Penn and Teller Re-create Offensive ‘SNL’ Snake-Cutting Trick 30 Years Later
On Penn and Teller: Fool Us, the magicians re-created a trick that got them in hot water back when they were featured on Saturday Night Live in 1986.
Season 11 was crazy for the show, which saw the departure of comedic legends Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Jon Lovitz, and others. They were replaced with people like Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Michael-Hall, and the magicians Penn and Teller. Needless to say, the show received a lot of complaints.
On one particular night, when Tony Danza was hosting, Penn and Teller did a trick on live television in which they cut a live snake into multiple pieces, complete with squirting blood. Of course, they put the snake back together — that’s the magic, but viewers were horrified by what they had witnessed. According to Penn, “We got the most complaints that the network had ever gotten in the history of the network with that trick.”
The duo re-created the trick in almost the exact same manner, only this time the California king snake squirted a little more blood. Apparently fake-blood technology has come a long way in 30 years.
Penn and Teller: Fool Us airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on the CW.
See a naked magician fool Penn and Teller with his card trick:
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