What happens when a sketch is so awful in rehearsal that it shouldn’t be aired? Sometimes it isn’t. And here’s an example — with Justin Beiber from SNL.
Viewers often don’t know the things that go on behind the scenes on famous television shows. For instances, during is quarter century early television run, the famous host of the Ed Sullivan variety show on CBS could cut an act during the run through before the show if he felt it was too weak. And various accounts say Saturday Nigh Live’s genius creator Lorene Michaels banned the SNL episode with classic comedian Milton Berle from ever appearing in the syndicated packages of SNL shows because Berle reportedly brushed aside SNL’s style and in effect did a version of his 1950s TV show complete with a false-sentimental song ending.
But the video below shows a sketch that bombed so badly in rehearsal it never made it to the final show. EOnline:
And there’s a good reason it didn’t make the final cut: it’s the “greatest trainwreck ever.”
At least, according to Bill Hader.
The “Song for Daddy” sketch features J.B., Hader, Fred Armisen and Bobby Moynihan as a country western band with a very strange song. The 19-year-old pop star plays Hader’s son and keyboardist in the musical group.
Pretty much everything went horribly wrong during the dress rehearsal, but lucky for us all, Hader, along with writers Rob Klein and John Solomon, provide their personal commentary on the hot mess of a sketch.
Highlights include the stage almost falling on the Biebs and an audience that simply refuses to laugh or participate, as well as flubbed lines, problems with props and horrible lighting.
“In my time at SNL this has never happened before where one of the walls tipped over and almost fell…that’s true fear on Justin Bieber’s face. Yeah, he’s scared,” Hader recalls.
“We did this at the table read, this sketch killed…We weren’t worried at all about anything,” the funnyman adds before commenting on the silent audience. “I’m just looking at young girls looking at me going ‘When is Justin going to do something? Is it really about this old man?'”
Here’s the video:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.