Saturday Night Live fans who grew up on Nickelodeon likely remember Taran Killam’s run on The Amanda Show, but he wasn’t the first future SNLer to appear on the program.
That honor goes to Mikey Day, who appeared in the first season of Amanda Bynes’ sketch show. The November 1999 episode was only the fifth-ever episode of The Amanda Show, which ran from 1999-2002 following Bynes’ breakout run on sketch show All That.
To close out the episode, Bynes announces she will present awards—gold statues of the letter A—to her audience members. The awards include categories for best laugher and the person who has traveled the farthest to get to the show, but Day’s award is a less desirable one.
“The next award is for the least intelligent person in the audience,” announces Bynes. “The stupid person here is Ronnie Imbecile!”
Cut to Mikey Day as the aforementioned Ronnie, looking around in disbelief that he has won what he perceives to be a great honor. He celebrates excitedly, taking a pratfall down the steps as he makes his way to the stage.
“Can I eat this?” he asks Bynes as he accepts his statue.
“I love you, Oprah,” he adds.
Bynes corrects him: “It’s Amanda.”
“No,” answers Day, “I’m Ronnie.”
A stagehand ushers Day off set as Bynes carries on with the ceremony, capping off Day’s first big appearance on a TV sketch show.
Watch Day’s’s Amanda Show appearance below:
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Day isn’t the only future SNL cast member who appeared on The Amanda Show. Beginning in July 2000, Taran Killam played Spaulding, a key role in the recurring Dawson’s Creek parody sketch “Moody’s Point,” which he’d reprise throughout the rest of The Amanda Show’s run.
Day’s next TV role would bring him back to Nickelodeon and re-team him with The Amanda Show’s producers. A little over a year after his turn as Ronnie Imbecile, he appeared in an episode of the cable network’s Bill Bellamy puppet sitcom Cousin Skeeter.
Four years later, Day would land his breakout gig on MTV’s Wild ’n Out. He’d remain a part of that show’s cast until he was hired as a writer on Saturday Night Live in 2013. After three years in the writer’s room at SNL, Day was promoted to featured player, kicking off a run that continues today as he enjoys his tenth year as a cast member.
