Yahoo News Heidi Gardner was afraid to break character on “Saturday Night Live” because 'I thought I'd get fired'
The comedian couldn't help laughing during a recent "Beavis and Butt-Head" sketch because costar Mikey Day looked "like a kangaroo."
Heidi Gardner was afraid she would face some pretty steep consequences if she burst out laughing while filming Saturday Night Live.
The comedian, who recently made headlines when she broke character during Ryan Gosling and Mikey Day’s hilarious Beavis and Butt-Head-themed sketch, revealed on Friday’s episode of Today With Hoda & Jenna that she was convinced she’d be fired if she fully lost it during the show.
“I just had it in my head [that] I couldn’t do it,” she explained. “I think you get this big job on SNL and you want to do your job at the best of your ability — I think maybe I thought I’d get fired.”
Saturday Night Live/Youtube
Heidi Gardner on 'SNL'Gardner, who joined the series in 2017, explained that she typically prevents herself from cracking up onstage by “biting your lip” or pulling a well-timed “yawn.” However, nothing could’ve prepared her for what happened when she turned around and saw Day staring back at her in his cartoon costume.
“A friend of mine [was] like — you know when you spike the camera? — it’s like, ‘Mikey spiked you, Heidi,’” she recalled. “He spiked me! It’s like his eyes just go… He didn’t look fully human to me. He looks like a kangaroo.”
Gardner stars as NewsNation’s Bobbi Moore in the sketch, which centers around a town hall discussion on artificial intelligence. Things quickly go off the rails when she welcomes an expert (Kenan Thompson) to the stage who gets distracted upon spotting Gosling's Beavis lookalike in the crowd. Gosling is then moved only for Day’s Butt-Head to take his seat.
In the end, Gardner told Vulture that she broke character for almost 30 seconds, despite telling herself that she couldn't laugh after cracking up during the sketch's dress rehearsal.
"I was trying to imagine seeing him in my head so I was prepared for it, but I just couldn’t prepare for what I saw. I really tried,” she said at the time. “I even saw Mikey out of the corner of my eye seconds before I went live. I saw the red shorts. I knew I couldn’t look over there again. Mikey even told me later that he was bending down and hiding himself so I wouldn’t see him."
Gardner will get another chance to keep a straight face when Saturday Night Live airs tonight at 11:30 p.m. ET. Watch her reflect on the sketch in the clip above.
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