Fred Armisen Confirms ‘SNL’ Departure

Fred Armisen squashed any doubts about his departure from SNL during an interview on Monday.

The 11-year Saturday Night Live veteran said he thought his exit from the long-running sketch show was pretty obvious. The last episode included a number of references to his departure.

According to the interview posted on Splitsider, Fred Armisen is no longer an SNL cast member. As a general rule, the show doesn’t officially announce when one of its players decides to leave.

“I didn’t do any kind of official announcement, but I really felt like it was obvious,” the Portlandia star told the website.

He added, “An ending that was a love letter to all the music I grew up with, and also to my friends and to ‘SNL’ and to [creator Lorne Michaels] and to the cast. There was a lot of emotion attached to it, but it was a very positive emotion.”

Yahoo! OMG reports that Fred Armisen decided to leave SNL after Portlandia began taking up more of his time. Instead of trying to strike a balance between the two programs, the comedian decided to cut ties with Saturday Night Live.

Armisen said of his time on the sketch show:

I was there for a long time and I also felt like I came away from ‘Saturday Night Live’ feeling very well represented. I felt, and I still feel like, they let me do so much stuff that I wanted to do. Stuff that I almost didn’t even know what it was. I was like, this is kind of a little bit of an experiment, or this is just a band thing, this is just a music thing. They just let me do so much, so I felt very fulfilled.

While he may have officially parted ways with the show, the comedian will likely pop up at some point in the future. Former cast members, including Bridesmaids star Kristen Wiig, have returned to the series for guest appearances following their official exit.

What do you think about Fred Armisen leaving SNL?

[Image via Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com]