SNL makes rare apology to White Lotus’ Aimee Lou Wood over ‘mean’ skit
Aimee Lou Wood has blasted Saturday Night Live over a recent skit poking fun at her appearance.
The White Lotus actress has branded the sketch – which featured SNL performer Sarah Sherman wearing oversized prosthetic teeth while doing an impression of the 31-year-old star – as ‘mean and unfunny’.
In a series of posts on her Instagram Story, Aimee cleared up a situation with TV studio HBO and insisted they have been ‘nothing but supportive’ of her.
However, she said: ‘But whilst in honest mode, I did find the SNL thing mean and unfunny.’
She continued: ‘Such a shame cos’ I had such a great time watching it a couple of weeks ago. Yes, take the p**s for sure — that’s what the show is about. But there must be a cleverer, more nuanced and less cheap way?
The so-called White Potus sketch over the weekend featured Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson), Melania Trump (Chloe Fineman) and others alongside Aimee’s White Lotus castmate Jon Hamm as Robert F. Kennedy Jr in the style of Walton Goggins’ Rick character.
Jon, as RFK Jr., asked: ‘I’ve been having these insane ideas, like what if we took all the fluoride out of the drinking water? What would that do to people’s teeth?’
Sarah showed a huge set of teeth, and replied: ‘Fluoride? What’s that?’
All the times SNL has apologised
- SNL apologised on air for the Claudine Longet Invitational skit – a spoof after the singer and actress shot and killed her lover and pro skier Vladimir Sabich, which she claimed was an accident, in 1976 – as Don Pardo said the show was sorry ‘if the material was misinterpreted’
- In 1977, Bill Murray apologised for not being ‘funny on the show’
- -n 1992, Sinead O’Connor sang Bob Marley’s War, tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II and changed lyrics to reference child abuse in the church. The next week, host Joe Pesci criticised her in his monologue
- The Consenting Bisexual Canteen Person skit in 1994, which saw a scoutmaster Alec Baldwin trying to seduce Adam Sandler’s character, was accused of being homophobic and joking about paedophilia, while a disclaimer was later added to re-airings. Baldwin later said ‘some people got the wrong idea’.
- Martin Lawrence sparked controversy the same year joking about female hygiene, while a voice-over later replaced his joke explaining that ‘network policy prevents us from rebroadcasting this portion of his remarks’.
- Government David Paterson, who is legally blind, was upset about Fred Armisen’s portrayal of him wandering into shots on the show, and in 2010 he appeared on SNL and said: ‘While I have a good sense of humour, jokes that degrade people just for their disabilities are sophomoric and stupid,’
- Kerry Washington pulled triple duty in one sketch in 2013, which the announcer acknowledging SNL’s lack of black female cast members
Fans have rallied behind Aimee – which has made her ‘glad [she] said something’ rather than staying quiet – and one follower pointed out that ‘everyone else in that parody was a political figure’.
‘Correct,’ Aimee reposted, while someone else criticised Sarah’s ‘terrible’ attempt at a Mancunian accent.
The Sex Education star agreed: ‘At least get the accent right, seriously. I respect accuracy even if it’s mean.’
She has since claimed: ‘I’ve had apologies from SNL’.
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Aimee also pointed out that being made fun of in a ‘clever’ way ‘in good spirits’ is fine, but the SNL skit didn’t feel that way.
She wrote: ‘I am not thin skinned. I actually love being taken the p**s out of when it’s clever and in good spirits. But the joke was about fluoride. I have big gap teeth not bad teeth.
‘I don’t mind caricature – I understand that’s what SNL is. But the rest of the skit was punching up and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on.’
She also clarified she wasn’t ‘hating on’ Sarah for doing the skit, but rather ‘hating on the concept’.
And in a final post on the matter, she shared a comment from a fan who said ‘it was a sharp and funny skit until it suddenly took a screeching turn into 1970’s misogyny’, while she replied: ‘This sums up my view.’
In a recent interview with GQ, Aimee admitted she felt insecure when she heard that White Lotus showrunner Mike White had to ‘fight’ to cast her.
‘I just spiraled about it because of my own imposter syndrome. That was my point,’ she clarified on Instagram. ‘Just really wanted to clear that up because hbo have been nothing but super supportive.’
Meanwhile, in the GQ interview she also opened up about the interest in her teeth, noting while she’s ‘really happy that it’s symbolising rebellion and freedom’, there is a line.
‘The whole conversation is just about my teeth, and it makes me a bit sad because I’m not getting to talk about my work. They think it’s nice because they’re not criticising,’ she said.
‘And, I have to go there… I don’t know if it was a man would we be talking about it this much? It’s still going on about a woman’s appearance.’
Metro has contacted reps for Sarah Sherman and SNL for comment.
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