--- ---  # Garrett Morris on _SNL_'s First Season: 'You Have to Be Very Brave to Make Fun of a Lot of What Should Be Made Fun of' by [Garrett Morris](https://time.com/author/garrett-morris/) ## Garrett Morris Feb 12, 2025 12:00 PM UTC  Garrett Morris as Chico Escuela during the 'Weekend Update' skit on May 12, 1979 Garrett Morris as Chico Escuela during the 'Weekend Update' skit on May 12, 1979Alan Singer—NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images by [Garrett Morris](https://time.com/author/garrett-morris/) ## Garrett Morris Feb 12, 2025 12:00 PM UTC I had been in show business for about 17 years before [_Saturday Night Live_](https://time.com/7026696/saturday-night-true-story-snl/) came along. I was an actor on and off Broadway. I wrote a couple plays, and I did a lot of musicals. _SNL_ was my [first television job](https://time.com/7206931/snl-stars-watch-auditions/)—a job paying me more than I had ever been paid before, and I was finally paying my rent. I’m an introvert, so I would usually just do the show and go back to my apartment. This was a mistake, because what you’re supposed to do is go to the bar, hang out with the group, and develop relationships. There were some drugs—I was a cocaine fiend, but a teetotaler when it came to alcohol. But back on set, being the one Black guy, I was just concerned about whether I’d be used at all. It was not an unusual experience to be the one Black person in a cast of mostly white people. I had to fight to get people to write for me. [Lorne Michaels](https://time.com/collection-post/3822845/lorne-michaels-2015-time-100/) came up with the premise of a sketch featuring guys on death row performing as the “Death Row Follies.” All he had was a premise. We had to go to our dressing room and come up with something. I remembered this scene from Art Linkletter, a very popular talk-show host in the 1950s, where a white lady from down South sang, “I’m gonna get me a shotgun and shoot all the n-----s I see.” I realized if I replaced _n-----_ with _whitey,_ I would have the perfect song for a Black man on death row. So that’s how I came up with that sketch. I also was proud of the fact that I came up with the idea for the “White Guilt Relief Fund” sketch. There was a running joke in the Black community about groups like the [Black Panthers](https://time.com/5938058/black-panthers-activism/), SNCC, CORE, the [NAACP](https://time.com/5903746/derrick-johnson-naacp-election/), who would regularly go out fundraising. All-Black groups got some money, but groups that had a goodly amount of white liberals got much more. People are still arguing about whether there should be reparations for slavery, and the idea of a “White Guilt Relief Fund” was a way of talking about a very serious economic subject in a comedic way. Whether you were a Democrat or a Republican, you got hit by the comedy of _SNL._ Now, the whole country is sort of sideways, so you have to be very brave to make fun of a lot of what should be made fun of. It doesn’t seem quite as courageous as it was then. There was a lot of energy, and a lot of beautiful people. I was just amazed at the brilliance of the improvisation—Gilda Radner, John Belushi, [Chevy Chase](https://time.com/archive/6908229/more-questions-with-chevy-chase/). They were all just such talented people, and I was really honored to be a part of that group.—_As told to Olivia B. Waxman_ Garrett Morris Reflects on His Tenure at 'SNL' ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7213875/garrett-morris-snl-50th-anniversary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7213875/garrett-morris-snl-50th-anniversary/"},"headline":"Garrett Morris on SNL's First Season: 'You Have to Be Very Brave to Make Fun of a Lot of What Should Be Made Fun of'","datePublished":"2025-02-12T12:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-10T23:39:00.334Z","description":"As 'Saturday Night Live' marks 50 years, the alum revisits his time as part of the first cast of the show.","url":"https://time.com/7213875/garrett-morris-snl-50th-anniversary/","keywords":["Television","freelance","Magazine","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08b7f6cd1ac0985e/6998b329f1b082f2016ef249/saturday-night-live-garrett-morris.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Garrett Morris","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/garrett-morris/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt08b7f6cd1ac0985e/6998b329f1b082f2016ef249/saturday-night-live-garrett-morris.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"saturday-night-live-garrett-morris","caption":"Garrett Morris as Chico Escuela during the 'Weekend Update' skit on May 12, 1979","creditText":"Alan Singer—NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/television/","name":"Television"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7213875/garrett-morris-snl-50th-anniversary/","name":"Garrett Morris on SNL's First Season: 'You Have to Be Very Brave to Make Fun of a Lot of What Should Be Made Fun of'"}}]}] ```