This 'SNL' Sketch Almost Made Leslie Jones Puke on Live TV

click to play video
Saturday Night Live/YouTube

Warning: This sketch is gross. Also, be sure to check out our running list of The Best SNL Sketches of 2017.

Saturday Night Live is filmed, you know, live, which means unplanned shit is bound to happen. Leslie Jones learned that the hard way this weekend when she was forced to put a cap on what was almost a truly gross on-air moment. 

Shortly after delivering his opening monologue, host James Franco took the stage as an overenthusiastic Bloomingdale's employee with a troublesome "little paper cut." The cut might have been little, but the loss of bodily fluid was not. Franco squirted stage blood everywhere -- watch above if you can stomach it. At one point, in an attempt to stop the mess, Franco applied pressure, put his finger in his mouth, and started sucking.

"Is your mouth filling with blood right now?" asked his coworker (Kate McKinnon).

He said no, but when he opened his mouth to greet a new customer (Jones), some of the contents in his mouth flew, mama bird-style, right into said customer's mouth. It was nasty. But nasty in the best way. Jones had such a hard time keeping things together she prompted concerned reactions from castmates and viewers:

Was that reaaaaally great acting? Or was Jones in serious trouble? As evidenced by the gags and uneasy smiles that followed, the sketch... wasn't supposed to unfold exactly like that.

In an Instagram video posted after the show, Franco and Jones explained what happened: When the fake blood landed in Jones' mouth, she threw up a little bit and then quickly swallowed it so she wouldn't go full force on live TV. Hence the hilariously convincing grunts and rough line deliveries. Breaking character might have become an art in the Will Ferrell, Jimmy Fallon, and Stefon eras, but "Gift Wrap" belongs in a different category. "You fucking traumatized me," said Jones, a goddamn trooper.

Added Franco: "My favorite sketch ever."

Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email and subscribe here for our YouTube channel to get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun.

Sean Fitz-Gerald is a staff writer at Thrillist Entertainment. Find him on Twitter: @srkfitzgerald.