Damon Wayans has opened up about his short time on Saturday Night Live and the sketch that got him fired from the long-running variety show.
The 64-year-old actor and comedian only worked on SNL for one year, between 1985 and 1986, and has shared his experiences in the new Peacock docuseries SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night.
In the fourth episode, called “Season 11: The Weird Year”, Wayans admits that he “got fired” despite feeling that he was “born to be on Saturday Night Live”.
Wayans was relatively inexperienced when he joined SNL but did receive some advice from Eddie Murphy, who he had worked with on Beverly Hills Cop.
“Eddie’s advice to me was, ‘Write your own sketches. Otherwise, they’re gonna give you some Black people s*** to do, and you ain’t gonna like it,” Wayans explained.
However, Wayans claims that all of his ideas were shot down and he ended up playing stereotypical roles. “I’m like, ‘Hell no.’ I said, ‘Listen, my mother’s gonna watch this show. I can’t do this. I won’t do this,’” he recalls protesting.
In episode 12 of the season, Wayans was in a sketch with Randy Quaid, where the pair played police officers. Despite rehearsing the character as discussed, Wayans decided to improvise during the live show and played the role as an effeminate gay stereotype.
“I snapped. I just did not care. I purposefully did that because I wanted [Michaels] to fire me,” Wayans adds.
SNL creator and producer, Lorne Michaels admits that firing Wayans was “really, really hard, but it had to be done”.
Wayans though was invited back for the season finale to do a stand-up routine and would later host SNL, nine years after he was fired.
“Lorne is a very forgiving man and I think he just wanted to let me know that he believed in me,” Wayans said.
Wayans would go on to have a successful career in the entertainment world, firstly with his own sketch show In Living Color, and then as an actor in films like The Last Boy Scout, Major Payne and Bamboozled and the sitcom My Wife and Kids.
