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Chris Parnell Says He “Never Really Knew” Why He Was Let Go And Then Rehired By ‘SNL’

Saturday Night Live alum Chris Parnell said he 'never really knew' why he was fired from the late-night sketch show and later rehired.

A then-writer at the show, T. Sean Shannon, even penned a “scathing” sketch to demonstrate cast ire about the decision: In an obvious dig at Michaels and other head producers, Parnell was characterized as an “amazing chef” at Benihana who had gotten fired to the confusion of the rest of the staff, which the Anchorman star said was performed at a table read “to crickets.” I never got a straight answer, and I didn’t dig too hard to try to find out what it was ’cause I don’t know that I really wanted to know.” (Parnell was let go at the same time as Abbott Elementary ‘s Jerry Minor, while Molly Shannon departed of her volition.) Shortly after his firing, he was told the door was “not completely shut” to rejoin the show but he was kept in “limbo” for a while; it wasn’t until he had moved back to Los Angeles that he was rehired, missing 12 episodes of a 20-episode season that would have been his fourth with SNL.

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