Sarah Silverman’s Tampon Prank Stayed on ‘SNL’ Dressing Room Walls for Years
During Sarah Silverman’s single season as a featured player on Saturday Night Live, she rarely found herself in sketches. The reality? At 22, Silverman just wasn’t ready for prime time. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t leave her mark on the show — literally.
Silverman has given various accounts of her SNL experience over the years. She was famously fired by fax, and in her memoir The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee, she lamented that “by some fluke, my genius is overlooked, 25 weeks in a row.” But in this week’s Tonight Show conversation with Jimmy Fallon, she described her SNL year as “great — I loved it.”
Her youth defined her experience. “I had a great time. You know, I got along with everybody, and I was scrappy,” she told Fallon. “I just remember being shocked at how grown-ups behaved. I just remember just thinking — because I was a kid, you know? — I was just like, ‘I can't believe grown-ups are acting this way.’ People would have big fights. You know, back then there were, like, fistfights when I was there.”
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Details, Silverman, we want details! While SNL history is littered with stories of cast member fisticuffs — Bill Murray vs. Chevy Chase, Norm Macdonald vs. Wyatt Cenac — those tussles wouldn’t have occurred during Silverman’s 1993-94 season. In The Bedwetter, Silverman details screaming matches between Rob Schneider and Al Franken, but no punches were thrown. She stabbed Franken herself, but not out of malice. Unfortunately, the details of her vague fistfight claims will have to wait for another Tonight Show appearance.
Since Silverman didn’t get the chance to perform in many sketches, why was her time on the show so “awesome”? She reminisced about other fun, including a hobby she taught herself during those long weeks of show prep. “I had figured out a craft where you can take tampons, like a box of tampons, and dip them in water and then whip them against a wall and they would just splat and stay,” she said. “They’ll stay forever.”
Wet tampon art — wet from water, she clarified — was pretty much how Silverman decorated her office.
Fast-forward “10 or 15 years.” Silverman returned to 30 Rock where she met up with longtime SNL writer Mike Shoemaker. “And he goes, ‘Guess what’s still in your office?’”
“It was still there!” Silverman exclaimed in celebration.
“It’s a craft that lives a long life,” observed Fallon.
“And,” Silverman added, “it’s a great craft for girls.”
