Will Forte never brought his mom’s sketch ideas to Saturday Night Live. Now he’s giving her a show to make up for it.
Forte is shopping a new sketch program starring his mother, he revealed on The Daily Beast’s podcast The Last Laugh.
“For years, she would pitch me ideas when I was at SNL, and I would always say, ‘Save it for The Patti Forte Sketch Show,’” Forte told host Matt Wilstein. “Then I realized, ‘Oh, I have to make that show.’”
The show, which Forte is producing on his own, will document his mother and her friend, both in their early 80s, as they attempt to give sketch comedy a go.
“It’s her and her 82-year-old friend Carol, following them around trying to make a sketch,” Forte explained. “Then at the end of each episode, we actually shoot the sketch that they’ve been working on, and it’s this beautifully shot version of these crazy sketches that they came up with.”
While Forte has become known for his uniquely absurd comedy, the actor teased that his mother’s sense of humor is “out there in a very different way… I don’t even know how to describe it.”
“They are delightful. You are going to fall in love with them if we’re ever able to sell this thing,” he added. “At the very least, [it has been] a wonderful chunk of time spent with my mom.”
Forte previously teased his idea for the show when it was in its earlier stages during an appearance on Smartless in 2021. At the time, he envisioned that each episode’s closing sketch would feature a “comedy heavyweight” performing alongside Patti Forte and Carol.
While she’s a former schoolteacher, this new show won’t be Patti Forte’s first time onscreen. She previously appeared in two episodes of her son’s Fox comedy series The Last Man on Earth, playing his character’s mother. She also appeared in the 2014 indie dramedy Apartment Troubles, in which Will also co-starred.
Since ending his eight-year run Saturday Night Live in 2010, Will Forte has made occasional returns to sketch comedy. Amid an active acting career, Forte has made appearances on SNL, Late Night with Seth Meyers‘ “Second Chance Theatre,” and Studio C.
