Why Damon Wayans Was Fired (And Brought Back) In SNL Season 11

There are few jobs more sought-after in the comedy world than those on “Saturday Night Live,” where a role as a cast member or even a seat in the writer’s room can rocket comedians to super-stardom. So when actor and comedian Damon Wayans was offered a spot on the season 11 cast of the show in 1985, he jumped at the chance.

The season was supposed to be a reinvention and a return to form for “SNL,” as creator Lorne Michaels was returning to helm the show for the first time in five years, and he hired an entirely new cast to try and shake things up. The season 11 cast featured a number of people who would go on to have decent comedy careers, like Joan Cusack, Jon Lovitz, and Dennis Miller, plus absolute superstar Robert Downey Jr., who was hired alongside his best friend Anthony Michael Hall, but at the time they were all relative unknowns (save for Hall). That meant that everyone had to really listen to Lorne and defer to him more than the old cast, with whom he had been on more equal ground. For Wayans, that unfortunately led to some serious conflict. 

In the documentary series “SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night,” Wayans explained the full story behind being cast, fired, and brought back to do stand-up all within the course of one season, and it’s quite a ride. Cusack has said that her time on the show (also for only the 11th season) was tumultuous, and it sounds like Wayans had a bit of a tough time, too. Thankfully, both have gone on to have impressive careers that outshine their time on “SNL,” and the show recovered in the next year with new cast members like Dana Carvey and Phil Hartman and a revitalized legacy that continues to this day. In 1986, however, things got a little heated.

Wayans had a small role in comedy superstar Eddie Murphy’s “Beverly Hills Cop,” and according to Wayans, Murphy gave him some advice on how to best advocate for himself at “SNL.” Murphy himself was a cast member from 1980 through 1984, and he was leaving just as Wayans was coming on. According to Wayans, Murphy told him to make sure to pitch his own sketches and write for himself, because he might not get any good parts otherwise. Unfortunately, that scenario seemed to be playing out for Wayans when he joined the swho. Wayans pushed for some of his own characters to appear on the show and tried to push back against some of the more racist stereotypes he was asked to play, but he didn’t have much sway as a new cast member with almost no credits to his name. 

On an interview with “The Breakfast Club,” Wayans said that there were times where he was in background roles, with no lines, doing things like holding a spear, and he was offended by it. He tried to get his own sketches on the air but they were frequently cut, and finally, in March of 1986, Wayans had enough.

A tiny bit of improvisation is allowed on “SNL,” but it’s quite rare, and big changes and surprises are absolutely forbidden. (Just ask Adrien Brody, whose terribly-advised Rastafarian opening monologue got him banned for life.) So when Wayans had finally gotten fed up with Michaels, he decided to sabotage a Mr. Monopoly sketch — starring Jon Lovitz as the board game mascot and host Griffin Dunne as a criminal — by playing his character in a completely different way. In dress rehearsal he played an interrogating cop character as a straight man, but on the live show, he portrayed his police officer character as an effeminate gay man and was fired almost immediately after the sketch. Why he went off-script is a little bit fuzzier. 

In the “Breakfast Club” interview, Wayans said that in dress rehearsal he had worn a suit similar to the characters on “Miami Vice,” but then Michaels had forced him to change because he “looked too much like a pimp,” and that was the last straw. In “SNL 50,” however, season 11 “SNL” writer Andy Breckman says that Wayans had gotten upset because a sketch he wrote had been cut between dress rehearsal and the live show. Either way, Wayans was furious and decided to take himself out with a bang, essentially challenging Michaels to fire him, and that’s exactly what the showrunner did.

However, Michaels also invited Wayans back to do stand-up in the season 11 finale, and in “SNL 50,” Wayans said that he thinks Michaels “wanted me to know that he believed in me.”

Season 11 was a very strange year for “Saturday Night Live” and the show was in dire straits, but things turned around for both Wayans and the show. Wayans went on to start his own sketch comedy series, “In Living Color,” with his brother Keenan Ivory Wayans. On “In Living Color” he was able to embrace Black comedy and performers, sometimes pushing the envelope of what was allowed on TV. “In Living Color” would launch the careers of Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Lopez, so it was no small thing, and Wayans has had an extensive career both on-camera and behind it as a writer and producer. Keenan Ivory Wayans would go on to direct a number of comedies, including “Don’t Be a Menace” and the first two “Scary Movie” films, which he co-wrote with brothers Shawn and Marlon. 

The Wayans family has had a major impact on comedy, both on TV and at the movies, and Damon being fired from “SNL” might have been the catalyst to it all. While he might have broken a major “SNL” rule, Wayans did follow one other important rule: if you’re gonna get fired, at least try to make it funny.