Zach Galifianakis and the Britney Spears skit you'll never get to see

THERE was a time when Zach Galifianakis tried to make people laugh and they'd sit there stony-faced, hoping he'd go away.

Even when he was pitching sure-fire comedy gold, like Will Ferrell getting hot and bothered in Britney Spears' belly button.

While out promoting his new film, The Campaign, which also stars Ferrell, Galifianakis revealed he kinda sucked as a skit writer on Saturday Night Live.

Here's his exchange with film site MovieFone:

MF: You wrote for Saturday Night Live for a brief period. Was Will there at the time?

Galifianakis: Yeah. Will was there.

MF: Is that where you guys first connected?

Galifianakis: We didn't really ... It was just 'Hi, how are you, nice to meet you.' Will was at the top of his game and I was at the bottom. Not a lot of people wanted to hang out with me back then.

MF: Did you ever pitch anything for him?

Galifianakis: Yes! And he read it out loud in front of 50 people at one of the famous table reads. I had written a sketch - because Britney Spears was the host - for him; we were going to shrink him through the magic of television and put inside her bellybutton as her bellybutton's bodyguard.

(MF interviewer laughs)

I wish you had been there because there was not one laugh for four minutes.

Spears could have done with that belly button guard - think what it could have prevented.