Actor Rob Schneider knew when “Saturday Night Live” was “over”.
The “SNL” alumnus, who kick-started his writing career on the show in 1989, said Kate McKinnon’s rendition of “Hallelujah,” dressed as Hillary Clinton, was the downfall of the popular sketch show.
The 58-year-old, who later joined as a cast member between 1990 and 1994, coldly slammed the show’s infamous post-2016 election.
“I hate to shit on my own show,” the star of “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo” said on “The Glenn Beck Podcast” Saturday.
“When Hillary Clinton lost – which is understandable. She’s not exactly the most likeable person in the room. And then Kate McKinnon went out on “Saturday Night Live” in the cold opening and everything, and she started dressing up like Hillary Clinton, and she started playing “Hallelujah.” I literally prayed, ‘Please make a joke at the end.’”
“Do not do this. Please don’t go there.’ And there was no joke at the end, and I said, ‘It’s over. It is over. It’s not coming back,” Schneider added.
McKinnon’s performance of Leonard Cohen’s hit has been viewed more than 13 million times on ‘SNL”s official YouTube page.
McKinnon, 38, portrayed a parody version of Clinton on the series throughout the 2016 election cycle. She left SNL earlier this year.
McKinnon told Esquire that she thinks “Hallelujah” was “the most beautiful song ever written, one of my top three songs of all time in my entire life.”
“I had always understood ‘Hallelujah’ in the context of a romantic relationship, as most of us had,” MacKinnon told the outlet.
“And when this verse – at this moment when it was so emotional for everyone in the country, when no matter which side you were on, it was a moment of surprise and high octane – I suddenly understood it in a new light. It’s about love, and how love is a struggle, but it’s worth it.”
“I suddenly understood it as the love for this idea that America is. That all people are created equal, and that is the most beautiful idea in the world, but the execution has been long and hard and we are still trying to get it right. But that it’s worth it, and that it will always be worth it,” the comedian added.
McKinnon recently revealed why she quit the hit sketch show in May after 10 memorable years, saying her “body was tired and I felt it was time.”