Throughout the history of Saturday Night Live, there have been some truly iconic sketches filmed at Studio 8H. “James Brown’s Celebrity Hot Tub,” “More Cowbell” and (the viral) Beavis and Butt-Head” sketches are among the most famous. While a number of the show’s vignettes may manage to penetrate the cultural zeitgeist, there are some that maybe don’t receive as much attention years after they air. As it turns out, there’s actually at least one sketch that series EP Lorne Michaels hated.
Seth Meyers brought up an interesting relic from SNL’s past during a recent installment of The Lonely Island with Seth Meyers podcast. During the chat, he asked his co-hosts if they remembered the “Lamps” sketch, which was performed when Hugh Laurie hosted in December 2008 amid Season 34. Meyers reached out to former head writer Rob Klein about the skit, which involved singing lamps, to receive his and co-writer Andy Samberg’s “side of the story,” and Klein didn’t hold back when sharing his recollections via voice note:
I think Andy wrote the title, and we wrote the first page of it before we had any idea that the lamps were going to sing. So, at a certain point, Andy, as a lamp, just started singing, and we were having a blast. Little did we know that the sense of fun was going to soon be replaced by one of the darkest weeks of my professional life.
Well, that last sentiment is certainly spine-tingling. “Lamps” isn’t available alongside the best SNL clips on YouTube, but it can be streamed as part of the whole episode with a Peacock subscription. The segment focuses on a lamp store populated by lamps (Andy Samberg, Kristen Wiig and Hugh Laurie), who come to life and sing once the shopkeepers (Fred Armisen and Michaela Watkins) have left for the day. In this instance though, the owners catch them lamps, who then go to extreme measures to maintain their secret.
Rob Klein explained that the sketch was pitched during a week in which there were plenty of excellent sketch ideas on the board. Adding to that pressure was the fact that fellow writers were apparently already “pissed off” by the title of the bit. And, if that weren’t enough, the big man in charge also took issue with the concept:
Soon, I find out no one is angrier about the sketch ‘Lamps’ than Lorne Michaels, who I thought picked it, so I’m not sure what happened. But I came in the next day, on Thursday, for rewrites. And I remember [producer Michael] Shoemaker telling someone, ‘Yeah, Lorne can’t tell about this one, this one thing in your sketch.’ And they’re like, ‘Oh, does he just not want to do this sketch?’ And Shoemaker’s like, ‘No, the sketch he hates is “Lamps.”’ And he looked at me, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, Lorne hates ‘Lamps.’ He doesn't think it makes sense. He doesn't understand why the lamps are singing.
Lorne Michaels has historically never been one to mince words when it comes to the creative direction of the long-running NBC show, whether it be cast changes or the handling of politically driven bits. As has been revealed, Michaels previously even disliked recurring segments on the show, though he later changed his mind on that. I can’t even imagine being in Rob Klein and Andy Samberg’s shoes when it comes to “Lamps.” Michaels was evidently curious (or worried) about its reception and even uncharacteristically watched the blocking for the sketch.
Against all odds, though, the sketch made it to air. It wasn’t exactly easy for the actors, as they had to wear the hefty lamp costumes. Still, Rob Klein said “Lamps” is one sketch “we'll never live down.” After he finished playing the voice note, Seth Meyers made a comment about how Andy Samberg still feels the effects of the sketch today:
I think Andy has real 'Lamps' trauma because people made fun of it for a long time afterwards.
Despite how the creatives behind the sketch feel about “Lamps,” it’s still a part of Saturday Night Live history and might be lovingly remembered as a sketch that is somehow both terrible and amazing. And that’s whether or not Lorne Michaels likes it or not. For more recent sketches, though, you can check out new episodes of SNL, which air on Sundays at 11:30 p.m. ET as part of the 2025 TV schedule.
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