Will Forte, who excelled at creating creepy and absurd characters on “Saturday Night Live,” will be leaving the show after eight seasons.

The departure was confirmed by two people with direct knowledge of the show’s planning but who were not allowed to speak on the record because “Saturday Night Live” has not officially announced details of its coming season. Representatives for Mr. Forte and for NBC’s late-night entertainment division did not immediately comment, but one of the sources said the parting was amicable and at the choosing of Mr. Forte, who plans to pursue other projects. [NYT]

I like Forte, but I’m not particularly broken up about the departure. The MacGruber character has run his course. Hamilton was creepy and kind of funny, but I’d seen it often enough. Probably my favorite Forte sketch was Closet Organizer (watch it here), and that could have been pulled off by any number of cast members. He’s good, but eight years is on “SNL” is plenty.

This is what happens. Actors leave “SNL.” Other actors replace them. Unfunny sketches go on for six minutes. A digital short makes us laugh. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin host. We argue about who sucks. Someone bemoans how it used to be better. It’s the circle of life.

In another video from the Celebrity Autobiography series (the last one was Kristen Wiig reading Suzanne Somers), here’s Will Forte reading from Mötley Crüe’s The Dirt. The Dirt is awesome enough in its depiction of the umlautin’-est band that ever umlauted, but to have Forte’s nerdy voice describe Tommy Lee’s anxiety during his courting of Heather Locklear is pretty funny.

All right, so it’s nothing all that special. But it works as a placeholder while I buy time to round up links and pictures from last night’s “Mad Men” season finale. That’s what this day is all about anyway, am I right?

[Buzzfeed]