Saturday Night Live faces anger for a sketch mocking an incident at the BAFTA Awards, when a man in the audience with Tourette’s syndrome yelled a racial slur.
Emma McNally, CEO of UK-based charity Tourette’s Action, released a lengthy statement calling the sketch “horrific,” and accused SNL of reducing the condition to a “punchline.”
“I want to be completely clear here: THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE,” the statement read. “Mocking a disability is never acceptable. It would not be tolerated for any other condition, and it should not be tolerated by people with Tourette’s.”
Related: Amanda Seales Goes Nuclear on BAFTAs for N-Word Mess
The SNL sketch aired on Feb. 28, and has been viewed more than one million times on YouTube.
The segment began with a recap of the events at the BAFTAs on Feb. 22 — when Tourette’s syndrome activist John Davidson yelled the N-word at Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo as the two presented an award.
Awards organizers said the outburst was the result of an involuntary tic.
SNL comics pretended to be actor Mel Gibson, RHONY alum Jill Zarin, author J.K. Rowling, actor Armie Hammer, TV legend Bill Cosby, comedian Louis C.K., and rapper Kanye “Ye” West. Each blamed their problematic behavior on Tourette’s.
SNL comic Sarah Sherman played Zarin, who was recently fired from a RHONY spinoff after posting a viral video on social media criticizing Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show.
“You might have seen the video I posted this week where I said Bad Bunny did the worst halftime show in history and why was it in Spanish? And where were all the white people?” said Sherman. “But what you didn’t know is I suffer from severe long-winded monologue-style Tourette’s, a condition that affects nine out of 10 people on Long Island.”
SNL comedian Kenan Thompson impersonated Bill Cosby and said, “I have the Tourette’s.” He insisted the condition caused him to mix drugs into women’s drinks.
Actor Connor Storrie, who hosted the episode, pretended to be The Social Network star Armie Hammer, who was accused in a 2022 Discovery+ docuseries of sexual violence and threatening women with cannibalism.
Storrie said about Tourette’s, “Not a lot of people know this, but one of the most common side effects is cannibalism.”
“I got like 50 different types of Tourette’s,” added comedian Kam Patterson as Ye.
McNally asked in the charity’s statement for “content creators, viewers, the media, and the wider public, to please consider the impact of what they say” about Tourette’s.
There was no mention of the NAACP Image Awards on Saturday in Los Angeles, where host Deon Cole warned anyone at the ceremony with Tourette’s to keep quiet.
“If there are any white men out here in the audience with Tourette’s, I advise you to tell them they’d better read the room tonight,” Cole said in his opening monologue. “Whatever medicine they’re on, they better double up on it.”
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