Former SNL star Tina Fey has come forward to admit that certain jokes she performed on the late-night live sketch comedy variety show crossed the line. In a recent interview, the 55-year-old comedian recalled her time with the fan-favorite NBC series, stating that she was “on the wrong side” with several of her quips.
Tina Fey talks about her SNL jokes
During her April 18 appearance at the History Talks event, Fey opened up about the controversial nature of her gags on Saturday Night Live, explaining that despite its current events theme, the show does not “try to control the narrative and politics.”
“I started there in 1997, and I was there when we had to come back for the first show after September 11 and try to figure out what that show could be,” Fey noted, as per Deadline. She also added, “The longer I was there, I realized that the show’s relationship to current events, it became a thinner and thinner veil.”
Talking about her SNL jokes, Tina Fey continued, “They say something, we say something back, they come over, they go, ‘Oh, we want to be on it too.’ It’s a thrilling and almost scary thing to have this idea that something you say will be heard by person in charge. I mean, I’ve made jokes, but also, I was pretty dumb and not much better now, but there’s jokes that I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I was on the wrong side of that.'”
Fey also defended the 2008 sketches wherein she had impersonated Sarah Palin, the vice-presidential candidate on the Republican ticket with John McCain.
“We knew we would get in trouble if it was wrong or random, but also because it sort of only felt like it would work if it was kind of based in something that was true. Sometimes, people will ask me or ask others, ‘Does SNL try to control the narrative and politics?’ And they really do not. And also, you really can’t. If it’s not true, it will not be funny,” the 30 Rock alum remarked.
Originally reported by Apoorv Rastogi on Mandatory
