It was 22 years ago this week that Ashlee Simpson was caught lip-synching on Saturday Night Live, when the wrong prerecorded vocal track began playing during her second song, prompting her to perform a brief jig before walking offstage.
The October 23, 2004 flub remains one of the most infamous in SNL history. In the years since, it has been revisited and dissected countless times, with Simpson and SNL insiders each offering various accounts of what went wrong.
But one part of the story has never been reported: SNL considered turning the incident into a sketch—twice. One was pitched just days after the incident; the other nearly a year later, when Simpson returned as musical guest.
The first, titled “The Incident,” was written the week after Simpson’s appearance on the Jude Law-hosted episode for the following show, hosted by Kate Winslet.
The sketch essentially recreated the events of the previous Saturday, with Rachel Dratch playing Simpson backstage ahead of her second performance. In the proposed sketch, Simpson is struggling with acid reflux and repeatedly burping as her band prepares to take the stage.
The reflux wasn’t invented for the sketch. Amid the heavy press coverage that followed the incident, Simpson said acid reflux had caused inflammation of her vocal cords and explained that she had nearly lost her voice. (Indeed, she had performed “Pieces of Me” live at dress rehearsal earlier that evening, where she could be seen visibly struggling with the condition.)
“The Incident” recreated the moment the vocal track for “Pieces of Me”—the song Simpson had already performed earlier in the show—began playing instead of her planned second song, “Autobiography.” From there, it departed from the real-life events, shifting into a series of internal monologues from Simpson and the people around her.
Eventually, Amy Poehler was to appear as Simpson’s older sister Jessica in a thought bubble to offer some advice: do a little hoedown, smile, and slowly walk offstage. And afterward?
“When they ask what really happened, blame the band.”
That, of course, is exactly what Simpson did. At the show’s goodnights, she returned to the stage alongside Law and apologized to viewers, explaining that her band had started playing the wrong song and she didn’t know what to do.
Although “The Incident” never made it beyond that week’s table read, it wasn’t the last time SNL considered revisiting the episode.
Nearly a year later, Simpson was booked to return as musical guest for the October 8, 2005 episode hosted by Jon Heder. This time, SNL conceived a sketch that would have put Simpson herself at the center of the joke.
Titled “Ashlee Backstage,” the sketch was to feature Simpson alongside Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg, and Jason Sudeikis.
As proposed, it would have opened with the actual as-aired video of a Simpson walking off the SNL stage a year earlier, before cutting live to her dressing room, where Simpson was to storm in as her bandmates celebrate what they somehow believe was a triumphant performance.
Simpson tries to explain what happened: they played the wrong song, and her recorded voice could be heard over the P.A. Her oblivious bandmates insist nobody noticed.
“Ashlee. Nobody stays up for the second song,” Armisen’s character tells her.
“Everyone falls asleep after ‘Update,’” Sudeikis’s character adds. “That’s common knowledge.”
Samberg’s character has another theory: even if anyone was still watching, the second musical performance is when viewers get up to use the bathroom.
Then Armisen assures Simpson that the whole thing will blow over.
“Listen to me. I guarantee nobody will remember this,” he tells her. “There will be not one word in the press about it.”
Sudeikis’s character agrees, predicting that on Monday morning “no one will talk about you. Not in the workplace, not online…” He then looks at his phone.
“Huh. 17 missed messages. What’s that about?”
The sketch saved its most pointed callback for the end. As Simpson prepares to return to the stage for the goodnights, Armisen makes one request: “Just tell ’em what happened. But do not blame it on the band. Promise?”
“I promise,” Simpson replies.
The sketch then called for a cut back to more actual footage from the 2004 episode—this time with Simpson at goodnights telling viewers, “I’m sorry. The band played the wrong song.”
It’s not clear whether Simpson was ever approached about appearing in “Ashlee Backstage,” but, like “The Incident,” it too went no further than the table read. (There’s nothing unusual about a sketch dying at that stage of the SNL process. At the time, roughly 40 sketches were commonly read at each week’s table read, with only eight to 12 typically making it into the show.)
Viewers never did get to see SNL satirize one of the most infamous moments in its history. But there’s still time. Earlier this year, Simpson said she would “definitely” return to the show—and that, more than two decades later, the incident is now something she can laugh about.
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