Fred Armisen convinced Martin Short he’d called Paul McCartney ‘Tony’ during ‘SNL’ goodnights

Fred Armisen was quite the comedian even behind the scenes of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary special.

As SNL alum Martin Short explained on Tuesday’s episode of the Good Hang with Amy Poehler podcast, fellow former cast member Armisen “completely convinced” Short that he’d made an embarrassing mistake while delivering the show’s traditional sign off.

“When I left the stage after the goodnights, he said, ‘Why did you call Paul McCartney Tony McCartney?'” Short recounted. “I said, ‘I what? What?’ Yeah, I mean you said, ‘Oh, Tony McCartney.’ And because I didn’t know Paul was standing beside me, I thought, ‘Did I?'”

Listen to the moment at 26:28 below.

In fact, Short had called McCartney, one of the many stars who appeared to toast the show’s 50th birthday, by the correct name. Watch that moment below.

Still, the Only Murders in the Building star even passed on what he thought had happened to yet another SNL alum.

“Then I told Bill Hader this, and Bill told Fred, and Fred sent me a text a couple days ago,” Short said. “‘Sorry — I thought you knew that was a joke.’ I literally thought I’d said Tony McCartney, the stupidest thing in the world. Tony McCartney.”

He joked, “I wish I’d said it, of course. Not knowing Paul’s name.”

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Armisen also feigned being asleep when Short would stop by his dressing room nearby his own.

“I would pass his room, and he’d be on his phone. I’d say, ‘Hey Fred,'” Short said. Armisen would pretend to be snoring. When Short would announce that he knew Armisen wasn’t really asleep, the comedian would pretend to be waking up.

Poehler, herself a former SNL star, then offered an example of what Armisen has done to make her laugh.

“Fred used to send me long texts about his flight schedule. Like when he was arriving, what airport, what time to get picked up, as if I was picking him up from the airport,” Poehler said. “He is so deeply funny. He also does a bit that I love where, if you haven’t seen him for a long time, at a party, and you go, ‘Hey Fred!’ he goes, ‘Hi, how are you?’ He pretends you’re just a fan bothering him. He’s so funny. He loves a bit.”

Short agreed.

“He does a million of them, too, and every one’s funny,” he said.