Impersonating celebrities on TV can sometimes cause actors’ brains to go in some unexpected directions when it comes to the real-life Hollywood stars they’re playing. Case in point: past and present Saturday Night Live headliners Leslie Jones and Kenan Thompson are both so well-versed in portraying spoofed-up versions of The View moderator Whoopi Goldberg that they attempted to go completely meta with a sketch at one point in which the real EGOT winner would appear, only to be (fictionally) shot during “Weekend Update” segment. Why didn’t it happen? It turns out creator Lorne Michaels has a low-key “no killing Whoopi Goldberg” rule.
In her new book Leslie F*cking Jones: A Memoir, the stand-up comedian delves into all manner of stories from her life before and during her Hollywood successes, with SNL obviously playing a huge role in helping her become a household name. The book features an entire chapter titled “Killing Whoopi Goldberg,” amusingly enough, and lays out quite an amusing tale that shines a light on one of the seemingly few lines that Lorne Michaels wasn’t willing to cross for the sake of comedy. Pointing out that she got a bit stoned ahead of the sketch conception, Jones said she and Thompson were jazzed about the idea of bringing the Ghost star into “Weekend Update” to fictitiously fool Colin Jost. Here’s how she wrote it (via EW):
In the sketch, Colin would say, ‘Leslie, I know it’s you,’ and Whoopi would say, ‘No, no, I know Leslie plays me, but it’s really me, I’m really Whoopi.’ Colin then says, ‘Yeah, yeah. So what would happen if I do this?’ and pulls out a gun. Whoopi looks terrified. ‘Yo, no, seriously, I’m Whoopi Goldberg. I’m not Leslie, I’m really Whoopi.’ Colin looks at her, doesn’t believe her, says, “Oh yeah…’ And then shoots her.
Sounds like pure farce to me. Jones further explained that the sketch then would have featured the growing horror experienced by Colin Jost and Michael Che as they came to grips with the injured bleeding woman being the actual Whoopi Goldberg, with that footage then sporadically cutting to pre-taped video footage of Lorne Michaels being out and about in his daily life, from playing golf to taking a shower to riding a horse.
But despite the jubilation shared by Leslie Jones and Kenan Thompson that was inspired by their comedic genius, they quickly found that their fellow SNL colleagues weren’t quite as confident about the sketch’s chances of success. Head writer Bryan Tucker apparently called the idea “crazy” without much amusement, and there was a similar vibe when they went on to pitch it to the “Weekend Update” squad themselves. Though the two actors may have been in hysterics, others once again were not so quick to join them.
So they put their heads together anew to write up a more finalized and detailed version of the scene to pitch at that week’s table read. Which apparently was going well enough, to the point where Lorne Michaels was even reading his “We’ll be right back, baby,” line from the sketch at the table. But that was apparently where the idea completely died on the vine, with the creator pulling the plug then and there. As Jones put it:
‘We’re not going to kill Whoopi Goldberg on national TV for a personal joke,’ he said, completely missing the point but it was hilarious when he said it. It wasn’t an inside joke at all—it was just funny. But we never got to do it.
She also pointed out that neither Colin Jost nor anyone else in the sketch technically killed Whoopi Goldberg. They just shot her. Who knows what would have happened within the reality of the scene after it ended on the show itself?
For those curious, Leslie Jones did get to pitch the idea to Goldberg herself, who was apparently down to have made it happen, even though it wasn’t meant to be.
She thought it was hysterical, and she said for sure she would have done the sketch if we’d asked her to.
Like the majority of scripted projects at the moment, Saturday Night Live’s forward progress with its new season has been stalled due to the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike, though The View is still going strong with its new season every weekday morning. For those aiming to see 50 years of sketch comedy at the touch of a button, a Peacock subscription is just the ticket.