This Is Why Lorne Michaels Let Tom Green Run Wild With ‘SNL’

As Saturday Night Live prepares to celebrate 50 years on the air, one episode that almost certainly won’t receive any sort of recognition on Sunday night’s special is the 2000 show that was hosted by Tom Green. While it was far from being the best episode, Green’s only SNL appearance is notable because it was so damn weird. 

Green, who was known for his envelope-pushing MTV antics at the time, kicked off the show by pledging to marry his real-life girlfriend Drew Barrymore before the episode came to an end (they didn’t). And things only got stranger from there. 

One memorable sketch found Green and Will Ferrell playing bald eagles spotted by bird watchers Molly Shannon and Jimmy Fallon. While it begins predictably enough, they soon get in a fight that takes them into Studio 8H’s balcony, where Green licks random audience members, and screeches in their faces. The bizarro routine ultimately ends with the two “eagles” cautiously tongue kissing.

Was it good? Probably not. But it was admirably chaotic, and reminded us all that the live show could go off the rails at any minute. 

Then there was “Lorne and Tom in a Tub” in which Green and Lorne Michaels inexplicably share a bath together. Tom plays with rubber duckies, while Lorne sips on a Big Bird juice box. Lorne eventually tells Tom that his duckie antics are “funny,” and that’s the end of the sketch.

There were some more traditional sketches that night too, like one that poked fun at how completely insufferable Dr. Phil is. In retrospect, it’s aged like… is there something that ages better than wine?

Still most of the episode had more of a Tom Green Show vibe than a Saturday Night Live vibe. And there’s a very good reason for that. As Green recently discussed in an interview, he brought his own writers with him to the show. “I was dealing with a lot happening at once — physically, emotionally, just life changes,” Green told The Canadian Press. “And then to be thrust into that kind of environment, I didn’t really know how to navigate it.”

So, in need of support, while also endeavoring to make the “craziest episode ever,” Green told Michaels that it would be a “dream come true” if his friends and collaborators Glenn Humplik, Phil Giroux and Derek Harvie could come write for the episode. While this rankled some cast members, Michaels was totally cool with it. Why? Because Green and his friends are fellow Canucks.

“He said, ‘Yeah, you know, we’re all Canadian.’ So he gave us a little office. We came up with some really weird and funny ideas. Lorne Michaels was super cool and let us do it.”

And really, what could be more patriotic than agreeing to strip off your clothes and get into a bubble bath on national TV with your fellow countryman.