First on LateNighter:
Live TV, folks. Athough it wasn’t among SNL’s most historically egregious examples of the F-word going out live on the air, its apparent source would seem to be a first.
As one eagle-eyed (eagle-eared?) viewer tipped us off this afternoon, it appears someone can be heard saying “what the f*ck” in the middle of last night’s post-monologue sketch “The Engagement.”
The moment comes right after Andrew Dismukes’ character in the sketch reveals that Gosling’s character wants out of his engagement. Feigning surprise, Gosling’s character throws his glass of champagne against the wall to which someone off camera—presumably an audience member—appears to exclaim “what the f*ck?”
Gosling briefly breaks character (no strange occurrence last night) as he lets out out a snort that, in retrospect, would seem to be a direct response to the off-camera profanity.
As students of Saturday Night Live history know well, this wouldn’t be the first time the F-word has made its way to the air on SNL. There at least fourteen other times the word has slipped through, including three instances in the last ten years, when Samuel L. Jackson, Kristen Stewart and Sam Rockwell each unintentionally uttered the word.
Notably, this would be the first time the F-word has slipped through on since the show began airing live coast-to-coast in 2017.
Although the show airs during the safe harbor period in the Eastern and Central time zones, a wayward F-bomb could, in theory, subject stations in the Mountain and Pacific time zones to FCC indecency fines since it aired there in prime time.
The show is fed to NBC affiliates in those time zones on a slight delay to give censors a chance to catch moments like these, as they did in 2017 when Rockwell’s F-bomb was censored for that feed.
As of this writing, it can still be heard in the online version of the sketch that was uploaded to YouTube shortly after it first aired last night.
Well apparently you missed Kate McKinnon’s bomb. No worries, i clipped hers and Ryan’s as trophies for my TikTok 🤪 https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLf7MNFX/