David Spade Shot Down David Bowie’s Plea for the “Funnier Part” in a 1991 ‘SNL’ Sketch

David Spade couldn’t be upstaged by another David during his tenure on Saturday Night Live. Not even if it was “Starman” singer David Bowie.

On Wednesday’s (Aug. 16) episode of his Fly on the Wall podcast (which was recorded prior to the onset of the SAG-AFTRA strike), Spade told his co-host Dana Carvey and guest Will Forte — both of whom are SNL alums — about his experience turning down none other than the Ziggy Stardust.

The SNL episode, which aired in November 1991 per Entertainment Weekly, featured Bowie’s band Tin Machine as musical guest and was hosted by Macaulay Culkin, who was just 11 years old at the time.

Spade said he had crafted a sketch about a receptionist, one that he said was less of a set of punchlines and more so required an “attitude.”

“He stops you because he thinks they’re better than you,” Spade explained.

The skit would feature Bowie as himself. However, Bowie, who wasn’t present at the pitch meeting where the sketch was agreed on, had an idea for Spade’s sketch, which he thought was “so fucking funny.”

“And so I called him and he answers and it’s f—ing Bowie,” Spade exclaimed, noting that Bowie told him that the sketch was “exactly [like his] life and these people [he] see[s].”

“And he goes, ‘One tweak: Can I play the receptionist? That’s the funnier part,” Spade continued.

Bowie, who thought playing himself would be “kinda boring,” proposed that he and Spade switch roles, with Spade playing the six-time Grammy award-winning rock star.

“And I go, ‘I mean I could,'” Spade recalled, “and I said no!”

Spade’s reasoning was grounded in his wishes for the receptionist role to become a recurring character on the show. Unfortunately, Spade’s karma got the best of him, and the sketch wasn’t included in the episode, nor was he in any sketch at all.

“And then the rest of the week I wasn’t in the show, and I was like, ‘fuck,'” he remembered.

Bowie kept things cordial, telling Spade, “Hey, sorry, man, I get what was going on and I shouldn’t have been a little chilly about it.”

Spade’s wishes were granted after the “full circle” moment, as he got the chance to play a receptionist in the following episode of SNL, as well as two more times throughout his run on the show.

Watch David Bowie’s performance with Tin Machine on SNL above.