There are many ways to become a successful comedic actor, but there are precious few routes for a young up-and-comer to get more exposure than a stint on “Saturday Night Live.” Household names like Bill Murray, Amy Poehler, Eddie Murphy, Phil Hartman, Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Kristen Wiig, and many others paid their dues on the show before going on to write their names in the annals of entertainment history.
That being said, “Saturday Night Live,” which aired its 50th season in 2025, isn’t necessarily a fast track to A-lister status, and an entertainer’s career is hardly doomed if they fail to make the cut. In fact, there are several legendarily funny people who didn’t quite make it to the show’s cast for one reason or another. Instead of sinking from the weight of rejection, some took the setback on the chin and went on to become stars in spite of it. Others have reminisced about their failure and fully admit they didn’t really have what it took to open the doors of Studio 8H at the time. Let’s take a look at some of their stories.
John Goodman
John Goodman might not be the most obvious choice for a “Saturday Night Live” cast member, and in hindsight, the actor himself admits it. However, a lack of live comedy chops didn’t stop the “Roseanne” and “The Conners” star from auditioning for the show back in 1980 … and, by his own admission, failing terribly.
“That was 1980 when the original cast left, Lorne [Michaels] left, and I didn’t put a lot of thought into it, unfortunately,” Goodman told The Hollywood Reporter. “I didn’t have any improv or stand-up background, and I had a terrible audition, but for some reason, I still thought I’d get cast.”
Of course, Goodman’s lack of success on the “Saturday Night Live” front didn’t stop him from becoming a beloved actor. Between “Roseanne,” “The Big Lebowski,” “The Righteous Gemstones,” and a slew of other roles, he has established himself as a comedy great many times over. Funnily enough, “SNL” also ended up becoming a major fixture in his career. Although Goodman never got his cast slot, he has hosted “SNL” a whopping 13 times – a mighty achievement only Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin surpass. What’s more, Goodman’s only Emmy win is for a guest-starring role on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” the NBC comedy-drama about a very “SNL”-esque sketch show.
Jim Carrey
Somewhere, there’s an alternate timeline where Jim Carrey didn’t introduce himself to the world on the sketch show “In Living Color.” However, we live in this one, and it also happens to be one where Carrey ended up missing out on a “SNL” cast spot no less than three times. The first time was for Season 6 (1980-81) when he was just 18, and the two others were for Season 11 (1985-86) and Season 12 (1986-87).
Lorne Michaels wasn’t present to see Carrey’s assorted auditions, but clearly, something in the young comedian didn’t mesh with what the show was looking for at the time. Fortunately for Carrey and his fans, he went on to become a massive comedy and drama superstar — and to show that he had little ill will toward the show that had rejected him thrice, he has guest hosted “SNL” multiple times, and even joined the show as the “Saturday Night Live” version of Joe Biden in Season 46.
As for Carrey himself, he had at least some idea that a successful “SNL” career wasn’t in the cards, based on an extraordinarily dark story he told at the New Yorker Festival in 2018 (via Vulture) about the day of one of his auditions. “I got out of the car in the parking lot, and there was a person trying to work up the guts to commit suicide on the building on NBC in Burbank, and I walked into the building not knowing whether he did it,” he said. “All the new crews were gathering around the building. I went, ‘That’s not probably a good sign.'”
Aubrey Plaza
On paper, “Parks and Recreation” star Aubrey Plaza’s signature deadpan and offbeat energy might make her a great “Saturday Night Live” cast member. This may or may not have something to do with Plaza’s formative years as a performer, which were actually influenced by the show.
Plaza became enamored with “Saturday Night Live” at a young age, which ended up affecting her career plans in a profound way. “I became really obsessed with comedy and improv,” Plaza told The Guardian in 2012. “I wanted to be on [‘SNL’] for as long as I could remember. Just by looking at [cast members’] biographies online, I saw that a lot of them did sketch comedy. And I decided that’s what I was going to do.” The improv circuit was good for Plaza, who ended up rubbing shoulders with several comedy notables and even interned on the show in 2005. However, when she actually auditioned for a spot in the cast in 2008, she failed to land it.
The reason Plaza never gave her lifelong “SNL” dream another shot was simple: other dreams got in the way. After she relocated from New York to Los Angeles to film Adam Sandler’s 2009 comedy “Funny People,” the West Coast was so kind to her that she never really got around to resuming her Big Apple path — which, of course, made it difficult to target a job on the famously New York City-based show. “I was cast on ‘Parks and Rec’ and ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,’ and it was all happening back to back,” Plaza said. “So I was thinking, ‘After this, I’ll go back.’ And then ‘Parks’ just kept going. Which is a good thing, but it was kind of abrupt.”
Paul Reubens
While some actors are jovial and amused about their distinct lack of “Saturday Night Live” audition success, Paul Reubens had a somewhat different reaction. Reubens’ shot at “SNL” glory came in 1980, but when the dust settled, he ended up losing out to comedian Gilbert Gottfried.
Whether a viewer might prefer Gottfried’s or Reuben’s particular brand of offbeat humor is dealer’s choice, but the fact remains that one got the “SNL” gig and the other didn’t. While this technically means that Reubens’ audition was a failure, he personally felt that Gottrfied pulled strings to get the role. So, he took the rejection very hard and hasn’t shied away from saying as much. “I was so bitter and angry,” he shared with The San Francisco Chronicle. However, Reubens soon turned his fury into powerful fuel to propel him toward success, and he effectively created “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” out of the grit and spite that lingered from his failed “SNL” audition. “I thought, ‘You better think about doing something to take this to the next level,” Reubens said. “So I borrowed some money and produced [‘Pee-wee’s Playhouse’]. I went from this ‘Saturday Night Live’ reject to having 60 people working for me.”
Lisa Kudrow
Los Angeles comedy and improv troupe The Groundlings has yielded many comedy superstars over the years, including multiple who graduated to “Saturday Night Live.” The bright lights of Studio 8H naturally beckoned to many Groundlings, and “SNL” kept tabs on the group for new talent. Members of the troupe knew this all too well, and one 1990 performance with Lorne Michaels in attendance set a perfect example of how tense things could be … and how this tension would cause a comedic talent like Lisa Kudrow to bomb her performance.
Michaels was there for one new cast member, but had to narrow it down from Kudrow, Kathy Griffin, and Julia Sweeney, letting the night’s performance serve as their audition. But it was Sweeney who went on to ace the show and became a cast member on “SNL” from Season 16 to Season 19.
Not landing “Saturday Night Live” was particularly hard on Kudrow, who admitted to Los Angeles Magazine that her work that night wasn’t good enough and that she took some time to rise above the disappointment. “I knew that ‘SNL’ was there,” she said. “The show that night got to me, I was unnerved and clearly not ready. I was disappointed that I did not get it. There’s another sign, I thought, that I’m not cut out for it. That feeling lasted for a little bit” (via Mental Floss). Fortunately, Kudrow would get her flowers just few years later when she was cast to play Phoebe Buffay on a little show called “Friends.”