‘Saturday Night’ Beef: The Cast Members Who Loathed Each Other the Most

Chevy Chase vs. Bill Murray

While there have been plenty of SNL spats, few of them have come to physical blows. Chase and Murray are an exception, with both comedians getting in a few good licks. When Chase came back to host in the show’s second season, Murray wasted little time in confronting the man he replaced about what an asshole he’d been on the show. Insults turned to shouts, with Chase comparing Murray’s face to something astronaut Neil Armstrong had landed on and Murray telling Chevy to “go fuck your wife, she needs it.” 

According to Laraine Newman in Live From New York, that insult turned the fight physical. “It was ugly,” she remembered. “I’d never seen guys fighting like that, let alone people I knew.”

Eddie Murphy vs. David Spade

Spade found his best SNL character in David Spade, the snarky Weekend Update guy who skewered celebrities. One of the bits featured SNL legend Murphy, who’d released two flop comedies in a row. Spade stuck in the knife, welcoming viewers to catch the falling star.

Murphy got on the phone and ripped Spade a new one: “David Spade, who the fuck do you think you are?!?! Honestly? Who. The. Fuck. Going after ME??? You dumb motherfucker! I’m off-limits, don’t you know that? You wouldn’t have a job if it weren’t for me. Talking shit about me?!?!?”

Mike Myers vs. Dana Carvey

The Wayne’s World stars have kissed and made up but the two comics were estranged for years. Carvey believed that Myers not only gave him short shrift in the Wayne’s World movies but stole his Lorne Michaels impression, complete with the pinky to the mouth, for Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers films. “When I saw Mike do it, I did kind of go, ‘Hmmm…’” Carvey told Howard Stern. “But it’s a long time ago and look, it’s a really funny affectation because it’s so specific.”

Norm Macdonald vs. Chris Kattan

For some reason, Macdonald flat-out disliked Kattan. “I don’t know, but to me he seems gay,” Macdonald told Rolling Stone. “He claims he’s not, but I’ve never seen, like, a guy who’s not gay seem so gay. I don’t find him funny. What can I say? Never made me laugh.”

Apparently, the feeling was mutual. “Norm gives me a hard time,” Kattan said in the same article. “If Norm says I’m gay, then put in that I say he’s an asshole.”

Nora Dunn vs. Jan Hooks vs. Victoria Jackson

“I just have a particular repulsion to grown women who talk like little girls,” Hooks said of Jackson in Live From New York. “She was like from Mars to me.”

Again, the feeling was mutual. Writer Terry Turner remembered a meeting where Jackson stood on a chair, calling Dunn a bitch and claiming Hooks was the devil. (This was during a discussion of how the cast could better get along.)

Pete Davidson vs. Louis C.K.

“So, Louis C.K. tried to get me fired from SNL my first year, and this is that story,” Davidson explains in his first comedy special. The problem? Davidson was smoking weed in his dressing room, and in Davidson’s version of the story, Louis C.K. didn’t like it. The older comedian complained to Lorne Michaels, who had to call Davidson in like a vice principal disciplining the kid who drew penises on the bathroom stall with a Sharpie. Davidson wasn’t in actual trouble, but he was mad at Louis for snitching all the same.

When women accused C.K. of indiscretions years later, it must have seemed like karma. “I didn’t want it to happen," Davidson says, “but if it was gonna happen to anybody, I’m glad it was him.”