John Mayer Asks Conan O’Brien Why SNL Performers Have A ‘Coldness’ Towards Him

While speaking with host Conan O’Brien on his podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Mayer asked, “Why do you think it is that there’s a great, that the largest community of people who have hurt my feelings at parties over the years have been related to SNL?”

O’Brien, who is a former SNL writer, seemed shocked by Mayer’s question.

“What is it about the SNL experience, and I’m being very open-minded about it because it can’t be this sort of ad hoc thing where everyone at SNL is just a little pathological. What goes on at SNL? Is that the fraternity that when you do see someone from SNL at a party, first of all, do you know what I’m talking about?,” Mayer continued.

Mayer did not get specific with names but clarified that he was talking about the performers and not the writers at the show.

“It feels like a coldness because I’m open, I show up open and I show up with the weird expectation other people are gonna meet me there and there is this sort of pull away,” Mayer elaborated. “This sort of, it’s almost like someone on SNL has a difficult time pretending to be interested if they’re not. Does that check out?”

O’Brien, who was carefully tiptoeing through the conversation perhaps to avoid hurting any of his SNL friends, suggested Mayer could be feeling this way due to the musician’s love of the comedy show.

“Part of the problem is maybe you putting other people on a pedestal. That’s where I’ve been sometimes hurt before. There is a thing which is, there’s a too cool for school philosophy that can thrive at SNL. I’ve known obviously wonderful, great people there, but it is not, one of the things I think that makes SNL actually really good or has helped it endure all these years,” O’Brien said of his time on the show.

The 60-year-old comedian explained that this can occur due to the premise of the show being live, there is only a certain amount of “real estate” for sketches in the iconic Studio 8H which creates a “competition to get your sketch on”.

O’Brien went on the give a deeper understanding of how each week works behind the scenes at the beloved sketch show, admitting that the competition can get fierce and can “breed” an emotional “toughness”.

“You’re competing with other people in the room. Now that’s just the way the show is set up and I saw a lot of lovely collaboration when I was there and you can also see a very, you know, competitive, someone giving you, putting their shoulder into yours like it’s hockey and you think, ‘Jesus, what’s this?'” O’Brien added.

Mayer concluded that perhaps it’s because he represents “something kind of anti-comedy because I’m the tall musician guy or something.”

Mayer appeared on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest in October, 2003 where he performed Bigger Than My Body and Clarity and made a cameo in September 2012 where he played the guitar in both of musical guest Frank Ocean’s performances.

Watch Mayer discuss his experience with some performers from SNL below.