Tina Fey Reveals the Will Ferrell ‘SNL' Sketch That Died a Brutal Death on Stage

Tina Fey says even the best comedians can crash and burn, pointing to a Will FerrellSaturday Night Live sketch they thought was destined for greatness-before it flopped hard.

"One time Will Ferrell had a sketch that we thought was so funny, that was about a guy who looked exactly like Gabe Kaplan, the Welcome Back, Kotter guy," she recently recounted on the New Heights podcast.

"It was like, a guy who looked like Gabe Kaplan and who works at an accounting firm, and then he comes over and they're like, 'Oh, you just missed it. Gabe Kaplan was here.' And he's like, 'You didn't call me. No one came to get me. You know I'm obsessed,'" Fey continued. "It was so funny at the table read, and then death."

The Not Ready for Prime Time Players' laughter apparently didn't translate because the sketch was killed after dress rehearsal, which became a lesson in humility. "To see it happen to Will, who everyone loves Will, the audience. That even Will face planted was almost reassuring," Fey said.

She cited that moment as an example that sometimes artists can't anticipate what's going to hit. "I always do kind of compare it to what little I remember of sports," she shared. "It's like, sometimes you just go hard and you lose and you're like, 'Okay, I didn't die. I live to fight again. I guess we'll try again next week.'"

Having a thick skin, especially on SNL, is mandatory for those who want to endure. Current SNL player, Sarah Sherman, said sometimes sketches don't even make it off the table read. "What you guys don't know is that we have stuff that's cut, like, when we write something on a Tuesday night, it gets cut even before the table read," she told NBC last year. "We have stuff that goes to the table read, gets cut after the table read. We have stuff that goes to dress rehearsal, gets cut after dress rehearsal. We have stuff that gets cut after it goes to the live show."

Sherman, too, has a cut sketch she simply can't shake because it never got off the ground. "You guys don't even know about this. I had a thing for the finale that we wrote on a Tuesday night 'til 5 am - no problem, not like I'm holding a grudge about it - that didn't even make the table read," she shared. "I was, like, f-king jacked. I had giant veiny, jacked arms. So keep your eyes peeled."

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This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 4:40 AM.