Lorne Michaels told ‘SNL’ host Jack Black grim Desi Arnaz story

Jack Black is recalling a dark story that he heard while hosting Saturday Night Live.

The Minecraft Movie star discussed the words of warning he received from SNL boss Lorne Michaels before he hosted the show last month. “Lorne said the funniest thing. I don’t think he was trying to be funny,” Black said on an episode of Fly on the Wall, explaining that Michaels raised some concerns about the comedian’s physically-intense opening monologue that included a “tiger roll” move.

“After the rehearsal, when he saw me do the tiger roll and he saw me doing that rockin’ number, and he saw me sweating and wheezing, he said, ‘I just want to tell you a story,'” Black remembered. 

The School of Rock actor said that the longtime SNL producer told him, “In the 70s, this is the beginning, we had Desi Arnaz on the show. He was getting up there. He was in his 70s and I wanted him on because I just thought, ‘Yes, he’s older, but he’s an icon and he had been on Lucille Ball.'”

Arnaz hosted SNL on Feb. 21, 1976. Black said that he told Michaels, “Yeah, oh my God, that must have been a trip. I’d love to see that.” 

Michaels, however, explained that it wasn’t a pretty sight. “He said that Desi was kind of struggling,” Black recalled. “He wanted to do his ‘Babalu’ number. That was like his trademark that he’d been doing live for decades. And Lorne was a little worried about it. Can he still pull it off? And he was doing it, but he could see that he was starting to sweat and really struggle physically while he was ‘Babalu’-ing and he wouldn’t stop.”

Black went on to explain that Michaels eventually feared for Arnaz’s life. “Then he looked closer on the screen and he’s like, ‘Desi’s lips started to turn blue’ and he started to worry like, ‘oh, he’s about to die,'” the Nacho Libre actor recalled Michaels saying. “And he just pulled the plug on it and said, ‘Just go to commercial.'”

Black said that he was taken aback by the story. “I was like, ‘Wait a second, are you telling me this story because you’re worried I’m going to die?'”

The High Fidelity actor then said that Michaels didn’t seem as worried as he was for Arnaz, but still had some concerns. “Lorne was a little worried,” Black said. “He was just warning me not to go too hard. Because if I went full hard as a motherf—er, that I could die.”

Black admitted that the physicality of the monologue was somewhat challenging. “If I’m honest with you, I was struggling with the cardio because I made the choice to run up those stairs,” he said. “It wasn’t actually my idea.”

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

The actor said that SNL writer John Higgins of Please Don’t Destroy came up with the running idea, and joked that he should have taken a weight-loss drug to prep for the segment. “I could have used a little more training leading up to it,” Black said. “Maybe I should have done the Ozempic or something to drop a few LBs. That would have helped.”

Listen to the full conversation between Black and Fly on the Wall hosts Dana Carvey and David Spade above.