Steve Martin Blames ‘SNL’ Alum for Giving Martin Short COVID

Martin Short caught COVID after Saturday Night Live’s 50th anniversary special on Sunday, and Steve Martin knows exactly where he got it from.

Martin, who gave the opening monologue at SNL’s three-hour telecast, revealed in an Instagram post Friday that the 74-year-old Short isn’t the only one who came down with the illness after the event.

“Maya had Covid. Marty has Covid. I wonder why?” he wrote in a caption accompanied by a photo of Maya Rudolph kissing Short on the lips at the show.

“The SNL 50th Covid curse is real,” Martin also wrote, noting that he and Short now have to reschedule their “sold out” upcoming shows in Durham and Knoxville so Short can recover. “I think we’ll be funnier then, anyway.”

Later in the day on Friday, original SNL cast member Laraine Newman, 72, who was also at the event last weekend, posted a photo of her flu medication on Instagram with the caption “SNL50.”

And Whoopi Goldberg, 69, who was also part of the SNL50 festivities, has been out for much of the week at The View after co-host Joy Behar revealed she had come down with the flu as well. “It’s going around, be careful,” Behar warned.

30 Rock’s Studio 8H was packed on Sunday, with celebrities and SNL stars past and present. Ironically, Colin Jost had joked about the likelihood of an outbreak during Sunday’s “Weekend Update.”

“Health experts are facing increased pressure this winter in the face of outbreaks of COVID, the flu, RSV and norovirus, which they’re calling a quaddemic,” he said. “So we did the smart thing and packed every beloved entertainer over 60 into one tiny space.”

No word yet on who else in the room caught the virus, but judging by the close proximity of all the entertainers in the room, the chances of other announcements or cancellations seems likely.

While the internet has had a field day with the possibility of romance between Short and Meryl Streep, they are “close friends” and “nothing more” as Short put in on Bill Maher’s podcast last year. But it’s possible Streep wouldn’t have escaped infection considering the pair’s coziness during SNL’s 50th festivities.

SNL alums Dana Carvey and David Spade joked about Short and Streep on their Superfly podcast on Friday. “I guess [Streep] and Martin Short are friends…” Carvey said on the episode.

“If they are together, fun,” added Spade, who attended the special as Carvey missed out to recover from the flu. “Those two look like a blast.”