36 Hours to Air: Inside the Scramble to Film ‘S.N.L.’ Shorts

A man costumed as an alien warlord with a lizard-like head kisses the very large, frog-like hand of a woman whose face we can

A plastic mold of of a head sits in a dressing room atop a bin labeled "Veronika, pretape, makeup."

By Austin Considine Visuals by Amir Hamja May 15, 2026

On a recent Friday, a dozen “Saturday Night Live” cast members and the week’s host, Colman Domingo , arrived at a Manhattan soundstage. They had less than a day to film two very different short videos, each with its own set, cast, crew and technical challenges.

Every short is its own new mini-production, and every working week the crew effectively starts from scratch. They build new sets; find and fabricate props; design and craft costumes, wigs and prosthetics.

These “pretape” sketches (fake ads, music videos and other shorts) go from a writer’s imagination to television in a few days. They have been part of “S.N.L.” since the beginning.

They are essential to both its aesthetic and the smooth running of the live production. “We always need to be able to make set changes and costume changes,” Lorne Michaels, the show’s creator, explained. The pretaped sketches buy time.

Ahead of the April 11 episode, “S.N.L.” producers offered a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of a pretape shoot. To an outsider, it felt like barely controlled chaos. In reality, a finely calibrated machine was operating as designed and refined across decades.

“We’re not in the business of saying no,” said Jodi Mancuso, head of hair and wigs and a 25-year “S.N.L.” veteran. “So we make it happen any way we can.”

Domingo, wearing the alien-head skull cap and studded warlord outfit, holds still as an artist applies makeup.

A woman wearing a black smock smiles and holds up a phone that shows her face distorted to look like it morphed with a frog

A HIGH-TECH FART JOKE

Most weeks include two pretapes, shot concurrently at an Upper West Side studio while rehearsals continue at 30 Rock. Performers jump from set to set and act against body doubles or teleprompters as needed. “Even a simple scene,” said the director Mike Diva, “can become this crazy puzzle.”

One segment, directed by Diva, was “ Beastomorphs ,” an effects-heavy spoof in which four shape-shifting high school kids — played by Sarah Sherman, Tommy Brennan, Marcello Hernández and Veronika Slowikowska — battle an alien warlord played by Domingo.

By 11:30 a.m., the weekly clock was already running short. In a makeup and costuming room, Sherman sat getting her head prosthetically altered for the segment …

… which is an extended fart joke, basically. Sherman’s character sneezes and farts simultaneously while morphing, getting stuck as part human, part frog.

Sherman, who co-wrote the segment, had pitched the idea unsuccessfully before. “Sometimes Lorne doesn’t love farts,” she said. Michaels: “Normally, no, it’s not my favorite kind of comedy, but it has its place.”

“Beastomorphs” was based on a series of children’s sci-fi books from the late ’90s and 2000s called “Animorphs” and its low-budget TV adaptation.

A computer-aided image from a book cover of a boy morphing in stages into a coiled cobra.

The “ Animorphs ” aesthetic was not sophisticated, which Sherman said was part of the appeal. “It’s a weird balance to strike because we’re making fun of the bad C.G.I. from this ’90s show,” she said. The effects had to look bad “on purpose.”

To create the frog face — big wide-set eyes, giant frog mouth — Louie Zakarian, head of makeup, made an enlarged version of Sherman’s head using a prosthetic mold. In postproduction, it would effectively be a green screen for the digital distortions.

All cast and host heads are digitally scanned and 3-D printed — more efficient than the plaster casting Zakarian used to do.

Late in the sketch, Domingo’s warlord falls for the frog girl. But it is a doomed romance.

When Sherman’s character turns back into a frog, the warlord freaks out and stomps her. In early takes, Domingo bellowed in fear. Then he tried it more like “the scream of a 9-year-old girl,” he said. The crew cracked up.

The “S.N.L.” film units have seen the biggest names in comedy come through their soundstage. “They’re the best audience because they’re the most honest,” Domingo said. “They do not have to laugh because they have another job to do.”

Several faceless dummy heads sit on a shelving unit, each bearing a wig.

MEANWHILE, AT A FAKE BARBERSHOP …

As the “Beastomorphs” shoot continued, a short called “ Uneek Kutz Barbershop ” taped on the other stage. It had a cast of seven and had required the speedy construction of an ersatz barbershop.

The sketch was about a Black barbershop that offered a “radically new alternative to mental health treatment for white guys.”

The “Uneek Kutz” sketch, which starred Domingo, Brennan, Mikey Day, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson, Kenan Thompson and Jane Wickline, required plenty of wigs, like many “S.N.L.” sketches. The show has an in-house wig shop at 30 Rock and keeps more than 3,000 wigs there.

New wigs take at least 80 hours to make, so Mancuso relies on existing ones for the pretapes and modifies them as needed. “Saran Wrap, tape,” she said. “We’ve been doing it the same way for a very long time.”

Thompson , the “S.N.L.” stalwart, appeared in “Uneek Kutz” between rehearsals back at 30 Rock.

“Shout out to the wig department for always finding a new do,” he said as a hairstylist peeled the wig off his forehead. “Because this guy definitely exists: Gray dreads pulled back into an up-pony — it can’t always be Afros.”

The built sets are a marvel of ingenuity, teamwork and efficiency. Andrea Purcigliotti, a production designer, said she and her colleagues don’t know which sketches might air until Wednesday afternoon and don’t “really, truly start drafting” until about 10 p.m. that night. Construction begins late Thursday afternoon.

The barbershop set for “Uneek Kutz” was considerably more elaborate than that of “Beastomorphs.”

Decorators got clippers and scissors from a barber supply store in Irvington, N.J. They rented vintage wall art from local prop houses.

The graphics team created portraits of Barack Obama, Shaquille O’Neal, Jesse Jackson and others.

Barber chairs and other larger items were rented from a Long Island prop house.

Costuming takes a similar scramble. On Wednesday nights, Jill Bream, who oversees it for both pretape units, begins what she called a “costume design triage,” determining what’s in stock, what can be modified, what to buy.

For the barber jackets, her team called barbershops and beauty suppliers until they found the right ones. Then the in-house graphics team designed a Uneek Kutz logo and the jackets were sent to an outside vendor for embroidery.

The jackets were ready by Thursday afternoon.

Michael Che , right, who wrote “Uneek Kutz” with assistance from Carl Tart , left, observed the shoot from behind the cameras.

The production was more fluid and faster paced than that of a typical TV set. The segment director, Chris Werner, kept the cameras rolling as he called out directions and the performers adjusted, tweaking and improvising on the fly. Che offered notes.

“When you write a sketch, the production onus sort of rests on you,” Che explained later. “If the hair is wrong, if the wardrobe is wrong, if the set’s wrong, if the shot’s wrong, everything — it’s really kind of up to you.”

Patterson , who played a barber, said the freewheeling approach helped him find the “magic.” “I’ve been in a barbershop my entire life,” he said. “So I was just going on what Che and Carl put on paper but, you know, playing around with it a little bit.”

After the director yelled cut, a woman brought a platter of cupcakes. It was Patterson’s 27th birthday, and everyone sang “Happy Birthday” as he blew out the candles. “Now the Black version!” he shouted, and people joined him in Stevie Wonder’s “Happy Birthday.”

At exactly 1:59 p.m., the assistant director called out, “That’s lunch!” — a full minute ahead of schedule.

Domingo was whisked out the door by his handlers.