The actor who tried to audition for 'SNL' in a viral TikTok video says backlash has caused 'serious emotional distress'
Jake Novak told Vulture in an interview he is anxious about working as a performer at Disneyland because more people are recording him.
Screenshot via TikTok
- Actor Jake Novak went viral in June after posting a TikTok as an audition for "Saturday Night Live."
- The video featured Novak singing reasons why he should join the show and was dubbed "cringe."
- Novak told Vulture about how the blowback has impacted him.
Jake Novak, the actor, comedian, and content creator who went viral for his very public and musical attempt to audition for "Saturday Night Live" said in an interview the backlash to his video caused "serious emotional distress."
"There's even been some scares in terms of the kinds of messages that people in my life have received that seemed to indicate that some harm might have been done to me," he said in an interview with Vulture published Tuesday.
"It's prompted the start of investigations about who these people are that are sending these kinds of messages," he told the outlet. "So it has gone very far, and much to my continual surprise, it seems to just keep going."
Novak reached TikTok notoriety when he in June posted a video to TikTok pitching himself to "SNL" creator Lorne Michaels as a cast member for the show's upcoming season. The video, which features Novak singing to Michaels about the reasons he should be selected to join the show, has been viewed more than 4 million times.
"What I really wanted it to do was just be an introduction to me, and hopefully encourage them, if they enjoyed what they saw, to look at the other videos that were on my profile," said Novak, who prior to the video posted weekly comedic songs on TikTok.
In the over a minute long video, Novak calls himself a "rappin-rhymin' hammy nerd" and compares himself to "Hamilton" creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and former "SNL" cast member Andy Samberg.
Novak now has more than 320,000 followers on the platform. The video in June was almost immediately ridiculed by TikTok users who deemed the video "cringe" and mocked it.
"I guess people just didn't think it was that funny, which is fair. Not everybody has to think everything's funny," Novak told Vulture. While many of the reactions poked fun at Novak, other responses were more serious, he said.
Novak's 'cringey' video sparked wave of taunts and harassment
Novak said a friend told him people were unearthing his past social-media posts and sharing them. His personal website became "flooded" with unusually high traffic and his email inbox became full of "really nasty emails," the report said.
He received emails from people who pretended to be Lorne Michaels, messages that called him "horrible," and "at least" one email that called for him to take his own life.
"It just sort of evolved into just a hate inbox, so I've taken that off my site," he said, according to Vulture.
He told the outlet he'd tried to steer clear of much of the TikTok reaction to the video because friends have told him it's "really nasty and twisted" and even turned "conspiratorial" since he hasn't posted on the platform making the video.
Novak works as a performer at Disneyland and said he hadn't had any "negative" encounters working there since the viral video, but he told Vulture he'd noticed a "few more cameras" recording him and snapping photos while he performs.
"Now I look at everyone with a phone as I'm singing and doing my job, and I'm just not sure what they are going to do with that," he said. "And ultimately, I do not have control over that."
Novak is one in a string of viral celebrities who have spoken out about the detriments of accidental online fame. Late last year, Robert McCoy wrote an essay for Slate that detailed the perils of having a video inadvertently go viral. McCoy said he had his life picked apart by online sleuths after he was dubbed "couch guy" for a video that showed him appearing to look unenthused when his long-distance girlfriend visited him.
Read the entire interview at Vulture.