Some Saturday Night Live sketches bomb and others become Hall of Famers. But according to Amy Poehler, only one was so bad that it literally put its host to sleep.

While reuniting with fellow SNL alum Kate McKinnon, Poehler delved into the subject of sketches that just don’t work — and without naming names, had a pretty embarrassing story to pull from.

“Did you ever go on the server and watch sketches that bombed?” she asked McKinnon on Tuesday’s episode of her Good Hang podcast. “Do you kind of like it when sketches bomb a little bit? We used to go and watch our sketches from dress [rehearsal] that bombed and just watch it together, process it together. And it was just, like, such a nice feeling. Basically, just a reminder that everybody bombs, basically.”

Amy Poehler as Pam Bondi on ‘Saturday Night Live’.

Will Heath/NBC via Getty 

McKinnon, already laughing at the memory of this, nodded. “There were a few hits that we would watch over and over again,” she admitted. “There was one rehearsal where a person — I won’t say who — simply stopped doing the sketch and sat down on the stage. That was a fun watch.”

This sparked a memory for Poehler, who could relate. “We had a host, I won’t say who, who just halfway through just kinda fell asleep a little bit,” she said with a smile. “This was during dress, and it was like, ‘Okay, I guess his character’s asleep now.'”

Laughing, McKinnon said, “Don’t blame him! It’s late and it’s a tough gig.”

Poehler couldn’t agree more. Earlier this month, the SNL alum celebrated a full-circle moment, hosting the show for the first time in over a decade on the very evening that marked SNL’s 50th anniversary. Fun as it was, Poehler told McKinnon that part of her still wanted to be participating as a cast member. 

“I kept being like, ‘What are you guys doing over there?’ Like, I kept wanting to be over there,” she recalled. 

Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton, and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton on ‘Saturday Night Live’.

Dana Edelson/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Both Poehler and McKinnon had standout runs on SNL, with Poehler starring on the show from 2001 to 2008, while McKinnon joined in 2012 and stuck around until 2022. Though their tenures as cast members did not overlap, they have shared the stage in studio 8H several times. Poehler hosted the show in 2015 and the alums both participated in the show’s 50th anniversary special. Their conversation saw Poehler praise McKinnon for her run on the show, pointing out that she quickly found her place in the fabric of SNL.

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“There are people on that show that I felt were naturals. Now whether or not they felt natural is their own personal story,” Poehler said. “But you, Maya Rudolph, Dana Carvey, Will Ferrell — people who just kind of came onto the show, fit right in and became, like, instant captains. I always felt that from you, just this calm confidence when you were performing. And it’s interesting to know that inside you were not feeling that way.”

Indeed, McKinnon confirmed that “there were plenty of desperate failures that haunt me even now,” but added that her time on SNL remains a dream come true.

“I feel like I had one dream. It was SNL,” McKinnon shared. “Did it. Done. Loved it. Awesome.”

Watch Poehler and McKinnon’s full conversation above.