Damon Wayans Reflects on Controversial SNL Firing in Peacock’s Docuseries

Damon Wayans
Damon Wayans/YouTube screenshot

*In Peacock’s docuseries “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night,” Damon Wayans reflects on his brief time at Saturday Night Live and the controversial sketch that led to his firing.

“Yeah, I got fired. We gonna talk about it,” Wayans says in the fourth episode of the series titled “Season 11: The Weird Year.”

Wayans, who believed he was “born” for the show, said he struggled with the rejection of his character ideas, many of which later appeared on “In Living Color.”

“Eddie’s (Murphy) advice to me was, ‘Write your own sketches. Otherwise, they’re gonna give you some Black people s*** to do, and you ain’t gonna like it,” the comedian recalled.

Wayans said his creative input was often rejected, and he was frequently cast in stereotypical roles, which he resisted.

Damon Wayans
Damon Wayans, and Clayne Crawford at the FOX Fall Premiere Party 2017 at the Catch on September 25, 2017, in West Hollywood, CA/Depositphotos

“Everything Eddie said came true,” Wayans says in the Peacock doc. “They started writing me in their sketches.”

In one pivotal moment, Wayans improvised during a live sketch, portraying a cop as an exaggerated gay stereotype instead of following the script. This decision, made during the “Mr. Monopoly” sketch with Randy Quaid, ultimately led to his dismissal from the show.

“I thought it was weird, but people still laughed,” said SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” guest host Griffin Dunne. “And then Lorne fired him pretty much as he walked off the stage.”

Wayans added, “I snapped. I just did not care. I purposefully did that because I wanted [Michaels] to fire me.”

SNL creator/producer Lorne Michaels said firing Wayans was “really hard, but it had to be done.”

Wayans was booted from Season 11 and invited back to perform stand-up for the season finale. 

Watch his SNL sketch in the video below.

YouTube video

READ MORE FROM EURWEB.COM: Damon Wayans Shares His Struggle with Ongoing Pain of Living with Clubfoot | Video

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