We’ve been waiting for Colin Jost and Michael Che to follow through on their promises to move on from the Weekend Update desk, but instead a different, more recent Saturday Night Live partnership is splitting up. Please Don’t Destroy—the comedy trio consisting of Ben Marshall, John Higgins (son of SNL producer Steve Higgins), and Martin Herlihy (son of former SNL head writer Tim Herlihy)—will split up ahead of the 51st season. According to Vulture, Higgins is exiting “to pursue acting projects,” while Herlihy will stay on as a writer. Marshall, meanwhile, has been promoted from writer to cast member alongside four other new hires announced on Tuesday.
Please Don’t Destroy has always garnered comparisons to The Lonely Island, as both groups were hired as goofy young guys who made digital shorts together. This latest evolution only begs further comparison to PDD’s musical predecessors. Now, like Lonely Island, the group has one member doing sketches as part of the main cast and two members who spent their tenure as writers who frequently showed up in digital shorts. Both groups made arrested-development buddy comedies during their tenure on the show (2007’s Hot Rod and 2023’s Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure Of Foggy Mountain). The Lonely Island also peeled off one by one, with Akiva Shaffer (director of The Naked Gun) exiting in 2010 to work on other projects, followed by Jorma Taccone in 2011 and Andy Samberg in 2012. But they continued to reunite and make silly comedies together after leaving Saturday Night Live, which will hopefully also be the case for Please Don’t Destroy, as Vulture reports that the group is not breaking up for good.
It’s a shame to see them go, as PDD injected a necessary youthful energy to the show upon their hiring in 2021, after going viral for their pandemic-era TikTok sketches. But following this tradition (which also worked in favor of season 50 newbie Jane Wickline), Saturday Night Live has picked up some other talent you may recognize from online. That includes Veronika Slowikowska, who has amassed a following of almost 1.7 million across Instagram and TikTok for her video sketches (she also appeared in the Prime Video rom-com EXmas, Shane Gillis’ sitcom Tires, and an episode of Poker Face). Similarly, new hire Jeremy Culhane has had a few viral hits on TikTok in addition to being a regular on Dropout TV and co-hosting the improv podcast Artists On Artists On Artists On Artists.
As is tradition, SNL also brought on some fresh blood from the stand-up side of things. Tommy Brennan was named a Just For Laughs New Face Of Comedy in 2023 and has performed on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. Kam Patterson has made frequent appearances on Kill Tony and will make his feature film debut in Netflix’s 72 Hours alongside his future SNL co-stars Marshall and Marcello Hernández.
