Live TV giveth, live TV taketh away. Leslie Jones has plenty of killer Saturday Night Live moments on her résumé, but she recently revisited one that went spectacularly sideways, a 2014 sketch with guest host Chris Rock that she now calls a full-on misfire. In a new interview, the Ghostbusters star reveals the honest 5-word response Lorne Michaels and Co had for her after the bomb.
On Vulture’s Good One podcast, host Jesse David Fox even framed the infamous sketch as “one of the biggest bombs in modern SNL history.” The Tennessee-born funny woman didn’t argue, but instead, she unpacked the story, adding a bit of context most fans never see. Jones recounted:
That was my first sketch, major sketch, and I didn’t understand the color of the pins. So I didn’t know that the host is always – I think the host is always black or blue…. They didn’t tell me what my color was, so I didn’t know what my lines were. So I’m sitting there trying to put the earring on, and Chris, the stage manager is like, [mimics directions] ‘Leslie! Leslie! Leslie!’ I’m surprised they didn’t hear him on camera. [Laughs]
The premise itself wasn’t the problem. The sketch in question casts her and Rock as a couple who’ve been together so long their constant bickering has become its own love language, to the horror of their kid. On paper, it’s a classic relationship farce. But for whatever reason, the alchemy of a great sketch did not materialize in Studio 8H this particular Saturday night, and the sketch curdled like spilt milk on a summer day.
After the show, the Coming 2 America star was crushed, but the room didn’t let her sink. Castmates rallied; Vanessa Bayer sat with her and delivered an “it happens to everyone” reality check. Then Lorne stopped by with the most succinct note in show business:
I remember Lorne coming over, going ‘It’s live, baby. It happens.’
Five words and zero judgment. And who would know better than Lorne Michaels, as the man has been at the helm of the popular sketch show for more than fifty years. The creator has seen it all, and if anyone can soothe the nerves after a bombing, it’s the man who began it all.
Jones’ candid retelling lands because it shows how much invisible machinery performers juggle at 11:30 p.m.: color codes, prop hand-offs, quick changes, marks, sightlines, a live audience, and a clock that will not stop. It’s a miracle we don’t see more wipeouts. And yet that risk of collapse is exactly why SNL still crackles more than five decades in.
Leslie Jones left the show in 2019, but moments like this explain why she became a fan favorite—fearless on camera, honest about the hits and the bruises. Some sketches soar; others thud. But if we’ve learned anything, it’s this: it’s live. It happens. You can watch the sketch below—fair warning, it’s a pretty uncomfortable ride.
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Saturday Night Live is currently in its 51st season. Catch it live Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET (10:30 p.m. CT), then stream episodes with a Peacock subscription.