A former SNL intern caught Michael Che’s attention with an Instagram reel exposing the show’s behind-the-scenes “culture of manipulation.”
Megan McDermott spilled the tea, repeating damning accusations against the show that have been made by plenty of others. For example, want to know why Saturday Night Live has so much turnover in the cast and writers’ room every year? She blames — hold on to your hats — Lorne Michaels.
“Lorne Michaels loves power, and he loves creating emotional crises in people, in the lives of people who are younger than him,” she says. “Ooh, it’s creepy when you think about it.”
Don’t Miss
McDermott thinks it’s nuts that accomplished comedians should sit on the floor of his office to pitch ideas, with Lorne deciding which sketches make the cut like “Tyra (bleep)ing Banks on Top Model.”
Some might justify Lorne’s actions as part of SNL’s process. Not McDermott. “Guess what, he built the process in the 70s,” she says. It’s an insane workflow that requires loads of caffeine (at least) to survive. “Your mind and your body are going to break down. People go off the deep end of that place all the time… You don’t sleep for literally years of your life, which is a torture tactic.” It’s the same complaint Bob Odenkirk, among many others, has made over the years.
“You can’t have sustainable friendships outside of that place for years at a time for the duration of your time there,” says McDermott. “It’s kind of like a cult.” Ho hum — it’s the same cult indictment John Oliver made earlier this year.
McDermott, who says she has a degree in comedy writing from NYU’s film school, claims that SNL asked her to interview after her senior year, but she turned the bastards down. “You would know my name by now, but I would be no longer with us,” she says. (Note to McDermott: Nobody knows the names of SNL’s writers.)
None of this is news. Practically every SNL book on the market can tell you Lorne is a passive-aggressive dictator, and that the work schedule is bonkers. But McDermott’s rant still appeared to stick in the craw of professional Instagram troll and Weekend Update anchor Michael Che.
“you learned all that getting coffee..?” Che asks in the comments.
“it’s incredible what people will reveal in front of you when they treat you like you’re invisible,” McDermott replied.
Che wasn’t impressed. “dont sound bitter at all.”
“I’m genuinely not!” she said (although her video begs to differ). She offered a lengthy justification of her Reel, to which Che simply responded, “yap yap yap.” The “nyah nyah nyah” bickering goes on from there, but you get the idea.
Was Che really “triggered,” as McDermott suggests in her replies? Fans on Reddit believe he’s trolling, one of Che’s off-hours hobbies. “He’s doing it for fun,” said one user. “His entire Instagram persona is being an edgelord,” wrote another.
Another Redditor summed it up best. “Honestly, ‘You learned all that by getting coffee?’ is such a great line that I don’t see how Che could resist.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: feeds.feedburner.com
