They had the decency to ask nicely, so their wish is Saturday Night Live‘s command — no, Please Don’t Destroy has not been destroyed.
The comedy trio composed of John Higgins, Ben Marshall, and Martin Herlihy reunited on stage at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Ore., on Friday for the first time since last week’s gauntlet of SNL casting news cast doubt on the group’s continued existence.
“How’s everybody’s week goin’?” Higgins jokingly asked the crowd, as Herlihy doubled down on the aloof bit by following up, “Anything go on this week?”
After the shocking announcements of departures from cast members like Heidi Gardner, Devon Walker, Michael Longfellow, and Emil Wakim, the veteran comedy sketch comedy program opened a floodgate of additions, including Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Kam Patterson, Veronika Slowikowska, and PDD’s Marshall.
It wasn’t just Marshall’s promotion that drew a question mark over Please Don’t Destroy, who have been producing digital shorts for SNL since 2022, but Higgins’ announcement that he’s also departing the show.
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty
“It’s PDD forever, baby,” Higgins told the Aladdin Theater crowd, with Marshall backing him up with a heartfelt, “What he said.”
The recent historic 50th season of SNL marked PDD’s fourth producing digital shorts in a capacity so similar to Jorma Taccone, Andy Samberg, and Akiva Schaffer’s tenure doing the same as The Lonely Island that Dakota Johnson referred to them as “The Lonelier Island” in the 2024 short “Roast.”
That short, along with the John Mulaney and Paul Rudd-starring “Good Variant” and Taylor Swift and Pete Davidson-starring “Three Sad Virgins” went viral, reviving interest in the show’s parallel block of shorts that drew so much attention during the Lonely Island era.
Higgins memorialized his time on the show in an emotional post shared to his Instagram on Tuesday which read in part, “Thank you to everyone who made my time there so special, it made this decision that much harder. But for now, I’m excited to pursue acting opportunities that I’ll announce soon but today I’m just grateful for everything we got to do.”
Both Herlihy and Marshall commented on their troupe-mate’s post, with the former enthusing, “Love u so much my guy,” and the latter echoing, “Love you forever brother.”
Beyond SNL, Please Don’t Destroy wrote and starred in the wacky 2023 adventure film Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain, which co-starred Conan O’Brien, Megan Stalter, and SNL stars Bowen Yang and Chloe Troast.
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Saturday Night Live returns for season 51 on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.
