\n<\/p>\n
Saturday Night Live is under fire for a sketch that poked fun at the Bafta N-word incident, with a leading Tourette syndrome (TS) charity calling it \u201chorrific.\u201d<\/p>\n
Filmed in the style of an informational public service announcement, the segment featured SNL cast members as public figures explaining that their controversial comments were because of TS. The sketch was cut for time on Saturday night\u2019s NBC show but was uploaded to YouTube shortly after.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m Mel Gibson, and as I probably should have pointed out decades ago, I too suffer from Tourette\u2019s, which explains a lot of the things I\u2019ve said or yelled through the years,\u201d said Andrew Dismukes, dressed as the American actor. \u201cFortunately, I\u2019m not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow you know it was all the Tourette\u2019s fault,\u201d said Ashley Padilla, dressed as JK Rowling.<\/p>\n
Episode host Connor Storrie played actor Armie Hammer and said: \u201cNot a lot of people know this, but one of the most common side effects is cannibalism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not acceptable,\u201d said the Tourettes Action CEO, Emma McNally, in a statement to Deadline. \u201cMocking a disability is never acceptable. It would not be tolerated for any other condition, and it should not be tolerated by people with Tourette\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The sketch sent up this February\u2019s Baftas N-word controversy, where John Davidson, the inspiration for the movie I Swear, could be heard shouting the racial slur while Sinners actors Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting the award for special visual effects.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t begin to explain how upset and distraught I have been,\u201d Davidson later said. \u201cMy tics are not an intention, not a choice and not a reflection of my values.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tourettes Action\u2019s McNally echoed his words in her statement. \u201cTourette\u2019s is a complex neurological condition, of which there is no cure. It is not a joke. It is not a personality trait. It is not a source of entertainment. It is a condition that can be extremely debilitating, causing pain isolation and huge amounts of discrimination.<\/p>\n
\u201cVideos and posts that deliberately misrepresent or sensationalise tics set us back years. A single video can undo the progress our community has spent years building toward greater awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the sketch was posted to YouTube on 1 March, others were quick to criticize Saturday Night Live.<\/p>\n
Comedian Al Murray branded the skit as \u201cvile\u201d and \u201cdisgusting\u201d in posts on X, adding: \u201cThe problem with the \u2018punch up punch down\u2019 thing is what if you\u2019re upside down.\u201d<\/p>\n
The disability rights campaigner and A Different Man actor Adam Pearson also voiced his dismay. \u201cAs a long term lover of SNL I am truly disappointed at this one,\u201d he said. \u201cThe media elites who often advocate for kindness and acceptance (a camp I very much put myself in) are failing to do so here. This isn\u2019t satire, it\u2019s punching down. SNL can be, should be and are better than this.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were rightly appalled when Trump mocked a disabled person,\u201d said former Member of Scottish Parliament Joan McAlpine in reference to a 2015 event. \u201cSo why is it different when SNL mocks people with Tourette\u2019s? Is bigotry acceptable if it\u2019s wrapped in \u201cprogressive\u201d credentials?\u201d<\/p>\n
British actor James Dreyfus, star of HBO\u2019s Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon, said: \u201cGood grief. Only goes to show that \u2018regime comedians\u2019 are as desperately unamusing, cringeworthy, pig-ignorant & prejudiced as they are over here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, the NAACP Image awards also poked fun at the Bafta controversy and Davidson. At the Los Angeles ceremony, host Deon Cole said: \u201cIf there are any white men out here in the audience with Tourette\u2019s, I advise you to tell them they\u2019d better read the room tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piers Morgan responded: \u201cHollywood continuing to mock John Davidson over his Tourette\u2019s condition is one of the most despicable things I\u2019ve witnessed in a long time. Shame on @deoncole and all those in the audience who laughed at his vile \u2018jokes\u2019. What the f*ck is wrong with you???!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
McNally concluded her statement to Deadline with a plea for empathy for those who live with TS. \u201cThe trolling and harassment members of our community have endured in the past few days has been horrific,\u201d she wrote. \u201cPeople have been targeted with threats and humiliation simply for having a condition they did not choose. No one should ever be treated that way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saturday Night Live is under fire for a sketch that poked fun at the Bafta N-word incident, with a leading Tourette syndrome (TS) charity calling it \u201chorrific.\u201d Filmed in the style of an informational public service announcement, the segment featured SNL cast members as public figures explaining that their controversial comments were because of TS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[23496,7382,1554,4370,4712,132,446,5949,3584,8027,23306],"class_list":{"0":"post-45723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-bafta","9":"tag-branded","10":"tag-charity","11":"tag-horrific","12":"tag-leading","13":"tag-live","14":"tag-night","15":"tag-saturday","16":"tag-sketch","17":"tag-syndrome","18":"tag-tourette"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}