The White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood has criticised US sketch show Saturday Night Live for a “mean and unfunny” take on her character, in which she was portrayed with large prosthetic teeth and an exaggerated British accent. She encouraged SNL to find “a cleverer, more nuanced, less cheap way” to create comedy and revealed she had received an apology from the team behind the show.
“The rest of the skit was punching up, and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on,” Wood added on her Instagram Story. She said she didn’t blame actor Sarah Sherman, but was left disappointed by the sketch’s approach to her performance in The White Lotus.
This is far from the only time that SNL has pushed an impression to the point that it has upset the real person behind it. And, of course, there are plenty of other examples where comedy shows and movies have been criticised by the actual human beings behind the funny voices — or just thoroughly pushed the envelope too far.
Elon Musk (SNL)
He might be one of the most powerful and prominent people in the world, but that doesn’t mean Elon Musk isn’t laughably thin-skinned. Mike Myers has been playing the Twitter/X owner in recent episodes of Saturday Night Live, parodying his appearances at rallies and political events — including one in which he wielded a chainsaw.
Though fans think the impression is spot on, Musk is unsurprisingly not so thrilled. Musk wrote on his social media platform: “Humour fails when it lies.” It’s not clear which elements of the performance Musk thought were false.
Sean Penn (Team America: World Police)
Several famous Hollywood actors were lampooned in puppet form by South Park duo Matt Stone and Trey Parker in their controversial comedy movie Team America: World Police. Most have either embraced or ignored the parodies, but that wasn’t true for Sean Penn. Penn’s character was depicted as a clueless actor who took trips to war zones to make himself look good.
Read more: ‘Team America’ at 15: Why one of the 21st century’s best comedies is more relevant than ever (Yahoo Entertainment)
Penn wrote a letter to Parker and Stone, criticising their political stance. His missive concluded with the simple phrase: “All best, and a sincere f*** you”. Ouch.
Morrissey (The Simpsons)
The 2021 episode of The Simpsons entitled Panic on the Streets of Springfield featured a quiff-sporting, vegan, British singer from the 1980s called Quilloughby — frontman of a band called The Snuffs. However, the character — voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch — is revealed to be someone imagined by Lisa. The real Quilloughby is actually an overweight, meat-eating singer with racist views.
Read more: The Simpsons breaks record as huge news for the show’s future is confirmed after 36 seasons on-air (Digital Spy, 2 min read)
This upset Smiths frontman Morrissey who, not without reason, decided that Quilloughby was a thinly-veiled parody of him. In a lengthy and bizarre statement on his website, Morrissey wrote: “The hatred shown towards me from the creators of The Simpsons is obviously a taunting lawsuit, but one that requires more funding than I could possibly muster in order to make a challenge.”
Craig David (Bo Selecta)
Bo Selecta is one of the many British comedies of the 2000s that is now almost unwatchable due to its frequent use of blackface caricatures. Most notably, star Leigh Francis wore a rubber mask to parody the singer Craig David — also playing other Black celebrities including Trisha Goddard and Mel B. In 2022, David said: “It was racism however you look at that. You put a rubber mask on and you run it like that, you are being racist.”
Francis has apologised for portraying Black characters in the show. He said on Instagram: “I’ve been talking to some people and I didn’t realise how offensive it was back then and I just want to apologise.”
Governor David A. Paterson (SNL)
In 2009, during a Weekend Update sketch on SNL, Fred Armisen portrayed David A. Paterson, who was then governor of New York. Paterson was the first legally blind governor of any US state. In the skit, Armisen squinted one eye and spoke with a lisp in order to impersonate Paterson — as well as showing him as being incompetent and buffoon-like.
In a statement, Paterson’s team said: “The governor engages in humour all the time, and he can certainly take a joke. However, this particular Saturday Night Live skit unfortunately chose to ridicule people with physical disabilities and imply that disabled people are incapable of having jobs with serious responsibilities.”
Margaret Thatcher (Spitting Image)
Any political leader knows they are likely to become a figure of parody. But few got hit so brutally as Margaret Thatcher when she was prime minister during the 1980s. She was portrayed in puppet form on the satirical sketch show Spitting Image, voiced by a man: Steve Nallon. According to Thatcher’s former press secretary Sir Bernard Ingham, she wasn’t best pleased with the way she was depicted on TV screens. “She looked on it with a bit of disdain,” he told the Yorkshire Post. “It’s just making fun for the sake of making fun.”
Read more: Spitting Image at 40: the story of the show is surprisingly influenced by Thatcher (The Conversation, 5 min read)
In contrast, though, former minister Edwina Currie told The Guardian that Thatcher was “very pleased” with how she was portrayed in the show. Currie added: “Ahe realised very quickly that their image of her as the best man in the cabinet was one to pursue. From then on, she deepened her voice, she wore dark suits – basically she conformed to the image that Spitting Image had broadcast.”
Tom Cruise (South Park)
The 2005 South Park episode Trapped in the Closet takes aim at the Church of Scientology, with the character Stan depicted as joining the religion. The episode featured a character based on prominent Scientologist Tom Cruise refusing to come out of a closet, making a joke about rumours around Cruise’s sexuality.
When a rebroadcast of the episode was cancelled, numerous outlets claimed Cruise had threatened to pull out of promotional duties for Mission: Impossible III if the episode aired again. Cruise’s team, and the man himself, denied this in subsequent media appearances. In an ABC interview, he said: “I’m really not even going to dignify this. I honestly didn’t really even know about it. I’m working, making my movie, I’ve got my family. I’m busy. I don’t spend my days going: ‘What are people saying about me?'”
Chris Rock (SNL)
SNL has featured so much problematic comedy over the years that the various characters who have aged badly got an “In Memoriam” segment as part of the show’s 50th anniversary celebrations in early 2025. We suspect Adrien Brody would rather not see that clip of his Jamaican accent ever again.
Read more: Jimmy Fallon apologises for ‘offensive decision’ to wear blackface in SNL sketch (PA Media, 2 min read)
Of the many blackface characters in the show’s history, one of the most infamous is Jimmy Fallon’s portrayal of Chris Rock in a 2000 sketch. Rock, though, considers Fallon a friend and told The Hollywood Reporter that, while he considers the sketch to be “bad comedy”, he believes that Fallon “doesn’t have a racist bone in his body”.
Saturday Night Live airs in the UK on Sky Comedy.
