During his eight years on Saturday Night Live, Chris Parnell proved he can do anything. He was an excellent impressionist, which he showed off with his Tom Brokaw and a variety of other political/news personalities. He was an unflappable straight man, with a reputation for never breaking. Yet he could also be the center of attention, which he used to great effect during his rapping segments on “Weekend Update.”
One might argue that Parnell was underappreciated, which might explain why he has the unique distinction of being fired from the show twice—after his third season (he was rehired midway through Season 27), and again after his eighth season.
Since SNL, Parnell has filled many funny roles including Dr. Spaceman on 30 Rock and Jerry on Rick and Morty (which will soon return for Season 9). Here, he takes LateNighter’s SNL Cast Member Questionnaire—though he did decline to rap his answers for us.
Earliest memory of when you first became aware of SNL?
I remember watching it with my dad at my grandmother’s house up in Milan, Tennessee. I grew up in Memphis and we would go up to my grandmother’s sometimes on the weekends. When we did that, it usually meant we didn’t have to go to church on Sunday morning, so I could stay up later on Saturday night and watch SNL with my dad on her little black-and-white TV. I was watching it at least from Season 2, if not Season 1.
All-time favorite SNL cast member
You know, there are so many, it’s hard to say one. In the early years, I loved Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray. Then later on, Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks. And then Chris Farley. I think if I had to say one, it would be Chris Farley.
All-time favorite sketch
It might be the Dan Aykroyd/Irwin Mainway Halloween costumes. He played this recurring character, Irwin Mainway with Mainway Toys. The first time he did it was with Candace Bergen, which was very funny—one of the toys was just a bag of glass. This one was for Halloween costumes and he had things like “Invisible Pedestrian,” which is just an all-black outfit for kids, and “Johnny Human Torch,” which was a bunch of oily rags with a lighter.
All-time favorite musical performance
It would have to be when U2 came on, in 2000. They did “Beautiful Day,” which was amazing. Then they did “Elevation,” and during that performance Bono walked off the stage and just strolled around the studio, singing live. That was unrehearsed, unplanned for—the camera operators and the lighting people and everybody were just trying to keep up. It was a really exciting, rock-n-roll kind of moment.
What was it like auditioning for the show?
Somebody from SNL had seen me at the Groundlings, and my agent at the time had sent in some tape. That was as far as it went. I think that was around the time that Ana Gasteyer got hired, so I just kind of thought that was my SNL shot. And then, unbeknownst to me, a while later they had sent talent folks around again. I only found out about it when my agent called and said, “Hey, they want to fly you to New York to audition.”
Mike McDonald and I auditioned the same day, and we stayed next to each other in the same hotel. We would do our pieces for each other and deliberately not laugh because we had heard not to expect any laughter. It helped. I think it made a real difference.
But yeah, you just get up there on home base with one camera and some people sitting around in the dark, and you do your however many minutes it is. I think I got a laugh or two. Fred Wolf came up to me afterwards; he had been the head writer the season prior. He told me what a great audition it was, and that made me feel good. Then they had me stick around and meet with some of the producers and other writers.
How did you find out you were hired?
It wasn’t until I got back to L.A., maybe a couple of weeks later. I got a page from my agent when I was near California Pizza Kitchen in Studio City. There was a payphone out there on Ventura and I called her up and she told me I got it. I went in and celebrated with a pizza.
What do you remember about your first sketch appearance?
My first sketch appearance was in my first show, and it was a Cold Open. This was in 1998 and it was around the time of the Monica Lewinsky hearings. Somebody had written a sketch called “Oprah 2002.” Tim Meadows played Oprah, John Goodman was Linda Tripp, Molly Shannon was Monica Lewinsky, Darrell Hammond was Clinton, and I was Kenneth Starr. [The premise was] it’s two years later, everybody’s buddies, everybody gets along, so I come on and do a little ribbing with Darrell as Clinton.
That was my first sketch, being thrust out there right at the beginning. It was fine.
Most triumphant SNL moment
In some ways I want to say “Lazy Sunday” and the success of that. But in terms of a live show, I think it was after I got rehired. Tina Fey wrote a sketch called “George W. Bush Auditions” or something like that, where basically every guy in the cast got to do a Bush bit. Will Ferrell had left and Darrell couldn’t do a good Bush, which was really bizarre because obviously he can do pretty much anything. Somehow, after that, they thought that my Bush was the one to go with.
Though my Bush impressions didn’t go that well after that. I only played him a few times before being called that summer by Mike Shoemaker and told they were gonna have somebody else play Bush. I was a little bummed because I felt like I was getting a handle on it.
Most humbling SNL moment
I mean, it would have to be when I was fired [the first time]. This thing happened every summer, at least during my time on the show, where Lorne [Michaels]’s office would always ask for an extension, in terms of letting you know if you were going to [return] the following season. They’re supposed to let you know by July 1st and that never happened, so you would hear through your agent that they need more time. I was in communication with Rachel Dratch at the time and we were all in the same boat, and we kind of thought, “Okay, we’re all going to come back.” Then it turned out that I didn’t.
I got a call from my manager. I might have been heading to Century City to see a movie, and I pulled off on one of the side streets off of Beverly and just sat there in the car and tried to come to terms with it. I don’t think I cried, but I was in shock. It was such a blow and so unexpected.
Some time later, at the wedding for writers Jerry Collins and Lori Nasso, I think it was Tim Meadows who said that he had heard that the door wasn’t completely shut in terms of me being gone. Then I proceeded to hear from my manager after he spoke with Lorne, “It sounds like there’s still a possibility.”
I lived in this limbo with this hope that I would be called back, but at a certain point I was just tired of it. I had my stuff in storage in New York and I’d just moved it all back to L.A. Then, a month or two later, I found out they were hiring me back, much to my delight, obviously. I went and lived in a hotel for the rest of that season. It was quite a roller coaster.
Cut sketch you wish made it to air
It was one of the pieces that I’d done for my audition, where I play a student at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, and it’s like a show-within-a-show where I am playing the monkey Zephir from the Babar children’s storybook series. [Host] Ian McKellen was Babar, and it was this very Shakespearean conflict. It went great at the audition but, ultimately, It did not get picked. I remember Ian McKellen having an elephant head atop his head. I don’t know if that was what killed it.
The SNL staffer you couldn’t live without
Dean Obeidallah. He was in the research department at the time. He would be the one to find tape on a political figure that I was given to do an impression of.
Name something people don’t know about Lorne Michaels
Well, there’s a documentary coming out about him in April that I narrated. He’s very private in terms of his family. Also, he’s got a very dry sense of humor and he’s really funny. He can be really, really funny.
Your favorite host (while you were a cast member) and why?
I think it was my first season when Julianna Margulies came on. I really just knew her from ER, but she was so game and committed to it and was such a lovely person—physically, and as a human being. I was really taken with her. I also thought she made really good, funny choices in the sketches. Like, who knew she was really funny?
Your least favorite host (while you were a cast member) and why?
Tom Green, for sure, because he really turned that episode into The Tom Green Show. Lorne was fully on board for it — one of the sketches was Lorne in a bathtub with him. Lorne’s a genius, for sure, but I think he thought Tom Green was, like, the next Andy Kaufman or something. The humor didn’t work for me at all in that show.
What’s the latest you’ve stayed up on a live show night?
I have a memory of walking home at 7 a.m., I think.
What’s the latest you’ve slept after a live show night?
I’m going to guess it was 12 or 1.
Favorite celebrity you shared an elevator with at 30 Rock
Certainly not a favorite celebrity, but Rudy Giuliani. I was in an elevator with him and a couple of women, and he came across like a sleazeball.
If you could go back and leave a note for yourself on your very first day at SNL, what would it say?
It would say something to the effect of, “Believe in yourself. Have confidence in your abilities and your sense of comedy. You got hired here, so trust those people. Lorne and the people that hired you have some sense of what they’re doing. Just be brave. Don’t be scared. Be bold. Have more self confidence.” That’s what I could have really used.
Anything to plug?
There’s this movie,The Dink, coming out on Apple TV [July 24]. It’s about pickleball. My part’s small, but it’s pretty funny. Then there’s this Will Ferrell series that I think they’re calling The Hawk, which is for Netflix [and premieres this summer]; I had a fun part in that. And Micro Budget, a movie that I did a few years ago, is having some screenings.
Also read LateNighter’s SNL Questionnaires with Laraine Newman and Kevin Nealon.
Love the Parns