NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Rob Schneider voiced his opinion the moment he knew Saturday Night Live was “over.”
The 58-year-old “SNL” graduate told podcast host Glenn Beck that he believes the famous post-2016 US presidential election, in which Kate McKinnon performed Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” as Hillary Clinton, was the NBC comedy hit Sketch series was fatal.
“I hate shitting on my own show,” the Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo star said during a Saturday appearance on The Glenn Beck Podcast.
“I hate shitting on my own show,” Rob Schneider said during an appearance on The Glenn Beck Podcast. (Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic)
He continued: “When Hillary Clinton lost – which is understandable. She’s not exactly the most likeable person in the room. And then when Kate McKinnon went out on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in the cold opening and all that and she started dressing as Hillary Clinton and she started playing ‘Hallelujah’. I literally prayed, ‘Please make a joke at the end.’
“SNL” FINALE: PETE DAVIDSON SAYS GOODBYE TO HIS “HOME”; KATE MCKINNON ABDUCTED BY ALIENS ‘EARTH I LOVE YOU’
“Don’t do that. Please don’t go down there.” And at the end there was no joke, and I said, ‘It’s over. It’s over. It’s not coming back.’”
McKinnon, 38, played a parody version of Clinton on the series throughout the 2016 election cycle, reprising the role several times before leaving the show in May.
In the first episode of “SNL” after Clinton’s election defeat by Donald Trump, the show began with McKinnon in his role as a former presidential candidate. The visibly emotional comedian performed a somber version of “Hallelujah” on the piano before turning to face the camera and saying, “I’m not giving up, and neither should you.”
“SNL” graduate Rob Schneider told podcast host Glenn Beck that he believes the famous post-2016 US presidential election, in which Kate McKinnon performed Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” as Hillary Clinton, was the NBC comedy sketch series became fatal. (Will Heath/NBC)
McKinnon then continued with the show’s traditional introductory line: “And live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”
The celebratory portion, which also served as a tribute to Cohen, who had died days earlier, marked a marked departure from “SNL’s” typically humorous cold open. The scene received mixed reactions from critics, some of whom felt it was too partisan and didn’t set the right tone for a comedy show.
In a 2018 interview with Spin magazine, “SNL” writer Amy Wallace told the outlet that another sketch was planned for the Cold Open, but the idea was ultimately scrapped by showrunner Lorne Michaels.
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
“The original plan that night was for each of the female cast members to take turns talking on camera about how they felt after Donald Trump’s victory, culminating in McKinnon singing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine,'” Wallace said.
Later in his interview with Beck, Schneider criticized the comedy routines of other late-night hosts as being too partisan. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
“The props guys went as far as getting her a white piano to play on. But by the end of the week, producer Lorne Michaels told me he had decided that this approach was too partisan. ‘At the end of the day, we’re a comedy show,’ he said. ‘You can’t forget that.'”
Schneider began writing on SNL in 1988 before appearing as a lead actor from 1990 to 1994.
Later in his interview with Beck, Schneider criticized the comedy routines of other late-night hosts as overtly partisan.
He said, “You can take on the comedic indoctrination process with any of the late night hosts and swap them out with each other.”
Schneider added, “That’s how you know they’re not interesting anymore.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @ashleyhume