David Spade’s been out and about promoting Netflix’s new movie The Wrong Missy recently; however in his spare time he’s also been watching the recently finished Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance. Spade actually met Jordan back in the day when he appeared as a host on SNL, and recently the actor shared remembrances of how Jordan was during his week on the set of the long-running late night sketch comedy.
In fact, it seems as if Michael Jordan brought a lot of positive energy to Saturday Night Live, and he brought his usual drive and dedication to the gig – even if comedy wasn’t his first passion or his biggest skill set. According to David Spade,
He was super likable as you know… He was the type of host, which was cool, who said, 'Just tell me what to do, show me what to do, I'll do my best.’ Everyone’s usually out of their element when they come from sports and they like the feedback. I was too low on the totem pole and wouldn’t have said anything anyway, but everyone was helping him along. We were doing this hilarious Washington Generals sketch where we didn't want him on our team. It was all five white guys and we didn’t want him on our team and even though he was so good, we fired him off the team. I didn’t have a line, but he said, 'You're all getting rid of me?' And looked at me said, 'Even you pee-wee???' I turned my head down in shame; it gets a laugh. But he’s so famous I forget I met him!
Michael Jordan appeared in a 1991 episode of Saturday Night Live on NBC that also featured Public Enemy as the musical guest. His monologue was also memorable, as it featured clips of commercials that Jordon could have sponsored, including a women’s hygenic product and XXX pornography. But the sketch David Spade remembers as being particularly funny was one that came later in the episode.
Although Spade recalled the episode happening in ’92 or ’93 in his interview with The Herd’s Colin Cowherd, the episode actually came a year earlier in ’91. That was a milestone year for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls as the work he did on the court netted him his first NBA championship. At that time, David Spade notes Michael Jordan was already a superstar. David Spade himself was very new to Saturday Night Live, having only started on the series in 1990, where he started as a writer.
As for Jordan, he became one of if not the first superstars on the series to really cause chaos with a cohort of people following him around. It was a phenomenon also shown in The Last Dance, but one David Spade still remembers as being a wild moment for the SNL people to this day.
He was such a superstar, he was signing so many autographs that there was a line out of his dressing room slowing down rehearsal, with basketballs. The show had to stop it. It was the first time they had to do that...
Ultimately, Michael Jordon did not go on to repeat his SNL experience. While he may not be in SNL’s famous Five-Timers Club, he did win six NBA championships, so he’s certainly in that club. You can see more from Michael Jordan’s famous SNL episode over at NBC.com.
