Adam Sandler stopped by Late Night with Seth Meyers on Thursday to discuss his upcoming SNL hosting gig and reminisce about his memories of the show.
Sandler will make his hosting debut with the May 4 episode, almost 30 years after he first joined SNL as a writer in 1990 and became a featured player the following year. He left the show following poor ratings in 1995.
“It was a mistake, they caught me in a weak moment,” he joked of deciding to finally host the show, adding, “No those guys are great. [My] special came out and some guys from Saturday Night Live called me and said, ‘Come on, come host.'”
He explained that his decision to do the show has had some unforeseen side effects. “I love Lorne [Michaels, SNL producer] and I wanted to see him and do it with him and be on the show and bring back some guys, but I gotta tell you, it’s knocked me out,” he said. “I’m so knocked out right now.”
He admitted that he should have come back to host SNL sooner. “First of all, I should have come back to the show before it was HD. Good lord I waited a long time, I don’t really look like Adam Sandler anymore,” he joked.
Sandler, who popularized such characters as Opera Man, Canteen Boy and the Gap Girls (with Chris Farley and David Spade) during his tenure, also said he stayed until 4 a.m. on Tuesday to assist in the writing process for the show, but he said it made him “delirious and nasty” and added that he needs to get some sleep before Saturday.
Meyers pointed out that Sandler, Farley, Spade and Chris Rock shared an office, now used by the “Weekend Update” team. He said he stopped by his old digs while he was on set this week, and he shared some memories of the time with Meyers.
“Nobody picked up much — Farley, you know he didn’t pick up much, Spade, he wasn’t as filthy as Farley or me, and Rock kind of took care of himself a little bit better — but we used to eat McDonald’s a lot … I think we were excited to get recognized back then,” he told Meyers.
He also talked about Gap Girls. “Spade used to write those [sketches]. We used to have a great time doing that. Me and Farley didn’t look as good as Spade. Spade kind of fit that stuff better than us. Spade has a nice little body on him and Farley and I were a little bigger and didn’t make sense in the outfits,” he said of the popular sketch.
The two also discussed Sandler’s recent Netflix special, 100% Fresh, which hit Netflix last October.
Sandler next stars in Netflix’s upcoming comedy Murder Mystery with Jennifer Aniston. The film starts streaming on the platform June 14. Watch his Late Night appearance below.
