Nora Dunn Says ‘SNL’ Writers Claimed It Was ‘Impossible to Write for Women’

After 40 years, Nora Dunn is still upset about the sexism on Saturday Night Live. 

The comedian recently shared that despite joining the show’s 11th season with three years of material, experience riffing with Robin Williams and a one-woman show under her belt, the writers were still somehow uninspired by her comedy chops. 

“Saturday Night Live pissed me off,” Dunn explained in a new interview with Chicago Magazine. “I auditioned with so many characters and so much material and thought, 'People are going to be writing for me like crazy.’ But the writers literally would say, ‘It’s impossible to write for women.’” 

This experience put a damper on her five-year SNL tenure. “I thought, I can’t wait to get out of here,” Dunn remembered. 

This isn’t the first time Dunn has opened up about SNL’s infamously awful treatment of female performers. Earlier this spring, the Working Girl alum recalled to Cracked’s Brian VanHooker how the show’s repeated misuse of its female cast members stoked tensions between her and Lorne Michaels. “While I was on the show, Lorne would sometimes come up to me and say, ‘You may be light in the show this week,’” Dunn said. “I’d say to him, ‘We’re always light in the show. We’re women, and the guys don’t write for us.’”

Dunn added that she heard this refrain so frequently that she preemptively reached out to Michaels before the start of the next season. “I sent him flowers with a card that said, ‘I understand that I’m going to be light in the show this season,’” she joked. 

Considering SNL is set to enter its 51st season with a cast of mostly white male comedians, it’s safe to say the series is still struggling with these issues four decades later.