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Joy Behar Recalls Failed Audition for ‘Saturday Night Live’: Lorne Michaels ‘Didn’t Laugh’
Joy Behar had no hard feelings after Lorne Michaels didn’t laugh during her Saturday Night Live audition in 1975.
“There was a period where I was I tried to get on because I had this funny character that I did,” Joy, 81, revealed during The View’s “Behind the Table” podcast on March 27. “I had auditioned for Lorne Michaels, and he never laughed, and after I was done, he said, ‘That was funny,’ and I said, ‘You didn’t laugh,’ and he said, ‘I don’t want to laugh because then you’ll think you have a job.’” I said, ‘That’s OK, don’t worry about it.’”
Joy admitted that she realized that she “didn’t want the job” after all was said and done.
“It’s a little depressing to have to audition for somebody, and they don’t laugh,” she added. “I was so not ready for the stress of a job like that that I prayed that I didn’t get the job, and I didn’t.”
SNL served as a stepping stone in the careers of stars like Adam Sandler, Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy and more. Unfortunately, Joy just didn’t make the cut.
The TV host’s career has been rather successful without SNL, though, as she’s earned more than two dozen acting credits from films and television shows since her audition. Joy joined The View in 1997 and is still currently the longest-sitting cohost on the talk show.
She did take a brief hiatus from the show in 2013 but ultimately returned full-time in 2015. Joy addressed her confusing exit from the show years later.
“I was glad to be fired,” she told Time in July 2022. “I basically was sick of the show at that point for some reason, I don’t even remember why.”
The following year, Whoopi Goldberg addressed her costar’s comments during a live television segment.
“I always have friends where I work, and if I don’t have friends at the job, I will not keep the job,” Joy said during the episode of The View in February 2023. “So, when I was fired last time from this show, people say to me, ‘Were you OK with that?’ and my answer is, I was happy, because all my friends had left already. So, there was no reason to stay anymore. I mean it.”
“Really? All your friends left?” Whoopi, 68, asked.
“You had just come on, and my backstage friends had left. And I don’t like to work when I don’t have friends,” Joy replied.
