Ego Nwodim is confessing that she was “sincerely stunned” when the Saturday Night Live audience cursed during her Miss Eggy “Weekend Update” segment during the April 5 live show.
During a recent interview with Collider, the actress and comedian recalled the shocking season 50 moment when some people in the audience shouted “shit” in response to Nwodim/Ms. Eggy’s question, “Cory Booker out here with his filibuster — shoot, I’ve had my fill of busters. ’Cause these men ain’t what?” While the curses were audible during the live broadcast, they were removed for rebroadcasts.
“We did not anticipate that happening,” Nwodim said. “We ran it at dress rehearsal, it did not happen. If it had, it would have been nixed. Then at air, it happened, and I was stunned. I was stunned. But you see me when they say they guess ‘play,’ I’m stunned, because again, they’re not supposed to say anything. She’s kind of this old-school comedian who is a bit problematic and out of touch, right? And swears she’s a big deal and swears she’s killing. But with very mid jokes, if you ask me, mind you, we pitched them, and, so I, didn’t see that coming. When they said ‘shit,’ I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh’ on air.”
She added that right after it happened, she instantly thought that creator Lorne Michaels’ “gonna be mad at y’all.”
While Nwodim said the incident “did throw me for a loop,” she was also surprised “it didn’t occur to any of us” that the audience may do that.
“I was sincerely stunned,” she added. “And it was really cool. Honestly, it tickled me that they did that. Then I got to do a thing that I love so much, which is improvised in character. That was an amazing experience to get to do that, and so rewarding and so fun and rewarding and possibly costly.”
Nwodim noted that she doesn’t know if SNL got fined by the FCC, as the agency prohibits “television broadcasts of indecent material between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.” She added, “I don’t think so. But anyway, fun time. It was like a little dance with the audience. We were dancing. We were grooving.”
