, she was also briefly on some sketch series that airs on Saturday nights. Kind of like Mad TV, except live and based out of New York.

Even though her time at Saturday Night Live was fleeting, and she’s done so much great work since then, Slate seems to get asked about the show quite a bit. Most recently, she appeared on the podcast The Last Laugh with Matt Wilstein, and the host couldn’t help but point out that it’s been 15 years since Slate’s lone season of SNL began.

Given that so much time has passed, Wilstein asked whether or not Slate is able to separate the positives about the experience from the not-so-great way it ended (Slate wasn’t brought back for a second season, although the decision had nothing to do with the fact that she accidentally dropped an F-bomb on the air). “I think it’s so fucking cool that I touched that dream. I’m proud of myself,” Slate revealed. She also pointed out that there were huge benefits to what happened. “It’s almost magical, in this weird way, to think about it. There’s a lot of weird rewards that come from situations that we might think are more shadowy.”

One of the big rewards being “a belief in the long game. A belief in many, many options.” While SNL may be a pop-culture institution, it’s clearly not the only goal that young comedians should set for themselves. “It’s always important to believe in something plural rather than primacy,” Slate argued. “It’s really important to believe that there’s, like, actually 20 really cool, weird, secret doors, rather than like one big golden ornate legendary door.

“That doesn’t make any sense for any artist that has actually ever existed,” she continued. “There’s just a lot of little places to scurry in and find a bigger space for yourself.”

The SNL incident also gave Slate a feeling of personal rejuvenation. “If I hadn’t had that experience at the start of my career, I wouldn’t have understood how much is really up to me.” By the time she was appearing in another sketch series, Kroll Show, she thought to herself: “This is where I’m supposed to be.”

Plus, as recently-scrapped cast member Chloe Troast pointed out last month, the names on the list of fired SNL cast members is perhaps even more impressive than the list of  performers who were permitted to stay. It’s not like anyone would have cast Joe Piscopo in Uncut Gems. And there are no billion dollar Marvel movies starring Jim Breuer as Iron Man.