Zach Galifianakis Shares His Failed Britney Spears-Based SNL Sketch Pitches
Zach Galifianakis shared the pitches he made to Britney Spears when she hosted Saturday Night Live in 2000. Galifianakis is known for his idiosyncratic brand of humor, but it wasn't until The Hangover premiered in 2009 that it caught on for the general public. At the time, that film became one of the highest-grossing R-rated movies of all time and Galifianakis' role opened him up to a slew of other opportunities in the industry. Still, he has maintained the same brand of humor throughout his career that has inspired both endearment and hilarity.
Spears, of course, is a world-renowned pop star who burst onto the scene in the late 1990s with her sugary sweet music. Since then, she has become one of the most successful musical acts of all time, landing her a spot amongst the greats. The singer has dabbled in acting a few times, most notably with the 2002 film Crossroads in which she had the lead role. Spears' other credits include several cameos and various appearances in television shows, primarily as herself.
Galifianakis appeared on Literally! with Rob Lowe and described two sketches he had pitched to Spears for her first stint on the show. One involved Will Ferrell, who had been on SNL since 1995, as a security guard for Spears' belly button. Galifianakis recalls the pop star's belly button always being exposed during the early years of her career and Ferrell was to be shrunk down and projected inside of it. After that one bombed in the pitch room, Galifianakis was able to pitch a sketch to Spears directly. Galifianakis describes the skit as joke-less, with Spears being interview on Entertainment Tonight when, in the middle of the sketch, blood starts pouring from her mouth.
I remember exactly what they were. I remember one of them that bombed so hard. I had written some for Britney Spears. Two things. One of them was… I wanted Will Ferrell to play a security guard to her belly button and we were going to shrink Will Ferrell down to just hangout inside of her belly button because her belly button was always exposed then and I thought she needed to protect it.I feel like a tumbleweed went right across the writer’s room table, and a cricket riding it [when I pitched it].
I remember pitching something to Britney Spears, just the two of us. So, I got a little office and she was very nice, she came in and I was nervous because I don’t know what I’m doing. And this poor young lady… She goes, “What do you have for me?” And I go, “Well, uh…You’re being interviewed by Entertainment Tonight. There’s no jokes. And during the middle of the interview you just start bleeding from the mouth. She looks at me, and then she looks at the ground, and then I looked at the ground, and she looks back up at me, I look at her, and she goes, ‘Yeah, that’s funny.' And that was it, but I never wrote that one out.
Spears seems to have a good sense of humor thanks in part to her appearances on various shows like Will & Grace, How I Met Your Mother, and Glee, but the singer hasn't appeared on Saturday Night Live since November of 2013. Spears continues to be in headlines, though, both for her music and for her personal life that has been exploited by the tabloids. The documentary Framing Britney Spears recently premiered on Hulu and examined her relationship with the tabloids and the conservatorship that she has been in since her public reaction to the mounting pressures of fame and living under the microscope.
Framing Britney Spears has spurred more public interest in the #FreeBritney movement and there are now several more projects in the works that intend to re-examine the way she was treated by fans and the media in the early 2000s. Netflix has a documentary on Spears in the works and the singer is reportedly interested in telling her own story one day in a sit-down interview, possibly with Oprah Winfrey. Saturday Night Live may have been the first time Spears flexed her comedic muscles, but it wasn't the last, and Galifianakis' kind words about the singer reflect the warmhearted and humorous person many have known her to be.
Source: Literally! with Rob Lowe
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