Adam Sandler Recalls Getting Fired from 'Saturday Night Live' : 'I Was Hurt'

Adam Sandler is shedding light on his unexpected firing from Saturday Night Live 24 years ago.

The actor and comedian, 53, was a staple on the NBC sketch comedy series during the early 1990s, alongside his late friend Chris Farley. But in 1995, the two were shockingly axed from the series.

In a recent interview on The Howard Stern Show, Sandler was asked if he felt vindicated when he returned to the show as host (and joked about their exits in his opening monologue) in May to pay tribute to Farley, who died in 1997.

“I might have been like that 15 years ago if I came on and did well,” Sandler told Howard Stern. “I’m f— old enough now. I realize what Saturday Night Live did for me.”

However, the Murder Mystery star acknowledged that he “was hurt” when he was fired in 1995. “At the time, it wasn’t Lorne’s [Michaels] decision. The NBC head dude, I know he didn’t like our gang. Me and Farley,” he said.

Sandler, who was on SNL for five years, said that he may had never left if he wasn’t fired.

“I’m not good at saying goodbye. They had to get rid of me sometime,” he joked, before admitting that it “put a little lump in my throat.”

“I was probably … covering the sadness up with being mad and saying ‘Oh, f— you,’ ” Sandler recalled. “But I remember when I saw Farley, he said to me, ‘Me too, they don’t want me either.’ We were both like ‘F— this s—.’ We got mad together, pretended we weren’t sad and pretended this was for the best.”

Sandler said he learned he was let go after an ambiguous conversation with his manager.

“My manager, Sandy, he was talking to me, and I said ‘Yeah, next year on the show,’ and he was like, ‘Maybe you don’t go back next year,’ ” Sandler recalled. “And I was like, ‘I don’t know, man. I still got a few more things.’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, but you did it already.’ And I was like ‘Yeah, I did it but …’ ”

“And then I was like ‘Yeah, I’ll think about it, and he’s like, ‘I think you thought about it,’ ” Sandler added.

Along with a moving musical performance in honor of Farley during his opening monologue in May, Sandler also pulled off a hilarious song called “I Was Fired” to poke fun at his old job.

“I was fired,” he sang. “I was fired, so sad to tell. Well I never saw it coming. I got fired from SNL. Between two seasons I heard a nasty rumor that I was getting the sack. I tried to call Lorne Michaels, but he never called me back.”

“I guess NBC had enough of crazy Spoonhead … but I think they just hate the Jews,” Sandler joked.

The actor was joined on stage by Chris Rock and Pete Davidson, who joked with Sandler about how he has not been fired from the show yet.

“Be patient, because it’s coming soon,” Sandler told Davidson.