upworthy

saturday night live

Humor

Bill Hader reveals how he shamelessly spoiled the 'Titanic' movie for rude sorority girls

Before Hader was famous, he worked at a movie theater.

www.flickr.com
Bill Hader | Bill Hader speaking at the 2013 San Diego Comic… | Flickr

Spoiler alert: Before reading this article, you should probably know a few things—not just about the historical tragedy of the Titanic ship in 1912, but also the subsequent James Cameron-directed blockbuster Titanic. You’ve been warned. Here we go: the ship sinks, and things don’t go especially well for most involved. (Though some might argue the iceberg had no issues.)

titanic leonardo dicaprio GIFGiphy

Now that that's out of the way, let’s discuss comedian/actor Bill Hader’s hilarious-in-hindsight interaction with a few bullies at a movie theater back in the day. Hader recently appeared on his friend and fellow SNL alum John Mulaney’s Netflix show, Everybody’s in LA with John Mulaney, and shared the story of how being a jerk just might get a movie ruined for you.

The two pals have quite the history as writers and friends. In fact, one of Hader’s most popular Saturday Night Live characters, Stefon, was co-written by Mulaney, who would often switch the lines on the cue cards at the last minute, causing Bill to explode in laughter. Hader reveals some of the behind-the-scenes hilarity in an interview with Howard Stern, including the fact that “John and all the other writers are dying laughing because they’re just waiting for it.” Hader also talks about other co-stars (hint: Fred Armisen) who tried to get him to "break" due to his high anxiety.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

So, Bill sits down with John and laughingly says: “I got fired from a movie theater for ruining the end of Titanic. I was working in a movie theater, and Titanic hadn’t come out yet, and a sorority had bought out the movie theater. They were in the doorway, and I was going, ‘Hey guys, can you move?’”

Apparently, they did not move—and instead chose to insult his looks.

“They were making fun of me. They said I looked like Charles Manson. Which... I kinda did. I had a little bowtie on and cummerbund, and I was like, ‘Hey guys, please move.’ And they were like, ‘No.’”

alpha phi news GIFGiphy

Bad idea. Karma struck quickly.

“So when they went in, as I tore the tickets, I was like, ‘Enjoy the movie. The boat sinks at the end. Leo dies.’ And they were like, ‘No, he doesn’t.’ I go, ‘Yeah, you think he’s asleep. But he’s frozen.’ And that showed them.”

Sadly, Hader had to be let go for that move, but his boss "came down smiling." He adds, "He was like, ‘Hey, Bill. I have to fire you.’ He loved it. Couldn’t look me in the eye, though.”

Of course, there’s already a Reddit thread about it. On the subreddit r/entertainment, user cmaia1503 posted the Varietyheadline: "Bill Hader Got Fired From His Movie Theater Job for Spoiling ‘Titanic’ to the Sorority Girls Who Made Fun of Him and Called Him Charles Manson: ‘Leo Dies!’""

Within a day, the post had 13,000 upvotes and climbing. One Redditor writes, “Bro got that kind of energy on and off the screen. Amazing, no notes.” Another adds, “I love that it’s not just a spoiler, but the mechanics. The film is going to play with your heart first. No Romeos for you, Theta Bi.”

And then this person says what a lot of us must be thinking (especially those of us who had this job in high school):

“Should have been promoted.”

From Your Site Articles
bill hader
Music

Questlove's 'SNL' documentary opens with a mind-blowing musical mashup

Run-DMC, meet Hall & Oates

Screenshot from 'The Tonight Show' interview on YouTube

Questlove opens his 'SNL' documentary with an all-time great musical mashup.

Questlove—drummer/producer of hip-hop legends The Roots, longtime Tonight Show bandleader, Oscar-winning filmmaker, and an all-time elite music nerd—recently helped create a musical mashup destined for the pop culture time capsule. The seven-minute piece serves as the cold open to Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music, his new NBC documentary co-directed with Oz Rodriguez—but it’s truly a standalone work of art, cleverly blending sounds you’d never expect: Nelly and Franz Ferdinand, Cher and Hanson, Run-DMC and Hall & Oates.

The piece is bookended by snippets of R&B-rock songwriter Billy Preston, the first-ever SNL musical guest, from his performance on October 11, 1975. Everything else is brilliant madness, with songs from the past five decades forming a surreal collage. Usher’s Crunk&B hit "Yeah!" is matched with Gwen Stefani’s pop-rap chant-along "Hollaback Girl"; Nelly’s swaggering hip-hop smash "Hot in Herre" merges with Franz Ferdinand’s stomping indie-rock smash "Take Me Out."

The pairings get progressively more outrageous and wonderful—including Run-DMC’s "Walk This Way" with Hall & Oates’ "I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)," Cher’s "I Found Someone" with Hanson’s "MMMBop," Queen’s "Under Pressure" with Dave Matthews Band’s "Ants Marching," John Mellencamp’s "Hurt So Good" with Roy Orbison’s "Pretty Woman," Bobby McFerrin’s "Drive" with Busta Rhymes’ "Tear da Roof Off" and TLC’s "Creep," and NSYNC’s "Bye Bye Bye" with Dido’s "Thank You" and Destiny’s Child’s "Survivor."

In a recent Tonight Show interview with Jimmy Fallon, Questlove wrote that he watched every single SNL episode—including over 900 musical performances—while making the documentary. And the process of piecing together the opening section, he says, took 11 months. Fallon called the cold open "the greatest opening of any documentary," saying it gave him goosebumps. "You showed me the first six minutes of the doc in my office, and I think I cried," he said. "I think when you left, I teared up—I was so emotional."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Ladies & Gentlemen … 50 Years of SNL Music, which is available to stream via Peacock, is much more than its mind-blowing intro. The film chronicles some of the most innovative, controversial, and bizarre musical performances on the show, along with famous sketches ("James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub Party") and digital shorts ("Lazy Sunday") that are built around music.

On Instagram, Questlove enthused about his lifelong SNL "obsession."

"Thank god my family was hip enough to let their 5 year old kid wake up 12:30am to watch his fav show," he wrote. "It was a half hour early because most of my fav musicians were on SNL (Bill Withers/Gil Scott-Heron/Phoebe Snow/Al Jarreau/The Meters) … So doing this project was a NO BRAINER because I know this show like the back of my hand. So every second of this doc is a love letter of sorts."

Politics Activism GIF by NRDCGiphy

Questlove has been on a roll lately as a director. His other film project of 2025, the Sly and the Family Stone documentary Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), recently premiered at Sundance and will hit Hulu on February 13.

From Your Site Articles
music
Pop Culture

SNL ‘kinda’ banned this 1998 'Schoolhouse Rock' parody warning about corporate media control

Let's watch "Conspiracy Theory Rock."

via MetaphysicalMakaveli/YouTube

Conspiracy Theory Rock, from "Saturday Night Live."

In 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act, which reduced Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations on cross-ownership so that major corporations could buy up smaller media outlets nationwide. This deregulation had far-reaching results, and 20 years later, 90% of the country’s major media companies were owned by just six corporations.

The consolidation of power over the country’s media into the hands of a few corporations rightfully disturbed many Americans who were worried a few powerful interests could shape the national narrative. “Saturday Night Live” writer Robert Smigel, who created the show’s “TV Funhouse” segment, best known for animated sketches featuring the “Ambiguously Gay Duo” and “The New Adventures of Mr. T,” took dead aim at the corporate media in a 1998 episode with a 2-minute “Schoolhouse Rock” parody called “Conspiracy Theory Rock.”



“Conspiracy Theory Rock” was a brave SNL piece because it didn’t hold back when discussing General Electric, NBC’s parent company. The sketch accuses GE of media manipulation, corporate welfare, influencing the FCC, manufacturing nuclear weapons, and producing cancer-causing pollution.

The controversial cartoon was reviewed by NBC corporate before hitting the air. “It did go through an extensive note process, beyond the Standards dept, and up the executive ladder,” Smigel recalled in an Instagram post. “I remember adding the ‘voices in my head’ line per their request to make the narrator seem crazier, not that it made a big difference.” But after a few minor notes, the network aired the sketch on the March 14 episode featuring host Julianne Moore and Backstreet Boys.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Did ‘Saturday Night Live’ ban ‘Conspiracy Theory Rock’?

Over the past 26 years, “Conspiracy Theory Rock” has earned the reputation of being a “banned” sketch, but that may be a bit of a conspiracy in and of itself. Was it cut from subsequent airings because it was controversial or because it simply wasn’t funny? SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels claims the cartoon was cut from reruns because it merely “wasn’t funny,” so they ran the second Backstreet Boys performance instead. It’s worth noting that when SNL episodes are rerun, they are often only an hour long (including commercials) instead of the usual 90-minute runtime.

However, Smigel's recollection breathes a bit of life into the controversy.

“Months passed, and all was calm until Adam McKay approached me,” Smigel recalled. “A pissed-off crew member had let Adam know the sketch was being cut from the rerun, replaced by a second Backstreet Boys song, which had no mentions of GE polluting the environment. I wasn't especially surprised, but Adam was fired up. He leaked the story to a few TV journalists who'd written about the cartoons. NBC claimed it wasn’t funny (not that it was), and that's why people know and still talk about it today.”

The sketch would be included in the 2006 “Best of TV Funhouse” DVD, so Smigel believes it has only been “kinda banned.” However, the cartoon does not appear in the rerun of the March 14, 1998 episode currently streaming on Peacock. The Backstreet Boys performance is also not included due to music rights issues.

Ultimately, it’s hard to know whether the cartoon was banned or dropped from broadcasts due to its lack of humor. But we know that Smigel was brave in pointing out the problems posed by corporate media control. His willingness to criticize those in power reminds us how rare it is to see satire that questions the very system airing it. Twenty-six years later, it still makes the rounds online because the problems he pointed out are still with us today.

From Your Site Articles
saturday night live
Joy

'SNL' cast can't keep it together during a sketch where Ego Nwodim battles her steak dinner

Bowen Yang had to cover his face.

via Saturday Night Live/YouTube

Pedro Pascal and Bowen Yang can't keep a straight face as Ego Nwodim tries to cut her steak.

Most episodes of Saturday Night Live are scheduled so the funnier bits go first and the riskier, oddball sketches appear towards the end in case they have to be cut for time. But on the February 4, 2023 episode featuring host Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian, The Last of Us), the final sketch, “Lisa from Temecula,” was probably the most memorable of the night.

That’s high praise because it was a strong episode with a funny “Last of Us” parody featuring the Super Mario Brothers and a sketch where Pascal played a protective mother.

In “Lisa from Temecula,” Paul, played by Pascal, takes a few friends out for dinner played by Punkie Johnson, newcomer Molly Kearney, and breakout star Bowen Yang. The trouble comes when Johnson’s sister Lisa, played by Ego Nwodim, orders her steak “extra, extra well done.”

The sketch is a play on the notion that it’s a faux pas to order well-done steak, especially in a fancy restaurant. However, Lisa doesn’t care and won’t tolerate “one speck of red” on her steak.

The sketch is one of the rare moments on SNL where things are so funny that the cast breaks character. Pascal has difficulty getting through his lines and Yang has to cover his face because he can’t stop laughing. But Nwodim only has one small break in the scene and keeps it together as the sketch’s comedy core.

“Lisa from Temecula” got a lot of attention online, sparking articles, posts, and lots of praise. Shout out the sketch's writers Alex English, Gary Richardson, and Michael Che.


This article originally appeared last year.

From Your Site Articles
saturday night live
Trending Stories