By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Saturday, July 18, 2026Comedian Victoria Jackson of "SNL" fame speaks with Jim Daly on Focus on the Family's podcast "ReFOCUS" on July 13, 2026. | YouTube/Focus on the Family

Former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Victoria Jackson said she saw the hit sketch comedy show as her personal "mission field," and revealed the one sketch she refused to perform on faith grounds during an interview with Focus on the Family President Jim Daly. 

Jackson, who was 27 when she joined "SNL" and appeared on the show from 1986 to 1992 alongside cast members including Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jon Lovitz and Adam Sandler, appeared this week on the "ReFOCUS" podcast with Daly. She reflected on her tenure on the long-running sketch comedy show, how it accommodated her Christian faith, and how she shared that faith with others.

“My faith has always been strong,” she said. “At 'Saturday Night Live,' I was the only cast member with a baby. I was married, and I had a 3-month-old baby. So I didn’t go out. I would rush home from work to be with my baby.” 

Jackson described "SNL" as her "mission field," recalling how she gave each of her fellow cast members a Bible on cassette as a Christmas gift, leaving them wrapped outside their dressing room doors. "One person returned theirs and said, 'I already had one,' but nobody else said a word," she recalled. Decades later, while performing stand-up with fellow "SNL" alum Kevin Nealon, Jackson asked him, "Did I really give you the Bible on cassette or is that like a dream I had?"

“I still have it on my shelf and I think I’ve listened to No. 3 and No. 5,” Nealon responded after he assured her, “You really did that.” Jackson said she was grateful the gesture had stuck with him decades later.

Jackson also described a sketch she refused to perform because she believed it mocked Christianity.

"One time, they wrote me my own sketch and I starred in it, and it was making fun of a Christian who's like over the top," she recalled. The character was set to include props like "Jesus salt and pepper shakers" and a "Jesus napkin holder." At one point in the sketch, Jackson said she was supposed to kneel and pray. "I thought, you know what, I can't pray in a comedy sketch. I think it's really talking to God, and I feel like it's blasphemous," she said.

Jackson shared her concerns about the sketch with 'SNL' creator Lorne Michaels, telling him, “I don’t think I can do this sketch because I’m a Christian and I feel like it’s making fun of prayer and I’m afraid I’d either start crying or I would get hit by lightning.” After Michaels granted her request not to participate in the sketch, he gave it to another cast member, Julia Sweeney. 

While Jackson said she stood firm on that particular sketch, she acknowledged she didn't always hold the line. "There were things that I shouldn't have done that I did do, but it was like last minute," she said, adding that she sometimes went along with sketches she otherwise would have declined out of fear of losing her job and her ability to support her family.

Jackson also named another regret: not prioritizing finding a church when she first arrived in Hollywood. "My priority was get a place to live, get a car, get a job, get an agent, and my priority should have been 'get a church,'" she said. "I thought, 'I already know everything about church.' I know every verse of the Bible. I know church. I was like, 'I already know that, I don't know how to do these things.'"

The Christian comedian also revealed on the “ReFOCUS” podcast that she sent beloved late-night talk show host Johnny Carson (an atheist) a Bible after he suffered a heart attack. “I sent him a Bible with his name on it and a tract and toys and candy,” she said.

“He wrote me back a thank you note, and he said, ‘Thank you for the care package.’” Carson also joked, “If it doesn’t work, I hold you personally responsible.”

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com