David Spade is reflecting on his past “Saturday Night Live” characters — and revealing a frequently-asked questions about the roles he chose.
“I did a character called Receptionist, where I was just being really aloof to people,” the 60-year-old said on a recent episode of his “Fly on the Wall” podcast.
“Like, ‘Oh, and you are…? And this is regarding…?’ And then people would be like, who’s that gay character you play?’”
Spade continues, “I’m like, ‘I don’t think it’s gay.’ They’re like, ‘No, you’re gay and it’s gay and every sketch you’re in is a gay person.’
Spade’s podcast cohost and former “SNL” costar Dana Carvey chimed in, teasing, “Why would your mom say that?”
“She thought I was coming out,” Spade joked back before adding on a serious note: “When I look back, I’m like, yeah, I see it.”
Some of the comedian’s sketches involved Spade playing a receptionist who didn’t recognize famous celebrities.
When MC Hammer came on the show in 1991, the sketch showed the rapper trying to see Dick Clark, but Spade’s receptionist refuses to acknowledge his shortcuts.
“Tell him it’s Hammer!” the icon declared.
Spade’s character replied, “And he would know you because…?”
The “Grown Ups” actor starred on “SNL” from 1990-1996 while Carvey, 60, was on the late night sketch show from 1986 to 1993. Carvey recently returned as an impersonator of President Joe Biden and took a moment to reflect on Spade’s performances throughout the years.
The 69-year-old said that characters like the receptionist were not necessarily about being masculine or feminine, but rather how Spade’s personality came across at the time.
“It’s just languorous, not any sexual orientation,” Carvey explained.
But Spade is no stranger to leaning into that side of his persona. In his 1997-2003 NBC sitcom “Just Shoot Me!,” the actor played Dennis Finch, an executive assistant who had once been a cheerleader in college and was suspected of being gay by his fireman father.
“I joined a little later than these guys,” Spade, who was cast for the pilot reshoot (his character was initially a smaller role and played by a different actor), said told Entertainment Weekly in 2020.
“It was already funny and [they were these] four seasoned actors that were great and I sort of saw an opportunity to be a part of that. It was fine without me, but if I jumped in then it would be just one more element to goof around…. I was just sort of running in circles in the middle of it all.”
“[The show] was not together,” co-star George Segal chimed in “That show did not come together until David joined us. That was the spark that brought that show to life.”
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