Damon Wayans Reveals He ‘Purposely’ Got Fired From SNL

Wayans purposefully went off script during a live segment.

Damon Wayans revealed in the new Peacock docuseries “SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” that he “purposely” got himself fired from “Saturday Night Live” by going off script during a sketch.

Wayans was a standing cast member on Season 11 of the TV comedy program. According to reports, it was considered to be SNL’s “weird year.” This season, Lorn Michaels decided to hire a completely new lineup of cast members of well-established comedy stars. The change brought on now 64-year-old Wayans to attempt to turn around a series of poor ratings.

According to Variety, Wayans explained that he wasn’t nervous at all initially about being on the show because “I felt like I was born to be on ‘Saturday Night Live.’”

He was supported by former SNL cast member Eddie Murphy, who gave him advice before he joined. He recalled, “Eddie’s advice to me was, ‘Write your own sketches. Otherwise, they’re going to give you some Black people sh*t to do, and you ain’t gon’ like it.’”

He stated that eventually, he noticed the SNL writers kept rejecting his ideas.

“I could feel something was wrong and that’s why I was like, ‘Hey, give me the ball. I know what this needs,’” he said on the docuseries.

“Everything Eddie said came true,” Wayans said. He remembered that he was repeatedly written into other sketches that involved him playing stereotypical and offensive roles. He refused to participate numerous times because his mother was watching the show.

Wayan’s frustration finally came to a head when he participated in a live sketch called “Mr. Monopoly.” The sketch was not as strong as his own idea but was chosen over his own.

Wayans then intentionally performed all his lines in Mr. Monopoly in a different voice on live television. “I snapped. I just did not care,” Wayans admitted. “I purposely did that because I wanted [Lorne Michaels] to fire me.”

“Damon starts doing his lines like a very effeminate gay guy,” Lovitz recalled.

The episode’s host, Griffin Dunne, said that Wayans was fired pretty much right after the episode was over.

Lovitz said, “I thought it was weird, but people still laughed. And then Lorne fired him pretty much as soon as he walked off the stage.”

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