“Saturday Night Live” Alum Kevin Nealon Calls Out Cast Members Who Break During Sketches 'Even If Audience Laughs'

Meredith WilshereSat, March 28, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC

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Kevin NealonCredit: Al Levine/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty -

Kevin Nealon says he "never broke" character on Saturday Night Live out of respect for the writers and sketches

The actor and comedian spent nine years on the show, from 1986 to 1995

He posted to his X account that he knows how much work goes into the sketches

Kevin Nealon "never broke" character during his nine-year run on Saturday Night Live — and hopes others take it just as seriously.

The SNL veteran and comedian, 72, recently shared his feelings about actors breaking during sketches in a post shared to X on March 24.

"I never broke character on SNL," he wrote in the post, which has been viewed by over 1.2 million users. "I knew how much time the writers put into those scripts. You don’t want to be the one who throws it off."

"Lorne [Michaels] doesn’t like when the cast breaks. Even if the audience laughs, it doesn't work for the sketch," he added.

Kevin NealonCredit: Amanda Edwards/Getty

"Breaking" refers to an actor or actress falling out of character and momentarily reverting to themselves, usually by laughing or smiling, and often causing a snowball effect among the other performers.

Nealon noted that if he “could get through the Chippendales sketch, I could get through anything.”

Kevin Nealon, Mike Myers, Jan Hooks on 'Saturday Night Live'Credit: NBC

The 1990 Chippendales sketch features a famous dance number from Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze, in which a panel of judges, comprised of Nealon, Mike Myers and Jan Hooks, watches two dancers, played by Farley and Swayze, perform male stripteases for a final spot in the act.

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Nealon was on SNL for nine seasons, with three of those seasons having him behind the Weekend Update desk.

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Only recently did Nealon learn the reason why he was let go. In January 2026, the comedian sat down with Matt Wilstein for Obsessed: The Podcast and talked about how reading a book about Michaels helped him understand why his time on the Weekend Update desk ended.

“I’m just finishing reading that book called Lorne about Lorne Michaels. And I’m learning what happened behind the scenes that I didn’t know about," he shared.

Nealon was one of the hosts of the Weekend Update segment in 1994 when Entertainment Weekly published the article Is ‘Saturday Night’ Dead?, listing 20 ways the show should improve, one of which suggested that Nealon be replaced since he was "still stumbling over his punch lines after four seasons."

“The network felt the same way and were ready to meddle,” author Susan Morrison wrote in the book. “Nealon was a superb sketch player, but there was a sense that, on Update, he was a mushmouth, his delivery not crisp enough.”

On the podcast, Nealon said that Don Ohlmeyer, who was the head of NBC at the time, "didn't like me on Weekend Update."

Kevin Nealon and Adam Sandler on Weekend UpdateCredit: Al Levine/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty

“I knew I got taken off of there because he wasn’t happy with me, but I didn’t know until I read the book that one of the reasons was he said I was ‘mushmouth,’” Nealon explained. “He couldn’t understand some of the things I was saying.”

Ultimately, the comedian shared that “it was fine” to be let go from the Weekend Update desk, since "it was a lot of work for me.”

“I was doing Weekend Update, and I was writing sketches and characters and being in sketches. So it was hard to juggle the two," he said. "I had to write a lot of the jokes for Weekend Update, which started on late Friday night and Saturday, because you couldn’t do the material or the areas that the late-night talk show hosts did during the week.”

Nealon was on SNL from 1989 to 1995 and went on to land roles in Weeds, Man With A Plan and more.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”