James Franco’s fourth go at hosting Saturday Night Live this past weekend marked one of the show’s better turns in an uneven season, but one sketch was an unmitigated disaster (and not one that would require an “artist” to pull off). In it, Franco plays an enthusiastic Bloomingdale’s gift wrapper who can’t stop bleeding all over the presents (and those getting them wrapped). As we wrote in our recap of the episode, Franco “can’t keep himself from laughing at the carnage and there’s no comic discipline at work in the deployment.” We also noted the “jarringly realistic” reactions Leslie Jones was having to it all. Turns out there was a reason for that—she was truly on the verge of blowing chunks everywhere.
At what seems like the prompting of Franco, Jones took to Instagram after the sketch to explain how Franco’s sloppy gags “fucking traumatized me.” After blood flew into her mouth, it was met with some rising bile that Jones was, thankfully, able to swallow so she wouldn’t “throw up on national f*cking live TV.” See it below.
The sketch is a mess from start to finish, but you can tell that Franco and Kenan Thompson both can see the trauma unfolding on Jones’ face. Watch closely and you can even see the moment she swallows the mixture of fake blood and puke, because after a slight bend for momentum, she stands up with a triumphant, yet wounded, growl.
Still, can you imagine how legendary this sketch would’ve become had she thrown up?