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There aren’t many people out there who’ve been able to master the tricky art of musical comedy, but Adam Sandler can certainly hold his own on that front. He repeatedly showed off those chops during his time on Saturday Night Live, but as he recently revealed, we almost lived in a world where someone else performed “The Chanukah Song” on the show.
Adam Sandler was only 23 years old when he landed a spot in the writing room on Saturday Night Live, and he impressed enough folks in Studio 8H to get upgraded to the cast as a featured player in 1991.
Music was at the center of some of Sandman’s most memorable sketches and characters, including “Lunchlady Land” and the perfectly idiotic “Weekend Update” staple Opera Man. During his time on the show, he also whipped up songs for holidays that have been historically disrespected on the musical front—including “The Thanksgiving Song,” which made its grand debut in 1992.
Two years later, Sandler gave the same treatment to The Festival of Lights when he joined Norm Macdonald at the desk to perform “The Chanukah Song,” where he paid tribute to the holiday while name-dropping some of the people who celebrate it, including James Caan, all Three Stooges and not O.J. Simpson.
“The Chanukah Song” quickly joined “The Dreidel Song” and, well, not much else in the Hanukkah Music Canon and is easily one of Sandler’s most iconic bits. However, it turns out he almost passed on the chance to perform it.
During a recent interview with Access Hollywood, Sandler revealed he actually offered the song to the person who was hosting SNL that week but ultimately took matters into his own hands after she insisted on letting him do the honors:
“When I wrote it, that week on Saturday Night Live, Roseanne Barr was the host. They were talking about Roseanne singing it and she was nice enough to say, ‘No, let Adam do it. He wrote it. That’s his song.'”
Say what you will about Roseanne, but credit where credit is due for making the right call.