Actor Rob Schneider knew when “Saturday Night Live” was “over.”
The ‘SNL’ alum, who kickstarted his career as a writer on the show in 1989, said Kate McKinnon’s rendition of “Hallelujah” dressed as Hillary Clinton was the demise of the hit sketch show.
The 58-year-old, who later joined on as a cast member between 1990 and 1994, slammed the show’s infamous post-2016 election cold open.
“I hate to crap on my own show,” the “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo” star said on “The Glenn Beck Podcast” Saturday.
“When Hillary Clinton lost — which is understandable. She’s not exactly the most likable person in the room. And then when Kate McKinnon went out there on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in the cold opening and all that, and she started dressed as Hillary Clinton, and she started playing ‘Hallelujah.’ I literally prayed, ‘Please have a joke at the end.’”
“Don’t do this. Please don’t go down there.’ And there was no joke at the end, and I went, ‘It’s over. It’s over. It’s not gonna come back,’” Schneider added.
McKinnon’s performance of Leonard Cohen’s hit song 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 she thinks “Hallelujah” is “the most beautiful song ever written, one of my top three songs of all time my whole life.”
“I’d always understood ‘Hallelujah’ in the context of a romantic relationship, as had most of us,” MacKinnon told the outlet.
“And then this verse — in this moment when it was so emotional for everyone in the country, when no matter what side you were on, it was a moment of surprise and high-octane emotion –I suddenly understood it in a new light. It’s about love, and how love is a slog but it’s worth it.”
“I suddenly understood it as, like, the love of this idea that is America. That all people are created equal, and that’s the most beautiful idea in the world, but the execution has been long and tough and we’re still just 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 like it was time.”
