At the Netflix is a Joke Festival, Pete Davidson and John Mulaney, two comedians who have graced the stage of Saturday Night Live (SNL) with their mischievous antics, confessed to a delightful habit of feigning admiration for their celebrity guests. They revealed that they often sought to inflate the egos of their star visitors by assuring them they had "crushed" their opening monologues, even when, more often than not, they had "tanked."
John, who was a writer and made occasional appearances on the show from 2008 to 2013, shared an anecdote during the talk. "When I was 25, I’d tell Oscar-winning hosts – I’d write their monologue and be like, ‘You’re gonna say all that, it’s gonna go great,’ and they’d tank eight times out of 10." Pete, who was a cast member from 2014 to 2022, chimed in with a chuckle, admitting that he too would tell hosts they had "crushed it," regardless of their actual performance.
John continued, "They’ll have actor face. They sort of don’t get it, because they’re just an actor. And they’d be like, ‘Hey, was that good?’ And you’re like, ‘No! Do you have ears?’" Pete offered advice to the bewildered hosts, saying, "You’re really performing for the people at home." John added, "'Play for the camera. The audience, they’re just there to help you, but they’re not gonna laugh a lot.'"
Moreover, Pete would also fib about the makeup of the live audience to ease the guest hosts' nerves. He said, "I always would go: ‘They’re tourists. They wait outside and they try to win a lottery. Half of them probably don’t even speak English.’ They do. They’re big fans of the show; they camp outside.”
John, who has returned to host SNL six times over the years, recalled an instance where a "very big comedy star bombed," adding, "It was his own fault because he was very difficult to write for." And even though the guest had been challenging, John still lied when he asked if he was bad. "I went: ‘It’s bad acoustics.’ It’s famously one of the best mic’d sound studios in the world. It used to be home to the NBC [Symphony] Orchestra."
