How One 'SNL' Star 'Snapped' On-Air and Intentionally Got Fired

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Damon Wayans Jr. revealed that he was unhappy on Saturday Night Live in the new documentary SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night.

Wayans, 64, felt that many of the roles and sketches he was cast in were based on offensive stereotypes. "I'm like, 'Hell nah! My mother's gonna watch this show. I can't do this. I won't do this,'" said the Hollywood Shuffle actor in the documentary.

When a sketch called "Mr. Monopoly" was chosen over one of his own sketches right before air, Wayans decided that he was done. "I snapped. I just did not care," said the Mo' Money actor. So in a move that no one had approved, Wayans put on an effeminate voice for the character in hopes Executive Producer Lorne Michaels would be angry. "I purposely did that because I wanted [Lorne] to fire me," Wayans admitted.

His gambit worked. Michaels let Wayans go from the series, apparently breaking a record of sorts. It was a period known by SNL history buffs as "the weird year," as Michaels, 80, had returned from a five-year hiatus. "Having not fired anybody for the first five years, [firing Damon Wayans] was really, really hard," the producer admitted in an older interview featured in SNL50. "But it had to be done."

Wayans had broken a cardinal rule of the show, according to writer A. Whitney Brown: "You cannot go rogue. You cannot try to steal a sketch."

Being let go from the show did not set Wayans back too far. He was invited back to SNL to perform standup shortly after being fired. "Lorne is a very forgiving man, and I think he just wanted to let me know he believed in me," Wayans said in the docuseries. He went on to have great success in shows like My Wife and Kids and movies like Major Payne.