Louis C.K. Told Lorne Michaels “F**k You” After ‘SNL’ Monologue Clash

By Mark Graham @unclegrambo
Published June 23, 2015, 3:30 p.m. ET

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Louis C.K. has proven to be one of the more effective Saturday Night Live hosts of the last few years, particularly in the way that he stirred the pot with scandalous monologues that cover such hot button issues as racism, pedophilia and the Middle East. That said, according to a juicy tidbit featured in Judd Apatow’s new book (and unearthed by Splitsider), C.K. and SNL head honcho’s relationship nearly melted down before it had a chance to blossom.

According to an interview Apatow conducted with C.K. for the former’s book Sick In The Head, the successful stand-up got into a kerfluffle with Lorne Michaels over the proposed length of his monologue for the March 2014 episode he hosted. Michaels apparently was not pleased with the pacing of the set, which resulted in this exchange:

“It’s like meeting the president. It’s, like, very important. And [Michaels] says ‘So you did twelve minutes in the monologue. How much do you want to do on-air?’ I said ‘I want to do all twelve.’ and he goes, ‘You’re not doing twelve.’ He goes, ‘It was good but there was a lot of air in it, a lot of stopping and starting. I know there are cuts in there.’ My face turned red. I was angry. I was like, ‘Well, I don’t know. I thought it was pretty good. And fuck you.’ I was really mad.”

Whoa! Nobody, and we mean nobody, talks to Lorne Michaels this way and lives to tell the tale! We weren’t there, nor have we spoken to Lorne about it, but we’re guessing that C.K. might have been exaggerating a bit in an effort to impress Apatow. If things had really gotten this feisty with Michaels, a famously non-confrontational individual, we highly doubt that C.K. would have been subsequently invited back to host the show (as he did in May 2015). And, as the story goes on, we learn how Michaels de-escalated the situation with one of his trademark deadpan retorts:

And then later this woman comes in and says, ‘Uh, we’re one minute under.’ And so I go, ‘Then I’m doing twelve.’ And Lorne turns to me and goes ‘Calm down.’ I was really insulted. He said ‘I’ll give you seven and nobody’s ever done seven.’ And I said, ‘What if it goes long? What if I go over and end up doing ten or more?’ And he goes, ‘Then we’ll know that you’re very undisciplined and unprofessional.’ And everybody laughed.”

And you know what? The audience ended up laughing, too. You can watch CK’s monologue from this evening—which, btw, ended up running about 9 minutes—below.

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