Chloe Troast Points Out That Being Fired From ‘SNL’ Puts Her in Great Company
Despite the fact that he still just can’t get over the fact that NBC fired Shane Gillis for publicly making racist and homophobic comments, Lorne Michaels seems a tad less broken up about the recent nixing of Saturday Night Live cast members Punkie Johnson, Molly Kearney and Chloe Troast. While Johnson and Kearney were less vocal on the matter when the news first hit last month, Troast quickly revealed on Instagram that she was “not asked back to SNL this season.”
This was a real bummer to be honest, since all three of them were solid performers. And Troast was only given one season to prove herself as a featured player. Even within that brief window of time, though, she managed to stand out in sketches like “Little Orphan Cassidy.”
But just because someone is no longer working within the confines of Studio 8H doesn’t mean that their career in comedy is over. Far from it. And Troast recently took the opportunity to remind everyone that being fired from SNL actually puts her in some pretty stellar company.
While accepting the 2024 Club Cosmo Award from Cosmopolitan, Troast addressed the land shark in the room: her SNL dismissal. “About a month ago, I found out I wouldn’t be returning to my dream job on Saturday Night Live. Very Gen Z of me to get fired,” Troast joked. “There are not a lot of people in this world that can relate to you when you lose a job like Saturday Night Live, besides maybe Adam Sandler, Jenny Slate, Michaela Watkins, Joan Cusack, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Robert Downey Jr., Billy Crystal... But no way you know their names.”
Troast makes a good point, some pretty massive talents have gotten 86’d from SNL over the years. Crystal never even made it onto the air during the first ever show, and Sandler was mysteriously let go between seasons, along with the great Chris Farley, which Sandler has openly discussed in song form.
Louis-Dreyfus, Cusack and Downey Jr. weren’t brought back following the disastrous 1985-1986 season (they did okay after that), while Watkins was “shocked” when she was let go, after Michaels told her that she should have her “own show.” After Watkins was fired, Michaels hired Slate, and later fired her too (but not for swearing on the air).
Even though leaving SNL meant joining the ranks of these comedy greats, Troast did reveal that she “felt broken” after getting the news, but was helped out by her “ex-dressing room roommate” Kearney. “SNL was my dream, and now I have a lot of time to dream new dreams," she stated.
And it’s never a bad idea to dream dreams that the whims of Lorne Michaels can’t touch.
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