Heidi Gardner Reveals How Lorne Michaels Reacted To Her Legendary Gaffe

Heidi Gardner got instant feedback from “Saturday Night Live” boss Lorne Michaels after she broke out laughing during a sketch in April, she said on “Watch What Happens Live” Sunday. (Watch the video below.)

Michaels considers breaking character a cardinal sin, so Gardner expected the worst when she couldn’t maintain her composure at the sight of castmate Mikey Day looking like Butt-Head of “Beavis and Butt-Head” fame.

Gardner played a reporter interviewing an artificial intelligence expert (played by Kenan Thompson) who gets annoyed when doppelgangers of the MTV cartoon characters (Day was joined by Ryan Gosling as Beavis) pop up in the audience.

“I was really scared,” Gardner said on “Watch What Happens Live” when a caller asked about Michaels’ reaction.

“But I saw him on the floor at the sketch afterward, and we locked eyes, and he gave me a little smile and a chuckle. And I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not in trouble.’”

As funny as she is, Gardner takes keeping a straight face very seriously. Shortly after the “SNL” episode aired, she spoke with Vulture about the gaffe and how she “coached” herself for “so many years to not break.”

“I left the stage a little bit in shock,” she said. “Then the anxiety set in and I was like, ‘Oh my God, was that OK?’ I had some friends in my dressing room, and they were like, ‘Of course, it was OK.’ So many other writers and cast members came up and said, ‘Good job.’ I’m like, ‘What? I actually didn’t do my job.’”

As it turns out, it seems even Michaels was OK with it.

Here’s the skit that set off the big fuss: