Amy Poehler reflected on the culture of comedy at Saturday Night Live during her time at the late-night show, saying that some sketches have aged poorly.
During a recent episode on her Good Hang with Amy Poehler podcast alongside guest and friend Will Forte, whose time on SNL intersected with Poehler’s, the two discussed how much comedy has evolved since their time on the Lorne Michaels-helmed series.
The topic came up when the two comics recalled an instance at a table read during a sexual harassment seminar, where they were “drawing pictures of dicks or something,” Forte remembered.
“We were consensually and appropriately, just with each other, I believe, drawing pictures of penises and giving them back and forth to each other,” Poehler said, adding that she then accidentally handed that paper to the seminar leader.
Forte then commented that as a young comedian, “it’s all about getting the laughs,” implying that considerations of taste and appropriateness come later.
“Agree, and that’s the part about getting older and being in comedy is you have to, like, figure out, ‘Oh, it’s like everything has an expiration date,’” Poehler said.
The Parks and Recreation star then referenced SNL50: The Anniversary Special, in which the long-running series wanted to have its nostalgic cake and eat it, too, owning up to the stereotypes it perpetuated in the past. In a send-up of awards-show “in memoriam” segments, a tuxedoed Tom Hanks soberly took the darkly lit stage to “take a moment to remember those who we’ve lost. Countless members of the SNL family taken from us way too soon. I’m speaking, of course, about SNL characters and sketches that have aged horribly.”
“Even on the 50th, when they had that segment which was like, ‘Here’s all the ways we got things wrong,’ and they showed way inappropriate casting for people,” Poehler stated. “We all played people that we should not have played. I misappropriated, I appropriated, I didn’t know, I don’t know. It’s very real, and the best thing you can do is make repair, learn from your mistakes, do better — it’s all you can do.”
Watch the full podcast episode below:
