Billy Crystal name-drops the ‘SNL’ co-star he ‘couldn’t even look at’ during sketches

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Billy Crystal had a hard time keeping a straight face around his former “Saturday Night Live” co-star Christopher Guest.

During an Oct. 12 Q&A with Whoopi Goldberg at PaleyFest NY 2026, the comedian — who was an “SNL” cast member from 1984 to 1985 — revealed he “couldn’t even look at” Guest during sketches.

Billy Crystal had a hard time keeping a straight face around his former “Saturday Night Live” co-star Christopher Guest. (Crystal is pictured above at PaleyFest NY 2026.) The Paley Center for Media
During an Oct. 12 Q&A with Whoopi Goldberg at the festival (seen above), Crystal, who was an “SNL” cast member from 1984 to 1985, revealed he “couldn’t even look at” Guest during sketches. The Paley Center for Media

“I couldn’t look Chris Guest in the face,” Crystal, 78, said. “I did more sketches with Chris than anybody else. And we had a great group: Marty Short, Chris Guest, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Rich Hall, but Chris and I … he’s so funny.”

Guest, also 78, was a cast member during Season 10 of “SNL,” notably appearing alongside Crystal in the sketch comedy show’s recurring “Willie and Frankie” sketches.

“We did these guys; they were masochists. They would hurt themselves, and we’d go, ‘I hate when that happens,’” Crystal recalled to Goldberg, 70. “Chris makes me laugh like crazy. There were so many times I couldn’t even look at him. I would just look the other way when he had lines to do.”

Guest (pictured above during a 1985 “Saturday Night News” sketch) was a cast member only during Season 10 of “SNL,” notably appearing alongside Crystal in the sketch comedy show’s recurring “Willie and Frankie” sketches. NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
“Chris makes me laugh like crazy. There were so many times I couldn’t even look at him. I would just look the other way when he had lines to do,” Crystal said. (Crystal and Guest are seen above as Willie and Frankie during the 1984 “Willie and Frankie on Lunch” sketch.) NBCUniversal via Getty Images

The “When Harry Met Sally…” actor went on to recall how Guest, who’s married to Jamie Lee Curtis, once “switched a line” during a “Willie and Frankie” sketch.

“He was supposed to say, ‘So I went home, and I took off my clothes, and I bathed in a vat of gin, and I rolled back and forth on some push pins,’” Crystal explained. “And I went, ‘Oh.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, I hate when I do that.’”

But when it came time to perform the sketch live, Guest delivered the line a little differently.

Crystal went on to describe how Guest once “switched a line” during a “Willie and Frankie” sketch without warning him. (Crystal and Guest are pictured above as Willie and Frankie during a 1985 “Waterskiing” sketch.) NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
“He was supposed to say, ‘So I went home, and I took off my clothes, and I bathed in a vat of gin, and I rolled back and forth on some push pins.’ And I went, ‘Oh.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, I hate when I do that,’” Crystal explained. (He is seen above with Guest as Willie and Frankie during the 1985 “Messengers” sketch.) NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

“So now we’re on the air, and he goes, ‘So I stripped down to the nude,’ and I went, ‘Oh, you bastard,’” Crystal said. “It’s just a funny way of saying I got naked … and I just couldn’t control myself.”

Crystal also had high praise for Short, who was a cast member during Season 10 of “SNL,” and the late Robin Williams, who appeared on the show several times prior to his death in 2014.

“Marty [Short] is as funny as he gets,” he said. “I’ve been around amazing people, and we were blessed to be around one of the geniuses [who] I’ve ever been shoulder to shoulder with, and that was Robin [Williams].”

“So now we’re on the air, and he goes, ‘So I stripped down to the nude,’ and I went, ‘Oh, you bastard.’ It’s just a funny way of saying I got naked … and I just couldn’t control myself,” Crystal said. (He is pictured above with Guest, Martin Short and Kathleen Turner during the 1985 “Joe Franklin Show” sketch.) NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Crystal also had high praise for Short, whom he described as “as funny as he gets,” and the late Robin Williams. (Crystal is seen above with the Season 10 cast of “SNL.”) NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Beyond “SNL,” Crystal and Guest also worked together on other projects, including “This Is Spinal Tap” and “The Princess Bride,” both directed by the late Rob Reiner, who died alongside his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, in December 2025.

Most recently, Crystal opened up about his final conversation with Rob before the filmmaker was fatally stabbed at his Los Angeles home.

“We had spent the night before together and [were] talking about our careers together,” Crystal said during an April appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

Crystal and Guest also worked together on other projects, including “This Is Spinal Tap” and “The Princess Bride,” both directed by the late Rob Reiner. (Crystal is pictured above at PaleyFest NY 2026.) Getty Images
Crystal recently opened up about his final conversation with Rob before the filmmaker was fatally stabbed at his Los Angeles home in December 2025. (Crystal is seen above at the “SNL” 50th anniversary special last year.) Getty Images

The pair, who had chatted at Conan O’Brien’s 2025 Christmas party, discussed how the movie business had “changed” over the years.

“We talked about the fact that you can’t control how a movie is going to do. What you can control is the experience of making it,” Crystal recalled. “And the experiences that we had together and that he had with his cast of his other movies was so extraordinary.”

“He said, ‘That’s something you’ll always have. Hits are great to have, but it’s the people that you hold on to,’” Crystal added. “And so I kept that in my heart.”

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