The “Saturday Night Live” panel was a pleasant enough panel, but it’s funny how you can fill a stage with hilarious people and have the laughs be relatively sporadic. Then again, I guess that’s been a problem that’s plagued “SNL” for years, hasn’t it?
* A reporter had been quizzing Andy Samberg, and her second question was, “How do you feel about being in the hot new male demo, with guys like Seth Rogen?” Before Andy could answer, however, Fred Armisen piped up and acted as though he’d been asked the question, saying, “It’s weird, because…I mean, I’m just a person, you know?” It was a beautiful moment of comedic timing.
* Kristen Wiig on the development of the “Couple of Assholes” sketch: “It was a 5 a.m. sketch that we started writing very late at night, and we were both tired. And I know Jason and I have said this before. We just were chewing gum literally to stay awake, and I was in kind of a bad mood because I wanted to go home. So, yeah, but — just the characters just sort of came out of joking around and just wanting to write those kind of people.”
* Christopher Walken as a possible host next season? Lorne Michaels says he’s “very much on the list. He works all the time, but whenever he’s available, we want him.”
* Andy Samberg humorously avoided tackling the issue of whether or not he’s actually dating Natalie Portman, simply offering that “pretty much every host that comes to the show we all sleep with, so it’s written into the contract when you get there…so, by those standards, yes.”
* On the subject of “Dick in a Box,” Michaels declared it to be “huge” – ho, ho – but it sounds like it was a pretty quick job of composition of Andy Samberg; Michaels said that there wasn’t a Digital Short that week, but that he was insistent that they should come up with one. (Samberg’s translation: “You forced us.”) Is a sequel in the works? Samberg first offered the faux-enthusiastic answer, “Hell, yeah,” before changing his tune to, “No, I don’t know.”
* Darrell Hammond is welcome to stay with the show as long as he wants, according to Michaels (“I want him there as long as I can have him”), and Hammond seems in no hurry to rush off, though it sounds like he might well just be flipping a coin sometimes. “I think that, every summer, there’s a process that we go through,” he explained. “I’m friends with everyone here; they’re good people. And it hasn’t been, like, a pressurized situation. So far, the conversations have sort of led us to feel like it would be a good idea to try it again, and I think that that’s the way the conversations are pointing to right now.”
* When Michaels was asked if he would be adding any more “people of color” to the show in the coming year, Kenan Thompson’s ears immediately perked up. “Oh, snap!” he yelled. “I like that! Yeah, Lorne!” Michaels’ straightforward reply: “We’ll hold auditions in August as we normally do, so I think the answer is, if there’s really good people, we’ll add them.”
* Will Maya Rudolph be returning? Um…maybe? Michaels, who had lunch with her immediately before the “SNL” panel, said, “I’m trying to get her to come back, and I hope she does. That will be her decision.” Definitely coming back as well: Amy Poehler and Jason Sudekis, neither of whom could be in attendance because of scheduling conflicts.
* Seth Meyers’ favorite host of the 2006 – 2007 season? Peyton Manning. “(He) was a great sport this year. Oftentimes, athletes are more willing to poke fun at themselves because it’s not going to affect their roles in show business. He sort of showed up and right off the bat wanted to do something where he was mean to kids. That’s free comedy right there, so we were happy to oblige. But he was a delight for me.” (When Michaels confirmed that it was “for all of us,” Meyers explained, “I think he liked me the most; that’s why I said that.”)
