Before becoming a cast member of
Saturday Night Live (1975), Sweeney was hired as a writer. He wrote a number of spec skits and then got them directly into the hands of then-head producer Jean Doumanian by buying a bunch of sandwiches and sides from the Carnegie Deli and telling the security guard that he was a delivery man with lunch for the "SNL" offices. Once inside her office, he admitted to Doumanian that he knew she hadn't really ordered the sandwiches, but he gave her the scripts (and the lunch) anyway; about a week later, she called him and offered him a job.