“ With parody , you kind of forget the kind of human , emotional price that it sort of extols on someone . ”
It’s been a week sinceSNL’s controversial parody ofThe White Lotusaired, but it’s still dominating the pop cultural conversation.
Brief recap: During last week’s Jon Hamm-hosted episode, the long-running sketch show aired aWhite Lotusparody called “The White Potus.” (Subtlety has never been this show’s strong suit.)
Part of the parody involved cast member Sarah Sherman portraying a character that resembledWhite Lotuscast memberAimee Lou Wood. When Jon Hamm-as-RFK Jr. made a reference to taking fluoride out of drinking water, Sarah’s character replied through huge fake teeth, “Fluoride? What’s that?”
Aimee wasnot happy. She took to her IG story the day afterSNLaired to call the portrayal “mean and unfunny,” and later claimed thatSNLhad offered her an apology (which, for what it’s worth, there seems to beconflicting reportson).
The backlash more or less stretched across a good part of the last week. Aimee’sWhite LotuscostarWalton Gogginswas somehowbrought into it, and she also had to issuea new statementafter paparazzi photos of her crying made the rounds. Sarahsent her flowersas a peace offering, too.
Now,SNLstarBowen Yangis addressing the controversy — and it sounds like there’s no real bad blood between the show and Aimee (at least, not onSNL’s end).
“However she reacted to that sketch is completely valid,” he said in an interview withExtra. “With parody, you kind of forget the sort of human, emotional cost that it sort of extols on someone.”
“Everyone atSNLis just a fan of the show, obviously a fan of her. We just think that she should be so proud of the work that she put into the season, it was just water cooler television again that we desperately have a craving for. I feel like it’s this thing that we tend to forget sometimes and this is a reminder and it seems like she has spoken to people at the show about it and hopefully there’s room to sort of move on from it.”
Bowen also specified that the entire kerfuffle serves as a reminder toSNL’s writers that sometimes their work has an impact that they don’t quite expect.
“You need those reminders every now and then that parody can go too far sometimes and that we, as comedians, can take account for that instead of banging our foot and saying that we should be able to say whatever we want,” he said. “That’s just culture, it’s not PC or woke culture, it’s just culture.”
Maybe this’ll be the last of this story…we’ll see!
SNL / NBC / Viayoutube.com
