Posted in: ABC, NBC, TV | Tagged: Leslie Fucking Jones, Leslie Jones, saturday night live, snl, whoopi goldberg

Leslie Jones on Rejected Whoopi Goldberg/SNL Weekend Update Sketch

Saturday Night Live alum Leslie Jones shares why a Whoopi Goldberg sketch for SNL's "Weekend Update" was rejected for being too dark.

Actress and comedienne Leslie Jones has an enduring legacy on Saturday Night Live and the unique distinction as the longest-tenured Black female cast member in the long-running NBC variety series. She joined the cast in 2014 and left after the 2019 season appearing in 105 episodes. Since leaving, Jones appeared in Sony's The Angry Birds Movie 2 (2019), Amazon Prime Video's Coming 2 America (2021), Hulu & Marvel's animated series Hit Monkey, Comedy Central's Out of Office, Starz! & Lionsgate's BMF, and Max's Our Flag Means Death. While promoting her latest memoir Leslie F*cking Jones, Entertainment Weekly released an excerpt concerning a "Weekend Update" segment she co-wrote with cast member Kenan Thompson that featured The View host Whoopi Goldberg, which Jones and Thompson played on SNL before, and how it would involve a dramatically dark turn for WU "anchors" Colin Jost and Michael Che.

"In the sketch, Colin [Jost] would say, 'Leslie, I know it's you,' and Whoopi would say, 'No, no, I know Leslie plays me, but it's really me, I'm really Whoopi,'" Jones writes in the book. "Colin then says, 'Yeah, yeah. So what would happen if I do this?' and pulls out a gun. Whoopi looks terrified. 'Yo, no, seriously, I'm Whoopi Goldberg. I'm not Leslie, I'm really Whoopi.' Colin looks at her, doesn't believe her, says, "Oh yeah…' And then shoots her."

Leslie Jones' Rejected SNL Sketch with Whoopi Goldberg

After a back and forth between Jost and Che, things get a little too "real" as the real Goldberg is bleeding out before creator Lorne Michaels takes part in various activities like riding a horse, playing golf, and taking a shower, with his voice-over saying, "We'll be right back, baby" in between shots of the onscreen slaughter. Jones admitted at the time, "Kenan and I were weeping with laughter when we wrote this—we were actually going to shoot Whoopi Goldberg on SNL!"

But those they pitched it to just didn't feel the same way. First the eager duo hit up then-head writer Bryan Tucker, who Jones says just looked at them blankly and said, "You guys are crazy."

So they moved on to pitch it to the "Weekend Update" team. "In the Update office we were acting the Whoopi sketch out and laughing the whole time. When we finished, Kenan said, 'It's so funny. Right?'" Jones describes. "'You guys are nuts,' someone said. 'You can't kill Whoopi Goldberg on live TV.'"

"'She's not dead!' I shouted. 'She just got shot.'"

Jones wrote that Michaels rejected the joke, rebuffing, "We're not going to kill Whoopi Goldberg on national TV for a personal joke,' he said, completely missing the point, but it was hilarious when he said it. It wasn't an inside joke at all—it was just funny. But we never got to do it." Leslie F*cking Jones is available in stores. Also, Goldberg is wonderful in death scenes…

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