Since Saturday Night Live premiered in 1975, the extremely long-lasting sketch comedy show has become an institution for NBC. Thanks to the show's incredible longevity and the fact that it has spawned so many wildly successful movie stars, many performers have dreamed of joining SNL's cast. Unfortunately for the people who've managed to achieve that dream, starring in SNL is a double-edged sword.
While the sketch comedy show has created comedy superstars, the truth is that cast members can often miss opportunities, like when Bowen Yang imitated a politician a week too late. There also are scenarios like when SNL recently underwent a half-baked cast shakeup that resulted in several performers being shown the door. On top of all that, Sarah Sherman once revealed another way starring in SNL can be a nightmare.
Sarah Sherman revealed her nightmare SNL table read experience
When episodes of Saturday Night Live air, viewers focus on how the show's cast members are performing onstage. However, during the writing process for the show, the series' performers have to focus elsewhere as it is part of their jobs to craft sketch ideas they can pitch. Once the writing process is complete, SNL's stars have to perform their sketch ideas in front of every cast member and the show's powerbrokers, including Lorne Michaels.
In September 2025, the YouTube channel for Late Night with Seth Meyers uploaded a video of Sarah Sherman appearing on the talk show. In the video, Sherman told a story about a memorable time that a sketch that she wrote utterly failed during the table read process. While describing the sketch, Sherman revealed that she and her co-workers thought the sketch was hilarious as they wrote it.
"So me, Gary Richardson, Will Stephen stay up, I’m going to say ‘til five in the morning, laughing, ‘Ha ha ha.’ Knee slapping. I’m a human instrument, obviously."
As Sherman explained to Meyers, she'd written a sketch in which the show's guest host of the week, Timothee Chalamet, would pretend to play her like she was a musical instrument. As that was happening, Sherman's co-star Bowen Yang would enter the sketch and pretend to change her batteries. During her talk show appearance, Sherman vividly described how profoundly the sketch flopped since it received a silent reaction.
"I actually can’t tell you the name of the instrument ‘cause it bombed so hard at table that I’m not gonna speak it out loud because I learned my lesson. And then he played me like an instrument and then the noises came out of my mouth. I was like, ‘Honk honk.’ And then Bowen [Yang] would come in and change my batteries by putting batteries in my mouth. And it bombed so hard you could hear butterflies flapping their wings, like, in China."
Based solely on Sherman's description of the scene as her sketch flopped, it is very evident that being her at that moment would have been extremely mortifying. However, there are other factors to consider that would make the situation so much worse. For example, Sherman had to feel responsible for putting Chalamet and Yang in a situation in which they completely flopped as well. On top of that, Sherman's sketch utterly failed in front of some of the most respected minds in comedy writing. Finally, SNL infamously is an extremely cutthroat place to work, with past cast members describing fearing for their jobs almost constantly.