Michaels said he canned him midseason because “it had to be done,” EW noted. Before his unauthorized improv, Wayans said in the doc he was warned by “SNL” great Eddie Murphy that as a Black man he would be pigeonholed into certain characters, so he’d better write his own, Deadline reported.

SNL cast member A. Whitney Brown defended Lorne's decision to fire Damon by explaining, "You cannot go rogue, you cannot try to steal a sketch. A lot of people don't know this about Saturday Night Live, but the actual amount of improvisation on that show is miniscule, maybe one line a year, I would bet one line every five years."

The comedian looks back on "purposely" jeopardizing his position due to frustrations with creative direction in a docuseries on the sketch comedy.

Damon Wayans is opening up on the circumstances surrounding his firing from “Saturday Night Live” in 1986, admitting he “purposely” got himself canned.