Adam Sandler was met with a roar of applause from the “Saturday Night Live” audience when he dropped into a bloody hospital sketch during the Dec. 14 episode.

In the sketch, Emil Wakim, Ego Nwodim, Bowen Yang and host Chris Rock play surgeons all scrubbed in and celebrating a successful surgery. But a less-than-responsible surgeon, played by Sarah Sherman, admits she screwed up her pre-op paperwork and the patient’s gallbladder was removed instead of his appendix.

While the medical team is shocked, Rock’s surgical lead asks the team not to be too hard on her, when the previously-covered patient sits up on the bed,...