Spider-ManSeth Meyers says Bono tried to get him to stop making fun of
Published on December 01, 2025 EDT "He said something along the lines of 'You've had your fun, you've told your jokes, now come see the real thing,'" the "Late Night" host recalled.

After Seth Meyers repeatedly wrote Saturday Night Live jokes about Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark actors falling from the rafters, Bono insisted it was no laughing matter.

In the inaugural episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, the Late Night host revealed that the U2 frontman — who wrote songs for the infamous Marvel musical with bandmate The Edge — invited him to the show's Broadway premiere and asked him to stop mocking the production, which had seen several actors and stunt performers injured during rehearsals and previews.

Amanda Edwards/Getty; Kevin Mazur/WireImage

“I wrote way too many sketches about it. I was completely enamored with the story that people were hurting themselves — especially just people dressed like Spider-Man hurting themselves in Broadway theaters,” Meyers, who was an SNL head writer and "Weekend Update" anchor at the time, explained. “I wrote a sketch for Fred [Armisen] called Gublin and Green, where he was a lawyer who only dealt with personal injuries that happened in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, and then I got an email that seemed like a joke email but it wasn’t. I got an email from Bono, this is not a joke, inviting me to the premiere of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark."

“He said, something along the lines of ‘You’ve had your fun, you’ve told your jokes, now come see the real thing,’” Meyers continued. “Thinking like once you see it, you’ll understand there’s nothing to joke about,” Andy Samberg added.

Reps for Bono did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.

Meyers said that he ended up accepting Bono’s invitation to the premiere. “I went to opening night, and my memory of opening night of Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark — which I should say went smoothly and none of the Spider-Men, none of the Green Goblins, none of the audience, everybody walked out as they entered,” he said. “I will say, half of the audience, and I’m not gonna say which half I was in, I think was a little bummed out that nobody fell from the rafters.”

Later in the episode, Samberg reflected on his own time in various SNL sketches that required him to hang upside down from the rafters. “Every time we did it, they would always send me up like 10 minutes before the thing,” Samberg explained. “So I’d be upside down listening to you guys doing...'[Weekend] Update' jokes, and by the time they lowered me down, all the blood had rushed into my head, so my face was engorged, and by the time the feature was over, they’d bring me back down, and my eyes would have capillaries exploded all in them. In the next sketch I would look like I was on meth.”

Samberg also said he was nervous about falling from his harness. “With all the Spider-Man musical stuff happening, I was like, ‘If they are falling…’” he said. “Also, you really gotta knock on wood if you’re gonna joke on the fact that they’re falling, and in order to joke on it, you gotta rig yourself up,” Meyers added. “Karmically speaking, I was owed a fall,” Samberg concluded.

Listen to the full episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, also featuring Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, above.

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