Adam Sandler Recalls His and Chris Farley’s Reaction to Being Fired From Saturday Night Live

Even the greats get let go. 

Adam Sandler has been a staple in the Hollywood comedy circle for years. After his tenure on Saturday Night Live, the comedian starred in hit films like The Waterboy, Big Daddy and The Wedding Singer. Before he was the star of major blockbusters, he had one major obstacle to get over, the fact that he was fired as a cast member from SNL.

Adam hasn’t been shy about sharing his side of the events over the years, and even hilariously discussed it in his SNL monologue when he hosted the show in May. The comedian sat down with Howard Stern on his show The Howard Stern Show and opened up about what it was like being fired from such an iconic show so early in his career. 

“I might have been like that 15 years ago if I came on and did well,” Adam shared about his desire to show off when he hosted earlier this year. “I’m f–king old enough now. I realize what Saturday Night Live did for me.” Although he has the hindsight to be grateful now, he does realize that it was a pretty big deal when it occurred. 

“At the time, I was hurt because I didn’t know what else I was going to do,” he shared. “At the time, it wasn’t Lorne [Michael‘s] decision. The NBC head dude, I know he didn’t like our gang.” As for his friend and fellow fired cast member, Chris Farley, Adam recalls the late star having a similar reaction to the news. 

“I was probably sad into covering the sadness up into being mad and saying, ‘oh f–k you.'” Adam shared about his feelings at the time. “But, I remember when I saw Farley, he said, ‘Me too. They don’t want me either.’ We were both like, ‘F–k this s–t.’ We both got mad together and pretended we weren’t sad and pretended this was for the best.”

Turns out for Adam, it was for the best. He’s since gone onto star in some of the biggest films in the world. He forgave, but that doesn’t mean he forgot. “This is how I got fired: My manager Sandy, he was talking to me, and I was like, ‘Next year on the show blah blah blah,’ and he was like, ‘Maybe you don’t go back next year.’ I was like, ‘I don’t know man, I still got a few more things. He was like, ‘Yeah but you did it already.’ I was like, ‘I did but…'” Adam shared about his manager protecting him from the news. 

“I was like, ‘Yeah I’ll think about it,’ and he was like, ‘I think you thought about it.'” 

His decision or not, it definitely worked in his favor. All hail the sandman!