Kumail Nanjiani’s First SNL Appearance Earned Him An Apology From Jason Sudeikis

On September 20, 2008, James Franco hosted the second episode of “Saturday Night Live” season 34. In a sketch in which Franco plays a New York Times editor preparing his staff for a six-week investigative trip to Alaska, Kumail Nanjiani appears as one of the journalists gathered in the meeting room. In the skit, Jason Sudeikis basically plays Jason Sudeikis but ostensibly he’s Ted Boucher, a Times staffer who in 1988, “spent the summer as a reporter with the Anchorage Daily News,” thereby establishing himself as the person who knows, “more about Alaska than anyone the Times has ever heard of.” The sketch consists of journalists asking ridiculously uninformed questions about Alaska, while Sudeikis tries to field them.

Nanjiani spoke about his experience with “SNL” alums Dana Carvey and David Spade for their “Fly on the Wall” podcast, where he revealed that his two-line part actually started as a three-line part:

“I have three lines, and at dress [rehearsal] […] Sudeikis messed up his line, and it threw me so much in dress that I messed up my line. I just literally stumbled my words. So then suddenly when I get the script for air, now I have two lines instead of three lines.”

Clearly having taken note of his own mistake, the “Ted Lasso” star actually apologized to Nanjiani prior to performing the sketch live. As Nanjiani explained:

“I remember it was really cool, we’re starting the sketch, I don’t know Sudeikis at all, he’s there while we’re about to do the live [show], and he looks at me and he says, ‘I’m sorry.’ He apologized to me. It meant a lot to me.”