Key Points
Saturday Night Live alum Chris Parnell reflects on being fired from the show twice.
The first time was the toughest and “a big shock,” he admitted on Jay Mohr’s Mohr Stories podcast.
Parnell also revealed the sketch that nearly made him break character: “More Cowbell” with Will Ferrell.
Chris Parnell has the unfortunate distinction of being the only Saturday Night Live cast member to be fired from the show twice, but it was the first dismissal that cut the deepest.
The comedian looked back on his two tenures with fellow SNL alum Jay Mohr, who left the show in 1995, three years before Parnell joined the 24th season along with Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz. In 2001, SNL boss Lorne Michaels had to pick two cast members to dismiss — and Parnell was ultimately chosen over Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, and Sanz.
“I was on the phone with Rachel Dratch and some other people who were all waiting to hear that same kind of thing,” Parnell recalled on Mohr Stories, “and we just assumed we would all be back, you know, so it was a big surprise.”
Earlier in the interview, when Mohr suggested being let go twice from SNL “has to be its own brand of PTSD,” Parnell agreed.
“It was a big shock and there was enough of an outcry from the cast and the writers that I felt like, ‘Okay, I’m not the only one who thinks this is crazy,'” he explained. “You know, I just kept hearing that Lorne might be bringing me back, and there was just all this back and forth, and finally I just moved my stuff back to L.A.”
The firing stung so badly, Parnell couldn’t even tune in on Saturday nights — except for the show’s 9/11 special on Sept. 29 hosted by Reese Witherspoon. “I was bummed because I’m such a fan of hers and I really wanted to work with her,” he told Mohr.
Months later, however, Parnell was brought back on toward the end of season 27, which marked the debut of Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers.
It was during his second run on SNL that the show scored one of its first viral moments: “Lazy Sunday,” a digital short featuring Parnell and Andy Samberg rapping about eating cupcakes from Manhattan hot spot Magnolia Bakery and catching an afternoon screening of The Chronicles of Narnia.
Unlike Fallon and Dratch, Parnell had a knack for never breaking character, earning himself the nickname “Iceman.”
“There were definitely times when it was hard [not to laugh],” he admitted to Mohr. The sketch that came to mind was 2000’s “More Cowbell,” which depicts the recording of Blue Oyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” In it, Will Ferrell plays a fictional musician who dramatically plays the cowbell on the track. “I mean, with Will right there in my face, you know, knocking on the cowbell, the belly out, and he’s just right there.”
Parnell’s second run on SNL ended in 2006, and by then he was ready to move on from the show. But he only has good memories of the cast.
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“I feel like we got along well,” he told Mohr. “I didn’t feel like there was that much drama between cast members. I mean, I kind of later as I was on longer, I would hear about things, certain dramas that I was kind of left out of. But yeah, I think, you know, it was such a fun group of people when you got Will [Ferrell] there, he’s kind of the captain of the ship, and Molly [Shannon] and Cheri [Oteri] and [Chris] Katan and so many funny people.”
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