Please Don’t Destroy Return to Roots With Non-SNL Web Short

Please Don’t Destroy are up to their old tricks, releasing a rare new non-SNL video on social media earlier today.

The new short, produced in the group’s signature rapid-cut handheld style, finds the trio playing New York Times writers “coming up with emails to send you.” Trying to ideate push notification-worthy news stories, writer Donahue’s (Martin Herlihy) socially relevant pitches on the LA wildfires and the TikTok ban are overshadowed by new guy Callahan (Ben Marshall), who spitballs hollow clickbait pieces.

Comprised of Herlihy, Marshall, and John Higgins, Please Don’t Destroy made a name for themselves making lo-fi comedy videos before joining SNL as writers in 2021. Though they’ve regularly contributed PDD-branded videos to the show over the last four years, those videos have appeared on the program less frequently this year.

Between the surprise two-off return of SNL Digital Shorts, the introduction of Dan Bulla’s Midnight Matinee franchise, and this weekend’s SNL Animated Short, real estate on the live show’s rundown would appear to have been severely limited. By this time last season, the sketch group had already produced eight shorts—seven of which made it to air on the live show. This year, thiroutput is down to just two shorts that aired live and one cut-for-time piece that was released online.

The group’s first new non-SNL-related video in recent memory (other than a pair of sponsored videos for Dunkin’ this past summer) comes on the heels of a surge of interest in their 2023 feature film Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain. The film was among Peacock’s ten most-watched movies last week after it returned to the NBC Universal-owned streaming platform following a nine-month break.

Watch the new video below:

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