David Spade and his funniest one-liners bring a certain type of matter-of-fact energy to the table that is uniquely his own. It’s something that can be troublesome, but continues to resonate against fellow Saturday Night Live peers Chris Farley’s larger-than-life and Adam Sandler’s off-the-wall energies. And just like his characters, he can’t help but laugh during some odd moments. Spade reveals how he couldn’t stop chuckling throughout an awkward moment on an Adam Sandler set.
That Sandler movie was The Wrong Missy. That particular anecdote arose because the source of laughter, Bobby Lee, was a guest on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s podcast. While Lee only had a small role in the film (and was invited personally by Spade), as a check-in desk employee, he left a big mark on set. Apparently, he couldn’t hit his single line, “Mr. and Mrs. Tim Morris. Welcome to Alawan,” straight enough.
The MadTV actor went from feeling comfy and buddy-buddy on set with his one line and slew of familiar faces to completely uneasy after Sandler had notes for him. He said:
I’m on set, feeling good, it’s outside. Hawaii! … Everyone on the set is a friend of mine. ‘Action!’ You know what I mean? [Mimics line from film] Then, I hear, ‘Stop!’ from video village. It’s Sandler, who never comes [to set] . He comes down and he goes, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ And I go, ‘Oh hey, Adam!’ He goes, ‘What are you doing?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, it’s more natural, do more natural.’ So I go, ‘Okay.’ ‘Action’ again. I do it again. ‘Stop!’ He comes back.
What a time that must have been! The 57-year-old comedian is known for his goofy voices and silly antics in projects, so to see him flop a single cleaner line is pretty hilarious. Even still, the dream-like scenario was shaken pretty quickly for the cameo actor, even with the continuing A+ Sandler set conditions.
That’s when Spade jumped in and explained why giggles started erupting between him and other cast members. The continuing miss-mark of the lone sentence and the call of redoing it emitted an energy that felt “tense and weird.” And the feeling only persisted because everyone was tired, as Spade shares:
Now, me and Lauren [Lapkus] start laughing, because it’s so tense and weird. Adam wasn’t being mean, [but] it got tense because Bobby kept nervously missing it by a hair, and then they go, ‘Stop.’ They stop again [and] they go, ‘Okay, on this one, just normal.’ You hear them yelling it, and we all start going, ‘Oh my God,’ because everyone’s so tired. Also, Sandler’s kids are in the scene [making it worse] .
I can’t imagine being on either side of this coin, to be frank. Obviously, this just off-center delivery is more than commonplace for anyone working on a set, but the circumstances make it all the odder but funnier.
While Lee wasn’t the only one who had issues in scenes (parts were tricky for Spade to film), he apparently had quite a time hitting this one. The movie’s lead, after every take, asked if it was it. And each time they had to take it from the top, as the Joe Dirt star said:
So everyone’s very nice, but Adam is just like, ‘Just say it straight,’ and then it was so matter of fact. That’s why we started laughing, because we’re like — every time he said it, I’m like, ‘Is that the one?’and it was like, ‘Nope!’
Oof. I can only imagine Lapkus and Spade trying to hold in their fits of laughter during the awkward vibes. There’s nothing worse than trying to stifle a laugh because it generally only makes you want to do it more! This story certainly incentivizes me to go catch The Wrong Missy with my Netflix subscription to watch the infamous delivery.
And thankfully, it seems like the “tense and weird” feeling was simply a flub because Lee is a part of the highly anticipated 2025 Netflix guideSandler sequel, Happy Gilmore 2. As for where we can learn about Spade giggling next, that remains to be seen since all of his projects are in production.
