‘Saturday Night Live’ star Bowen Yang backs Aimee Lou Wood following controversial ‘The White Lotus’ parody
Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang has supported Aimee Lou Wood after she criticised the programme’s parody of her in a sketch based on The White Lotus as “mean and unfunny”.
During this skit, which aired on April 13th, Saturday Night Live cast member Sarah Sherman appears as Chelsea, played by Wood in the show. In the parody, she took on the character’s mannerisms and wore fake teeth for the role.
Taking to Instagram, Wood reacted to the sketch and wrote, “But whilst in honest mode, I did find the SNL thing mean and unfunny xo.” She added, “Felt righteous, might delete later.”
Later on that evening, Wood added that she is “not thin skinned”, continuing, “I actually love being taken the piss out of when it’s clever 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.”
Wood continued: “But the rest of the skit was punching up and I/Chelsea was the only one punched down on … Not Sarah Squirm’s fault and not hating on her. Hating on the concept.”
The British actor later revealed that Sherman sent her flowers, which she called “beautiful,” and Wood seemingly accepted the comedian’s apology.
Now, Bowen Yang, one of the most high-profile Saturday Night Live stars, told ExtraL “However she reacted to that sketch is completely valid. With parody, you kind of forget the sort of human, emotional cost that it sort of extols on someone.”
Yang continued: “Everyone at SNL is 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. So 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.”
He also explained that Wood’s comments show that “parody can go too far sometimes” and it’s important to receive “reminders every now and then”. The actor concluded, “That’s just culture, it’s not PC or woke culture, it’s just culture.”
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