Bill Hader claimed this SNL host gave a pep talk before bombing 'horribly'

Bill Hader is a nice guy. He's one of the most beloved Saturday Night Live cast members of the 21st century, and is one of the most consistent sources when it comes to side-splitting behind the scenes stories. He shared another one during a recent appearance on the podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name.

Hader reflected on his time with SNL during his lengthy conversation with hosts Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson. One of the incident that stood out to him the most involved a 2008 episode that was hosted by an Oscar nominated actor. He recalls a sketch that was concocted by him and fellow cast member Will Forte that failed to generate any laughter from the audience during rehearsals.

Hader knew his SNL sketch was going to bomb

"You can hear yourself breathing on the stage 'cause it's just bombing so bad," Hader explained. "So we left, and we were like, 'Well, that's never happening.'" Unfortunately for Hader and Forte, SNL boss Lorne Michaels was a huge fan of the sketch, and pushed for it to make the final episode.

Hader told the podcast hosts that he knew the sketch would not do well, and he received support from an unlikely place. The host of the episode, Josh Brolin, gave Hader and Forte a pep talk right before they went out and performed the sketch. As Hader recounts:

"Josh Brolin just turns to us and goes, 'Well fellas, let's shut these f**kers up.' And we went out there and it died.""

Josh Brolin has hosted two more times since

The anecdote generated huge laughs from the likes of Danson and Harrelson, of course. The silver lining behind the bombed sketch is that Forte continues to stand by it. Hader? Not so much. "Forte, I think he's very proud of it," he explained. "That's why I love Will."

Brolin, meanwhile, has returned to host Saturday Night Live in 2012 and 2024, so his gung-ho attitude clearly played well with Michaels and the rest of the show's team.