“He wouldn’t do 'Kung Fu Fighting' as a cold open,” Spade revealed, noting that the original idea had Segal singing the song while smashing cast members with his martial arts moves. Seagal’s demand for rewrites even extended to the show’s opening. He didn't realize that you can't tell somebody they're stupid on Wednesday and expect them to continue writing for you on Saturday." “He just wasn't funny, and he was very critical of the cast and writing staff. "The biggest problem with Steven Seagal was that he would complain about jokes that he didn't get, so it was like - you can't explain something to somebody in German if they don't speak German,” cast member Tim Meadows explained in Live From New York. Watch Dana Carvey Describe Working With Steven Seagal on 'SNL' The sketch was rewritten to paint the host as the toughest action hero of all. He was looking straightforward and he goes, quote, ‘I just wish Arnold was here so I could kick his fucking ass.’”Ĭarvey tried further explaining the premise, but Seagal didn’t seem to understand. “So, I went up to him and I said, ‘Steven, are you okay?’ And he didn’t look at me. And we go through it with the cue cards, he reads his lines, very serious, then he just walks off,” Carvey recalled. “Then on Thursday we’re just on the soundstage rehearsing it. He could flick you with his little baby finger and you would fly across the room and land in baby poop.’” “ all of it was making fun of Steven,” the comedian noted, before putting on his accent to give an example. During a 2019 stop on The Howard Stern Show, Dana Carvey recalled Seagal’s surprising reaction to his Hans and Franz sketch. The cast did their best to adjust to the host’s sensibilities. “And if you don’t, and if you fight it so much - that was. And if you make fun of yourself - this is where it gets tricky - if you make fun of yourself, it will benefit you,” the former cast member explained to Rob Lowe on the Literally! podcast. But if we’re getting you on the show to host, we all want it to work. “A lot of people think we’re there to make fun of them. Terrible ideas aside, Spade believed Seagal’s downfall was a result of his refusal to make fun of himself. They’re just trying to get your money.’ And then he says the psychiatrist tries to have sex with her.” And the therapist says, ‘You’re going to have to come to me twice a week for like three years,' because, he said, ‘That’s how therapists fucking are. One pitch in particular left Sweeney dumbfounded: “He had this idea that he’s a therapist, and he wanted Victoria Jackson to be his patient who’d just been raped. “And some of his sketch ideas were so heinous, so hilariously awful, it was like we were on Candid Camera.” “When we pitched some of our ideas for Seagal at our Monday meeting, he gave us some of his own sketch ideas,” recalled fellow cast member Julia Sweeney. Watch Steven Seagal on 'Saturday Night Live' in 1991 “As a result, I think that was the first week that I heard talk about replacing the host and just doing a cast show.” “He didn’t want to go along with what the plan was that week,” Spade revealed in the book Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. ![]() Still, Seagal did himself no favors from the moment he arrived for the week of writing and rehearsals leading up to his episode. Suffice it to say, being a comedy king was not a prerequisite for the gig. Just earlier the same season, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner served as SNL host. Fellow action star Bruce Willis had hosted the season before, while athletes including Wayne Gretzky and Joe Montana had also previously held the role. Saturday Night Live had certainly welcomed its fair share of non-comic hosts in the past. Films Hard to Kill and Marked for Death had been hits in 1990, and the action star’s newest flick, Out for Justice, would continue the successful trend. The actor was in the midst of his commercial height at the time.
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