Since it began in 1975, Saturday Night Live has become a globally recognized comedy show, and it’s the longest-running sketch comedy series in American history.
The show is getting a British version, called SNL: UK, which is expected to premiere on Sky in March.
The American and British versions of the show are likely to be quite different, mainly because humor varies between the two countries. It will be interesting to see if the show continues to use jokes that some might consider offensive to women, now that it’s being adapted for a new audience.
Viewers of Saturday Night Live were upset last week when actor Finn Wolfhard, known for his role in Stranger Things, told a joke many considered offensive towards women during his opening remarks.
Looking back on his childhood in the spotlight, he shared some surprisingly personal moments. He realized his voice changed while filming, he had his first kiss on set, and, somewhat reluctantly, admitted he even had his first experience seeing a woman nude while working on camera.
The show then showed a clip of a young Finn Wolfhard looking shocked as he faced the Demogorgon, the show’s terrifying monster.
Some viewers were upset by the joke and shared their disappointment online, calling it offensive and demeaning to women.
This isn’t the first time the show has faced criticism for jokes that target women.
Throughout its five decades on air, Saturday Night Live has predominantly featured male hosts – appearing in almost 70% of all episodes – and has often faced criticism for content perceived as biased against women.
The show had to issue an apology to Aimee Lou Wood last year after she criticized a sketch that made fun of her teeth, calling it unkind.
After a sketch on a recent show featured Sarah Sherman impersonating Aimee’s character from The White Lotus with exaggerated prosthetic teeth, Aimee received a lot of support from her fans.
The sketch, called “The White Potus,” depicted the Trump family and other politicians spending their vacation at a well-known resort.
In a recent scene, Walton Goggins’ character, Rick, was portrayed as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., delivering a lengthy and passionate speech about removing fluoride from drinking water.
The scene shifted to Aimee’s character, Chelsea (played by Sarah), who was shown with comically large teeth, and she asked, “Fluoride? What is that?”
Aimee responded to the joke, calling it ‘cheap,’ and explained she actually enjoyed the show a few weeks prior. While she acknowledged the show is meant to be playful and silly, she wished the humor had been more clever and sophisticated.
Oh my gosh, she posted about the reaction to the sketch, and it was exactly what I was thinking! Someone commented that it started out hilarious and clever, but then just completely nose-dived into awful, outdated sexism – like something straight out of the 70s! And Aimee – Aimee! – she replied with just ‘This sums up my view!’ Seriously, she GETS it. It’s like she read my mind! I’m telling you, she’s brilliant.
Scarlett Johansson was visibly surprised and upset when her husband, Colin Jost, told a crude joke about her during their 2024 Christmas special.
Colin, who has a four-year-old son with his wife Scarlett, surprised the audience with a joke: ‘Costco has stopped selling the roast beef sandwich.’
I’m not worried about it. I’ve been eating roast beef every night ever since my wife had the baby,” he said, as the camera focused on Scarlett’s face.
Scarlett admitted the joke was really crude and she was surprised they’d taken it that far, but she also said she actually laughed at it.
Jennifer Aniston has shared that she once considered not joining the show, explaining she was concerned about how women were portrayed and treated on it.
‘”It’s very male-dominated. I would love to be here if it was in the Gilda Radner days.’
She also branded SNL a ‘boys club’.
Comedy icon Carol Burnett wondered if she was left off the show because creator Lorne Michaels didn’t want a woman to host.
Carol wondered what she’d done to offend the man, and questioned if it was because she was a woman, as she told The New Yorker.
Michaels also spoke up for the show’s commitment to diversity, explaining to NPR that they’ve been working to overcome those obstacles since the start.
It wasn’t motivated by negativity or bad intentions, but simply by our ongoing search for the most talented individuals.
Jane Curtin was one of the original cast members when Saturday Night Live began in 1975. She became well-known for a memorable sketch with Dan Aykroyd where her character was insultingly called an ‘ignorant slut’.
I’ve been following her for years, and it was really interesting to hear her talk about that old line from the show. She said it still bothers her sometimes, but she also explained that things were different back then, and honestly, it didn’t upset her at the time. She even mentioned hearing people say it casually on the street, which just shows how much of a cultural moment it was.
Women frequently experienced street harassment, and it was just something they had to deal with as a normal part of everyday life.
Jane explained to The Hollywood Reporter that the show’s humor felt shocking because her improv group at Cambridge University had been completely equal and respectful – there had been no sexism at all.
We discussed how crucial the Equal Rights Amendment was. However, by the time I joined SNL, it hadn’t been ratified, which really surprised me. It was even more shocking to find that people at SNL hadn’t even talked about it.
They hadn’t experienced changes that would have altered their worldview, so they remained stuck in the values and norms of the late 1950s and early 1960s. It’s unfortunate they hadn’t moved forward.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus has spoken about her time on Saturday Night Live in the 1980s, describing it as a ‘very sexist environment.’ She also admitted she didn’t make a strong impression during her time on the show and didn’t become well-known as a result of being on SNL.
She stated that the atmosphere had improved when she returned to host the show in 2006, 2007, and 2016. In an interview with The New York Times, she explained that it was ‘much more of an equal-opportunity environment’ upon her return.
Although the cast and hosts for SNL: UK haven’t been announced yet, people will likely wonder if the show can avoid the same kinds of controversies that have affected other similar programs.
Daily Mail has contacted NBC and Sky for comment.
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2026-01-24 12:42