The skit in question aired in 2015 as part of the 40th anniversary of "Saturday Night Live" in an event suitably called "SNL 40" (via Twitter). In it, Melissa McCarthy portrayed Matt Foley, the failing motivational speaker who lives in a van down by the river. The character was created for and originated by Chris Farley, a comedy legend who passed away in 1997. McCarthy has gone on the record to say that she considered Farley to be one of the greats. "I put him up on a pedestal," she said in a 2022 radio interview with Andy Cohen.
For her, paying tribute to the character must have been an immense honor. As previously mentioned, though, it wasn't easy, and it was all the harder because "SNL" literally fitted her with Farley's original costume. "It was really his jacket," she said. "And they just kind of like clipped it back, and they're like, 'We're gonna take it in, but we don't wanna damage it.'"
McCarthy described how she felt in the moments before she made her debut as the character. "It was the one time right before I came through the door, I was so nervous that the sweet stage manager came up and he goes, 'Honey, are you okay?' My legs were bouncing to the point where I couldn't, I was holding onto the door. And I was like, 'I don't know if I can get the handle open.' Because I couldn't, I was not in control of my body. And I've never done that before. I was just rattled."
