Garrett Morris Details The Time His Sketch Idea Was Stolen On SNL
Garrett Morris has enjoyed a long and successful career in Hollywood. In today's pop culture climate, he's arguably best known for playing Earl Washington on "2 Broke Girls," who was regularly spotted hanging out in the sitcom's most popular diner hotspot. Prior to his time on that sitcom, however, his comedic talents were highlighted on "Saturday Night Live."
Morris is one of the original cast members of "SNL." He joined the popular sketch show in 1975 and stayed on board until 1980, appearing in over 100 episodes. Throughout his tenure on the long-running series, Morris portrayed a variety of notable characters, including Chico Escuela, the Dominican baseball player, and Cliff, the streetwise friend of Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd's Festfunk Brothers.
Of course, there is more to Morris' arsenal than simply acting in funny sketches. Per IMDB, Morris also lent his writing talents to "SNL" back in the day. Unfortunately, he didn't receive the proper credit for all of the ideas he put forward, as he explained during a recent interview.
Divine intervention stopped Garrett Morris from making a mistake on SNL
Garrett Morris was a guest on "Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade," where he detailed the time one of his ideas for "SNL" was stolen. According to Morris, he got hired by "SNL" creator and producer Lorne Michaels after showing him a play that he wrote. He explained that transitioning from playwriting to penning quick sketches was difficult, but he eventually came up with a good idea that impressed director, Tom Schiller.
Unfortunately, though, Schiller made the mistake of showing it to the wrong person. As Morris recalled, "Schiller goes over to the studio and tells it to another guy, whose name I will not call. That guy then writes it down as his idea. When I come over, it's written down and he's not even giving me credit for even contributing!" According to Morris, the idea was eventually turned into a sketch called "White Guilt Relief Fund."
Garrett then recalled his plan to confront the thief, even if it meant a physical confrontation. However, Morris' talents hadn't escaped the show's higher-ups, and he was offered a job the same day he planned on potentially causing a scene. It was a moment of divine intervention for the actor. "Look, I'm a Buddhist so I don't believe in this or any person or God, but somebody really was in the works who stopped that because I was going to make a serious, serious mistake," he added.
Al Franken is the rumored thief
Garrett Morris didn't name the sketch thief, but he did reveal that he was a former wrestler who attended Harvard. Afterward, David Spade said, "Franken has some ground game," implying that Al Franken, who wrote and occasionally performed on the show at spells during the '70s, '80s, and '90s was at fault. Morris didn't exactly deny it.
Over on the "SNL" subreddit, several fans also stated that Franken was the culprit. "Garrett Morris described him as the assistant head writer, wrestling champion from Harvard. Safe to say it was Franken," u/ginopalladino wrote.
According to u/MilkfightEnterprises, Morris has told this story before, and he strongly insinuated that Franken was the person to whom he referred. "He told this story on WTF with Marc Maron, and gave a pretty obvious hint: the thief went on to become a U.S. Senator for several years." In 2008, Franken was elected to the Senate as a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
Meanwhile, u/TheRealTendonitis suggested that while the idea might have been Morris' to begin with, it's possible that it was mistakenly stolen by the former Harvard wrestler. "From what I understood, Garret told one person the idea, then that person told Al Franken. Did Al know he stole the idea or did he think this third person gave the idea to him to write?"