David Spade was shocked by current “SNL” cast being so lax with Lorne Michaels: 'That floors me'

These new kids on the block have it too easy - or so David Spade thinks.

The comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member recalled current cast member Sarah Sherman telling him that she "texted [Lorne Michaels] and said, 'Why did my sketch get cut?' I'm like, you text Lorne? That floors me."

Spade's Fly On the Wall podcast cohost Dana Carvey concurred, asking incredulously, "As a cast member? During the show?"

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Spade and Carvey's humorous shock belies very real surprise. The Michaels they knew during their tenures on the show - from 1990-1996 and 1986-1993, respectively - was apparently never someone to approach with Sherman's casual familiarity.

Spade expanded upon the anecdote, remembering that "Lorne was giving notes when I did Hunter Biden" on the Dec. 7 episode of the long-running comedy program. "We're all sitting there and Lorne's got a microphone and he's like, 'Cold open.' He starts reading and then he goes, 'Sarah' - because she was Matt Gaetz - 'maybe you gotta face... you're not in the light enough. Can you face more towards the middle?' She goes, 'I'll try.' I'm like, 'How about yes, sir?'"

Michaels created Saturday Night Live and has produced the show since 1975. He's taken SNL to 21 Emmy awards, successfully staved off cancelation across six decades, and handpicked and mentored future comedic superstars.

He's a legend in both comedy and television, and it takes a strong character to forge such an impressive path in the industry. Though there are scant accounts of Michaels being outright hostile or hard to work with, some who've worked closely with him have described an intimidation factor at play.

O'Brien shared in the recent book Live From New York: The Complete, Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live (via Esquire) that Michaels "has a standard joke if you're a rookie writer and he doesn't know you that well. He passed me in the hall once, and he said, 'Still with the show?' Then he acted mildly surprised, as if to say, 'I thought we got rid of you.'"

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Bowen Yang shared a Michaels anecdote last September, however, that depicts Michaels as nothing but warm and encouraging. "I think Lorne at one point was hanging out with [Aidy Bryant] and kind of chuckling about it like, 'I think Bowen sees me as a mountain to climb, and I don't want him to think that anymore...' That kind of gave me the encouragement to go up to him and be like, 'oh, we can relate to each other on a human-to-human level,' which I never thought would happen with him."

Michaels is still as involved as ever with SNL's historic 50th season, which aired its last regular episode on Dec. 21. But several specials are still to come, including the three-hour Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special, to air February 16th on NBC.

You can watch the rest of Spade and Carvey's "Superfly" segment below

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