Kyle Mooney’s SNL Audition Boldly Used Lorne Michaels For A Punchline

Every now and then “Saturday Night Live” really surprises me with its castings. Giving Sarah Sherman (better known to the alt-comedy community as Sarah Squirm) a spot on the roster was one example, while Kyle Mooney and Beck Bennett’s 2013 casting remains one of the best decisions Lorne Michaels ever made.

Back in 2007, the duo launched the comedy group Good Neighbor, along with Nick Rutherford and Dave McCary, and created some of the greatest sketches ever to hit the internet for their “GoodNeighborStuff” YouTube channel. Mooney in particular embodied a sort of subversive alt-comedy brilliance that wasn’t all that removed from the offbeat rebelliousness at the heart of another early 2000s comedic touchstone: “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job” — also launched in 2007. Indeed, both Mooney and “Awesome Show” star Tim Heidecker later performed as leather jacket-wearing hack comedian characters, with Mooney’s Bruce Chandling eventually appearing for multiple segments on “SNL” (Heidecker’s “An Evening with Tim Heidecker” is on Hulu now and is a must-watch).

Happily, during his nine-year tenure on the show, Mooney was given some scope to bring his unique humor to the forefront, even repurposing specific Good Neighbor sketches such as “Inside SoCal.” But while it was great to see that sort of comedy getting some mainstream shine, it also felt a little like some of the edges had been, necessarily, sanded down. After all, unlike “Awesome Show,” “SNL” is not a fringe sketch series with a devoted cult following, it’s a darn cultural institution at this point, and can’t be constantly indulging the alt-comedy stylings of its more avant-garde hirings.

Which is why it’s interesting to learn that Mooney landed his spot on the show’s roster by performing as one of his most awkward and decidedly non-mainstream characters, even using “SNL” impresario Lorne Michaels for a punchline.

Between his Good Neighbor years and joining “SNL,” Kyle Mooney created segments for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “Sports Show with Norm Macdonald,” playing his awkward interview character who would constantly stumble over words and mumble into a microphone while out on assignment covering some sort of live event. Many of these segments exist on Mooney’s own YouTube channel and are nothing short of genius, with the comedian somehow successfully playing a mock severe social anxiety disorder for laughs.

It’s the kind of thing that would typically get labeled as “anti-comedy,” with Mooney reveling in the sheer discomfort that arises from his interactions with members of the public. But there’s really no such thing as anti-comedy — if something’s funny, it’s funny — and Mooney’s interview character is a timeless example.

Still, it’s not the kind of thing “SNL” is known for these days, with the show having to maintain at least some sort of broad appeal. That didn’t stop Mooney from embracing his nervous little interview guy for his audition, though. The actor, who recently directed Rachel Zegler in the 100% historically inaccurate comedy “Y2K,” spoke about his audition in the four-part docuseries “SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night,” where he revealed that his performance didn’t go over that well, especially when he intentionally mispronounced Lorne Michaels’ name as part of the act. “I was like, ‘Oh, I wanna open my audition sort of as if I’m hosting ‘Saturday Night Live,'” he said. “I did something like, ‘Wow I can’t believe I’m here at 30 Rockers in front of the Lonnie Mickers,’ and it got no response, and it was the very first thing I did, and I was like, ‘Oh, no!'”

Kyle Mooney is far from the only cast member to have spoken about how they thought they’d botched their “SNL” audition. In fact, almost every cast member who’s recounted their audition has a similar story about a certain joke or bit getting nothing from the producers. But clearly Mooney’s inventive take on the audition impressed Lorne Michaels and co., which just goes to show that not trying to adhere to the show’s sensibilities is the best way to approach auditioning.

Sarah Sherman spoke about a similar experience on the “Live with Kelly and Mark” show, telling the hosts how she was worried about auditioning because her standup routine is “a bit grotesque.” She continued:

“I was worried, like, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be behaving this way in front of future employers,’ but I just whatever I did it anyway, I went for it, it was crazy and then when they hired me I was like, ‘Oh, I guess they’re crazy.'”

All of this raises the question of why “SNL” doesn’t let comedians like Sherman and Mooney do more of their own stuff. During their time on the show, both comedians were given the chance to showcase their unique sensibilities, with Lorne even getting his own back in one of Mooney’s digital shorts when he misnamed the comedian as “Kevin.” But these moments were always sandwiched between some truly abject sketches that would have benefitted from the more subversive energy cast members like Sherman and Mooney bring. That season 50 premiere, for example, was one of the more dire episodes in series history, limping through stale bits and wasting the brilliant Jean Smart.

What’s more, while we got to see Mooney’s interview character several times throughout his nine years on the show, there’s something vaguely offensive about seeing some of those segments labeled “cut for time” on the “SNL” YouTube channel — like, you really cut this kind of thing and keep “Real Housewives of Santa Fe?” That aside, we largely have “SNL” to thank for giving Mooney the platform to go off and make the wonderful offbeat comedy “Brigsby Bear” and “Y2K,” without which we also wouldn’t have Mooney’s brilliant marketing video.