Mike O’Brien vs Betty White: O’Brien Explains What Happened to the Betty White Unicorn Sketch He Wrote
Saturday Night Live writer Mike O’Brien visited his old friend Seth Meyers on Late Night Monday night. They talked about some of Mike’s most successful work he created while SNL, as well as some of the work that didn’t work out as well. On the plus side, O’Brien wrote (and starred in) The Jay Z Story, and shared a great story about filming the now famous digital short at the Marcy Projects.
And then they talked about what infamously didn’t work, aka the unaired Betty White unicorn sketch that Mike wrote for Saturday Night Live when Betty White hosted. It was one of Meyers favorite fails and they both agreed it killed at the Wednesday table read. In the sketch, Mike said, Betty White plays a unicorn vet who has to break the news to a birthday party of 12 year old girls that all the unicorns they just got are going to have to be euthanized because they have eye infections. O’Brien said Betty White’s team was uncomfortable with the sketch because they didn’t want to be involved with anything involving cruelty to animals, and for some reason they had a hard time convincing her managers that they weren’t going to hurt any real unicorns, and that was only the beginning of the problems. Listen to the clips to hear the entire story, and check out Mike’s new album, Tasty Radio.
