Chris Parnell still doesn’t know why he was fired and rehired at ‘SNL’

For comedian Chris Parnell, this was no laughing matter.

The Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock alumnus visited The Patrick LabyorSheaux With Patrick Labyorteaux podcast to discuss his career, which also includes tons of voice acting on shows like Rick and Morty, Archer, and Dawn of the Croods. Naturally, the conversation turned to the blip on Parnell’s tenure at SNL.

“[Lorne Michaels] brought me into his office and said, ‘I made a mistake, what can I say?’ Which I think is rare for Lorne,” Parnell recalled about the time the legendary producer asked him back.

Parnell, who appeared in fan-favorite sketches like “More Cowbell” and “Lazy Sunday,” first came to the weekly comedy show as a featured player in 1998. He graduated to repertory player the next year. But in 2001, he was out on his ear… for a little while anyway.

“I’ve never known why it happened exactly. It was a big shocker. [Cast members are] supposed to find out at the end of June whether our contract had been renewed,” Parnell explained. “It was never at the end of June. We would hear from our agents, you know, ‘Lorne hasn’t decided yet. Can you just wait a few more weeks?’ Like, what are you going to say, ‘No, I need an answer now!'”

He continued, “Then I got a call from my manager, saying, ‘I don’t know what to tell you. They’re not going to bring you back.’ It was a pretty big hit, and you immediately realize how your own sense of worth is wrapped up in being a Saturday Night Live cast member. Thankfully, I had a few people go to bat for me — Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan apparently went in and talked to Lorne, and then [SNL] writer T. Sean Shannon wrote this scathing piece that really took Lorne and the head producers to task.”

The bit, Parnell explained, was “set in Benihana, where I had been the chef, an amazing chef, and I had gotten fired. And everyone was asking, ‘Why did you fire him? He was great!'”

He added, “So that was the sketch. They read it at the table, from what I heard, to crickets. It was like f—ing pointing the finger hard at everybody involved with me getting fired.”

Though Parnell moved to Los Angeles, he left his stuff in storage in New York City as he kept hearing through the grapevine from other cast members that the door may not be entirely closed. And, indeed, after a 12-episode gap, he was back on the show on March 2, 2002. He remained with the cast until 2006.

Here’s a look at the “Lazy Sunday” sketch, which is a comedy masterpiece, but a little annoying to native New Yorkers because Mr. Pibb is not usually available in bodegas as shown here.

You can check out Parnell’s full interview on The Patrick LabyorSheaux below.