Much has been said about Louis C.K.‘s hilarious and controversial monologue from the season finale of Saturday Night Live. Who knew that jokes about racism and child molesters would stir up so many opinions across the Internet?
Well it turns out that his prior SNL monologue stirred some feathers too…big feathers. Lorne Michaels had a problem with it and C.K. told the story about it in Judd Apatow’s book Sick In The Head, noting that the SNL mastermind decided to butt heads and it made the comedian explode:
“It’s like meeting the president. It’s, like, very important. And [Michaels] says ‘So you did twelve minutes in the monologue. How much do you want to do on-air?’ I said ‘I want to do all twelve.’ and he goes, ‘You’re not doing twelve.’ He goes, ‘It was good but there was a lot of air in it, a lot of stopping and starting. I know there are cuts in there.’ My face turned red. I was angry. I was like, ‘Well, I don’t know. I thought it was pretty good. And f*ck you.’ I was really mad. And then later this woman comes in and says, ‘Uh, we’re one minute under.’ And so I go, ‘Then I’m doing twelve.’ And Lorne turns to me and goes ‘Calm down.’ I was really insulted. He said ‘I’ll give you seven and nobody’s ever done seven.’ And I said, ‘What if it goes long? What if I go over and end up doing ten or more?’ And he goes, ‘Then we’ll know that you’re very undisciplined and unprofessional.’ And everybody laughed.”
Salon adds that he sat down with Michael Che to work on cutting four minutes from the opening bit to fit in with the schedule. Then the pressure started to mount, forcing C.K. to come to a realization:
“I just started chuckling. I was like, This is f*cked up. This is live television. This is f*cked up. And I went out and it just — it was all there for me and I was able to sail. The audience was at the right place. They looked a little critical but I felt like, It’s going to be okay. I’m going to bring this material and you’re going to like it. F*ck, did that feel good.”
And it all worked out in the end, earning Louis C.K. an invite back for the 40th season final and some bits on child molestation. Good work, all involved!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VnAKGFo-rM
