Andy Samberg & Bill Hader Accidentally Intimidated Each Other While Auditioning For SNL

It's no secret that one of the most coveted jobs in entertainment is also one of the most stressful. Anyone who has been a cast member of "Saturday Night Live" will tell you that they were often filled with anxiety when putting new episodes together in a single week, and one of the best bits in the "SNL 50" anniversary celebration was an SNL Digital Short about that constant pressure. In fact, plenty of well-known cast members who went on to bigger comedy careers outside of the late night sketch comedy show struggled with the competition and pressure of putting on a live program each week. That includes Andy Samberg and Bill Hader, who not only joined the show at the same time but ended up accidentally intimidating each other during the audition process.

In one of the documentary episodes of "SNL 50: Beyond Saturday Night" on Peacock, Hader and Samberg each recount a story that's well-known to longtime "SNL" fans. Hader recalled heading to his audition:

"I came in the elevator at 30 Rock, and there was another guy there that had a ton of props, and I was looking at him going, 'Oh man, this guy brought props. I didn't bring props. S***.'"

It turns out that guy was none other than Andy Samberg, who also remembers this exact moment, but for him, the thought process went a little differently. Samberg said:

"I had this big bag of props and wigs with me, because I was like, 'I'm gonna show them all these characters with these incredible props I bought at the Halloween store.' And I remember looking over at Bill thinking, 'Oh God, he doesn't have anything with him. He doesn't need any literal props to prop him up. I'm screwed.'"

As we all know, Hader and Samberg would both go on to land roles as cast members on "SNL," and they each made an impact on the late night sketch comedy series in their own way. 

Samberg and his cohorts from The Lonely Island ("The Naked Gun" director Akiva Shaffer and "MacGruber" director Jorma Taccone) would usher in a new era on "SNL" thanks to the creation of the SNL Digital Short, a gamechanger for the network series that was maybe on the cusp of becoming a little more irrelevant as the digital age of comedy on the internet was on the rise.

Meanwhile, Hader became one of the show's most reliable impressionists, delivering perfect impersonations of Al Pacino, Vincent Price, Alan Alda, John Malkovich, and many more. But he was also a great source for original characters like Italian talk show host Vinny Vedecci, awkward, geriatric local news reporter Herb Welch, and Weekend Update staple Stefon. 

The fact that both of these comedic talents thrived on "SNL" at the same time is a testament to how the sketch show has adapted to the changing face of comedy over the years while tapping up-and-coming talent at the same time. The fact that two comedians with very different approaches to mining laughter can carve out a niche for themselves on "SNL" and join the ranks of the most memorable cast members is just one of many drops in the bucket for showrunner Lorne Michaels and his team's ability to find unique voices in comedy. 

But "SNL" isn't for everybody, and for every Samberg and Hader, there are other comedians who just didn't jibe well with the show's comedic sensibilities or the pressure of putting on a live episode each week. It doesn't mean they're not good comedians, as many short-lived cast members have gone on to comedic greatness elsewhere. "SNL" is just one of many avenues that harvests brilliance in comedy, and it's still doing so today, even if every sketch isn't a home run.