Together, stand-up Nate Bargatze and Saturday Night Live writers Mikey Day and Streeter Seidell were able to bring “Washington’s Dream” to reality — and to air.
The sketch, which Bargatze — now the top-grossing comic in the world — has said launched his career into another stratosphere, almost didn’t make the cut, especially after it bombed during SNL‘s table read. In conversation with Vulture‘s Good One podcast, the trio (who also worked together on Bargatze’s CBS holiday special) described how “Washington’s Dream” came to be and why Bargatze threw his weight (in tons, not kilograms) behind it when executive producer Lorne Michaels was uncertain about it.
“Washington’s Dream,” which has since garnered 17 million views on SNL‘s YouTube and a round two follow-up, is a relatively simple sketch that hinges almost entirely on Bargatze’s delivery, comic timing and tone. On paper, there are more statements of facts about U.S. measurement system quirks rather than outright jokes. In it, Bargatze has an assist from SNL vet Kenan Thompson, who interjects a few times to clarify what kinds of plans George Washington has concerning enslaved people — questions that Washington categorically ignores or diverts into further statements on Fahrenheit vs. Celsius.
Day and Seidell had written the basic shape of the sketch — which Bargatze has said the likes of Tom Hanks (of David S. Pumpkins fame), Steve Martin, Martin Short and Jon Stewart have since complemented him on — well before Bargatze was tapped to host for the first time in October 2023. (“I told Tom Hanks I wrote it though,” Bargatze joked. “I go, ‘Lorne refused to let me do it.’ I said, ‘Lorne you better let me do it!”)
“It’s weird thinking now, I don’t know who was hosting when we were working on the original,” Day said, “but the original infant stages of the sketch, it’s crazy to think of anyone but Nate for Washington.”
While the end result was a rousing success, those at the table read only found it “mildly amusing,” as Day put it. “It definitely did not go good,” Bargatze recalled. Seidell added that the skit “could work, but it wasn’t a heater at the table.” Additional material, like the sketch’s references to football and Thompson’s bits, came through after talking through the script.
But come dress rehearsal, Bargatze said the sketch was straddling the line between the “in” and “out” sketches with a resounding “maybe.”
“You do have a lot more say than you think you do at SNL, so part of me was like, ‘Y’all just do [whatever], I don’t want to ruin your 50 years of television ’cause I watched [Aaron Sorkin’s] Studio 60 [on the Sunset Strip],” the comic said.
But the team was vindicated at dress rehearsal, where the sketch was placed “dead last” on the lineup. “It destroyed. It murdered at dress,” Bargatze recounted, which ultimately pushed the sketch up to second in line following the opening monologue.
Bargatze and the writers said they would plan additional installments should the former host again and would be “bummed” if it didn’t come to fruition, spitballing that they’d cut off the sketch total at two more sequels.
Watch the full interview here: