Steven Seagal Called Worst SNL Host Ever
It seems pretty unanimous at this point that Steven Seagal was the worst Saturday Night Live host in the history of the iconic show
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Saturday Night Live is such an institution at this point, running for decades and becoming a firm part of the cultural zeitgeist that we often end up praising those who’ve come along and taken the stage for the show. It’s been a who’s who of series regulars, guest hosts, and musical numbers so much so that some of the most iconic sketches and characters ever first started on the show’s stage. We don’t often talk about who was the *worst* to ever appear on Saturday Night Live. Why should we? There’s almost too much great stuff. But hasn’t stopped many series writers and regulars from talking about who should never have been there in the first place. Recently, Bob Odenkirk discussed the show’s worst host and he was unequivocal in naming Steven Seagal as the worst to ever do it.
While appearing on The Howard Stern (via UpRoxx) show Odenkirk discussed his time as a writer on Saturday Night Live and, of course, the shock jock had to bring up the less positive times on the show. Odenkirk was asked who the worst ever SNL how was and he didn’t hesitate in naming Steven Seagal. For starters, Odenkirk reiterated the idea that Seagal seemed to have almost no idea they were doing a comedy show. The former said Seagal was much more concerned with his own personal appearance than actually getting to something that could be funny. For instance, in a Hanz and Franz sketch with the two Schwarzenegger-adjacent bodybuilders, Seagal was insistent on beating them up to keep up with his own gestalt.
And Odenkirk didn’t stop there with Steven Seagal, saying that the martial arts and action star (at the time) basically came in and said he really didn’t know anything about Saturday Night Live as a show. Even going as far as to say he didn’t know who any of the talent was at the time. Remember, this episode happened back in 1991 when the cast included Dana Carvey, Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, David Spade, Chris Farley, and others who were considered some of the premier comedic talent of a generation. Check out what Odenkirk had to say about Seagal:
For his part, Bob Odenkirk isn’t the first Saturday Night Live talent to name Steven Seagal as the worst host the show has ever had. A number of others have done rounds on this before with David Spade even including whole stories about Seagal’s appearance in the book Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. And Julia Sweeney backed up the claim saying Seagal pitched an absolutely insane, and not all funny, sketch about a psychiatrist wanting to have sex with a client. Plus, the aforementioned Carvey mentioned in the past about the Hanz and Franz sketch in which Seagal ultimately walked off despondent about his interaction with the comically obtuse “bodybuilders”. Apparently, Seagal lamented that he didn’t have the chance to kick the real Arnold’s “f#@#ing ass”.
These days, Steven Seagal is long past the days of getting invited to do Saturday Night Live hosting duties. He’s been embroiled in a number of different controversies over the years while also putting out direct-to-video movies in the meantime. Whatever happens though, at least he will live on in SNL lore even if it isn’t for the most positive of reasons.
