The 2005 ‘Saturday Night Live’ host the cast couldn’t stand: “A piece of shit”
Choosing a guest host for Saturday Night Live has always been a popularity contest, although that sentiment can work both ways.
Whether it’s actors who have movies to promote, musicians who have singles or albums to hype, personalities who’ve seized the pop culture zeitgeist, or athletes flying high from their latest accomplishment, the comperes are usually relevant to the conversations that are going on.
That’s one part of the popularity contest, but the other is what happens when the host spends their week working on their episode. If they make the right impression and win over the right people, then there’s every chance they’ll be invited back and become a regular fixture of SNL for years to come.
If they’re a colossal arsehole, or they fall flat on their face in every sketch, then they won’t. Irritating almost every member of the ensemble cast is another way to quickly exile yourself from the show’s good graces, even if Paris Hilton was hardly cut out to be a staple of studio 8H once her 15 minutes were over.
In February 2005, when her reality TV series, The Simple Life, was at the apex of its popularity, the socialite and failed actor made her SNL debut. As an audience member and a viewer at home, it was a tough watch because she obviously wasn’t very good at it, but it sounded even worse for the comedians who were doing their best to make her feel welcome and coach her on live skits.
Hilton was so unpopular that she entered Steven Seagal territory as one of the most unanimously disliked hosts in Saturday Night Live history, with Tina Fey leading the vitriolic charge. “She’s a piece of shit,” the former writer and star declared. “People thought, ‘Ah, maybe she’ll be fun, you know, maybe she won’t take herself too seriously.'”
Unfortunately, she did. “She took herself super seriously,” Fey added. “She’s so dumb, and she’s so proud of how dumb she is.” The long-tenured cast member did also say that Hilton “looks like a tranny up close,” comments that are mightily offensive in retrospect, but she still wasn’t done.
She also revealed that Hilton turned down a sketch that had been written for her, and her own ideas amounted to her wanting “to make fun of all the girls she hates.” The reality TV staple was so distant, in fact, that the cast had bet $100 on whether or not she’d ask any of them a personal question at any point.
Seth Meyers laid down the wager, and he ended up keeping his cash because, as Fey recalled, “She asked him if Maya Rudolph was Italian.” Obviously, Maya Rudolph is not Italian, but at least Hilton did eventually inquire about one of her short-lived colleagues, even if she got it wildly wrong.
