Andy Samberg Says His ‘SNL’ Return Meant “Re-Inheriting” the Stress: “This Is Intense”

Andy Samberg said this week his Saturday Night Live return has been fun, but also serves as a reminder for how stressful the on-air sketch show can be.

Samberg, an SNL cast member from 2005 to 2012, returned to the show this fall to play Doug Emhoff, husband of Kamala Harris, during the leadup to the 2024 election.

“It’s been fun, I’ve got to say,” Samberg told fellow SNL alum Seth Meyers on a recent episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast. “It’s been really fun going back, but again, also inheriting, re-inheriting, the stress of it and being like, ‘Oh, right, this is intense.’”

Samberg went on to say that despite the intensity, his current role in the show still feels easier than when he was a cast member. “It’s a little more mellow, me and Maya [Rudolph, who plays Harris] have been talking about [how] it’s a little bit more mellow because we know why we’re there specifically,” he said. “But that last show, I was like, if this ‘Beetlejuice’ thing doesn’t work, I’m just going to be here and not do anything. And that puts you right back in the feeling of being a cast member — of, you’re always at risk.”

Samberg was referring to SNL‘s Oct. 19 episode, when host Michael Keaton did a Beetlejuice skit with Mikey Day and Samberg during the opening monologue.

“Hey, don’t you normally play Doug Emhoff in the cold opens?” Keaton joked onstage.

“Yeah the writers couldn’t jam him in,” Samberg replied, then slipping into a Beetlejuice voice to say, “So, here we find ourselves!”

Doug Emhoff himself recently weighed in on Samberg’s impression of him, saying, “It’s good, it’s funny. It’s not quite me, but some of the lines are pretty good.”

Emhoff also said at the time that Martin Short — who played the second gentleman during the 2020 election cycle — was “way older and shorter, but he actually got me.”

Nevertheless, there are no hard feelings from Emhoff. “To see yourself on [SNL], yeah, the group chats blow up on that kind of stuff… it’s one of many surreal things that I’ve experienced in this world, I love it.”