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Please Don't Destroy's Pre-SNL Sketches Are a Must Watch
Watch PDD members John Higgins, Ben Marshall, and Martin Herlihy's early viral videos ahead of their Peacock movie, Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain.
These days, the boys of PDD (aka Please Don't Destroy) create weekly digital shorts on Saturday Night Live—and with their first feature film debuting on Peacock, they're officially movie stars, too. But before they were hired to write and create pretaped sketches like "Rami Wants A Treat" on SNL, comedy trio Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy were best friends making online sketches from their apartment.
As the three recounted during a visit to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Marshall, Higgins, and Herlihy began performing together as students at NYU; their group's name is taken from a show of theirs back then called "Please Don't Destroy My Farm." The trio continued to perform in live shows after college, and during the Covid-19 pandemic, they began posting sketches they shot on their iPhones online.
The lo-fi videos were widely shared across X (then known as Twitter), TikTok, Instagram and YouTube in 2020 and 2021. Eventually attracting the attention of SNL creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels, Please Don't Destroy joined SNL in Season 47. Yet there's no need to stop there if you love their work: The pre-SNL Please Don't Destroy gems below are still very worth checking out if you love their short films on the show each week.
RELATED: The Funniest Please Don't Destroy Shorts from SNL
In advance of their comedy Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain premiering November 17 on Peacock, take a look back at the hysterical viral sketches that first made PDD famous.
Please Don't Destroy's best pre-SNL sketches
Dumbrekka Vaccine
A prime example of the type of sketch that got tons of shares across social media during the pandemic: The guys sitting around talking about something nonsensical, captured in a quick-cut shaky-cam style that delivers a one-two-punch of laughs and then ends before you've fully digested it.
Ben's Big Break
Great news: Ben's been cast in a TV show! Less great news: The movie is called My Life as a Pasty Virgin and yes, it is a reality show.
Hot New Boy In Hollywood
Seems like there's always some hot new boy in Hollywood, and John, Ben and Martin have perfectly normal reactions to an announcement of the latest dude we're all obsessed with.
Middle School Dance
Marshall co-wrote with and co-stars in this short with Chloe Troast. Troast is a longtime friend of the group's who joined SNL as a featured player in Season 49, and also appears in their Peacock movie.
Normal Goth
The most normie goth you'll ever meet.
Ben's Wild Date
Ben either went on a date, sustained a major head injury, or both.
RELATED: The Funniest Please Don't Destroy Shorts on SNL
There's A Documentary About Martin?
Would watch.
Dating Ben
It's rough out there. Maybe it's worth putting up with a guy who does your taxes every single day.
Zoltar
In fairness to Zoltar, living in a box on the streets of New York telling strangers their fortune would make anyone a weirdo.
How Snapping Works
A sketch that's both humorous and educational. Some people genuinely don't know that's how snapping works. But now they do.
Louder
One of PDD's few cringe comedy sketches, a young man processing a tragic loss just needs to share his truth...a little louder.
RELATED: These Are the Most-Watched Sketches of Saturday Night Live Season 48
Mets Game
Seems like the trio took a fish eye camera and three cardboard signs to Citi Field to see what would happen, and it worked! Mr. Met is a tax fraudster who must answer for his crimes.
Walking in on Your Roommate
What's more embarrassing than walking in on your roommate in an intimate moment? Doing it 365 times.
Ben is Dying
Friendship is PDD's strength, but someday, may be its undoing. Specifically, if one of them uses his dying breath to tell the other two to stop hanging out.
Can't wait to see what they don't destroy next!
Watch Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain on Peacock beginning November 17.
