Silverman received national exposure after earning a role on the 1993–94 season of Saturday Night Live. She was a writer and featured player at the time, but was fired after one season because she wrote only one sketch that survived to dress rehearsal, with none ever airing. Bob Odenkirk, a former SNL writer who knew her from her stand-up act in Los Angeles, explained why she was fired: “I could see how it wouldn’t work at SNL because she’s got her own voice, she’s very much Sarah Silverman all the time. She can play a character but she doesn’t disappear into the character—- she makes the character her.” Silverman claims being fired by SNL in an undignified manner (via fax), upset her greatly. The situation was parodied when she appeared on The Larry Sanders Show episode “The New Writer”, in which she plays Sander’s new staff writer, whose jokes are not used because of chauvinism (and associated bias of the male chief comedy writer), who favors the jokes of his male co-writers. She had a recurring role on Larry Sanders for its last several seasons.
